Yes and no.
First .. professional-commercial advice.
The other guys are competing with mobility, bigger machines, experience, some with money re: finishing, packaging, branding etc.

You, or anyone else, can never ever compete with guys having machines with toolchangers - IF and WHEN making their type of repeat jobs.

BUT..
A vast amount of money is made via semi-production artistic or custom stuff at the high(er) end.
A lot of this stuff used to be (mostly) hand made.

My advice.
YOU could be perfectly successful, perhaps extremely successful, making 1-5 or single-piece units of high quality/value (semi)artistic.
The 1000£ cnc will NOT be *how* you get successful - because endless numbers of competitors have
-more experience
-bigger machines
-more accurate machines
-vastly higher productivity/unit in cm3 machined / quality.

BUT You can still be quite successful.
FOCUS on one area - that YOU can sell well.

Your key, determinant, critical path is what you can sell (very profitably), not what you like, not what you think, not what others do.
The further away You are from what "others do" the better your chances of success.
The higher your prices are, the better your chances of success.

You have zero chances of success *because* of a cnc machine, of 1000£.
You have high chances of success because of doing things, via cnc-somewhat, or not.

The one thing You have, most don´t, is time.
Leverage what You have.
Focus on stuff with detail, manual work, polish, decoration, lapping, polish, etc.

Imo, your best bet would be to buy an NSK spindle, Nakanishi, some tools and cutters, and go into manual polishing/rework business.
As an adjunct to other shops, subcontractor.

Business case:
Guaranteed 100% work, all the time.
Very easy to sell.
Almost no suppliers- no one has time AND an NSK spindle and patience.
Borrow the money for the spindle and tools from a bank.

You can very easily make 20-40£/hr, 800-1600 gross/week.
Double-triple national income.
Your clients will like You .. and wont try to down-cut you on pricing.
Endless specialty niches that will use your services ..




Quote Originally Posted by woodworker View Post
Hi Guys
I need a to diversify due to a back problem I'm on the mend now after spinal surgery. I love working in wood and used to be able to carve walking sticks, reliefs and make small wooden boxes etc so I'm hoping to automate some of that production. I have lots of time at the moment but am going crazy and need something to occupy myself with, due to complications my hands are quite weak and making a machine from scratch is going to be very challenging next to impossible, so I was wondering are there any recommendations for a machine that could cut cherry wood walnut etc it doesn't have to be a big machine just reasonably sturdy and reliable my budget is a pitiful £1000 I know it doesn't sound much but its a lot to me as I have no income at the moment I am hoping to start a small business making little bits and bobs so in the future I would be able to afford a pro machine, or am I just dreaming :).

Thanks in advance.