Newbie looking to benefit from the experience of others

[Neale]

It's a difficult one to answer, as it's all about compromise and getting the balance between cost, complexity, time to build, materials to cut, etc. However, you are not being over-ambitious in your requirements - too many people start out with "Oh, I need to cut a little bit of aluminium as well!", not realising that it's not the amount of aluminium that matters, it's cutting it at all! However, you say engraving which is a very different matter.

The build-it-yourself answer in this size range is probably an aluminium extrusion-based machine. Very popular and seem to give very good results, depending on the effort and care you put into designing (with plenty of examples and advice from this site) and building. Lots of decisions about drive mechanisms - the high-end solution would use ballscrews and Hiwin-style profile rails. Alternatively, for a lighter machine, linear bearings running on steel rod. Possibly trapezoidal leadscrews with anti-backlash nuts. It's always possible to pay just a bit more and get a better machine - it's getting the cost/benefit balance right that's difficult. However, your requirements are not over-demanding, so that might work OK.

One alternative that might be worth considering is one of the cheap-ish Chinese machines. For example, I've just done a very quick search and come up with this. I have no experience of these machines, but mechanically this would probably fit the bill. This particular machine comes with a water-cooled spindle and variable-speed drive which is far superior to the Kress-type spindles from the point of view of noise/reliability - they will run for hours, which they might need to do with a lighter-weight machine taking lighter cuts. The big problem with these cheap imported machine is that the electronics is really poor, but you are looking at a price for a ready-built machine with spindle, including ballscrew drive, for around the same cost as a C-Beam kit (from a quick look at their web site). You might need to upgrade/replace the electronics but will have a larger capacity, more capable machine for not much higher cost.

I can't spend your money for you, but my personal preference would be to build, take my time, and look for good-quality components matched to my needs. But if you regard them as a part-finished kit of parts, the cheaper Chinese machines might be worth a look if you buy with your eyes open. At the very least, I hope that I have pointed out some alternatives worth researching.

By the way, it's a bit unkind to pick up a typo, perhaps, but this one is unfortunate to put it mildly. In the C-Beam machine write-up on the Ooznest web site, it says that " His video goes meretriciously through every step of the build". Pity this wasn't proof-read more carefully - "meretricious" according to the Oxford Dictionary of English means "Apparently attractive but having no real value". I'm sure that they meant "meticulously"...