Hi Paul,

Can't point you to a begginers one stop but you have everything you need here on this forum, you just need to spend some time reading and researching.

Researching being the key word because I can tell you with absolute confidence that you CANNOT buy a machine with £1600 that will be any good for machining aluminium and will last for any length of time. Don't be fooled by the videos that you see of these cheap machines cutting (scratching) aluminium, because yes while they will cut aluminium they don't do a very good job and cannot handle cutting for any length of time before they start to fall apart and the spindle blows up from the stress.

Cutting aluminium correctly requires a different level of machine build compard to a typical router that is used mainly for wood with occasional bit of aluminium work. Both those machines you mention are weak designs that come with poor components/electrics.

With only £1600 then your best option is to self build, if you don't want to self build then be prepared to double your budget if you want anything that is sturdy and reliable, even then you'll struggle to find many off the shelf options that are any good.
Now I know you have seen likes of Sorotec and Stepcraft machines among others and these probably look Good to you, as they do to many people, and your probably thinking "Well Sorotec sell one for under £3k" but you need to look closer and it will become apparant why they manage to offer them at the prices they do.?
It's things like only using one carriage per rail, only one rail with one carriage on the Z axis, etc. These are the kind of corners which are cut to save money but they are disasterous ommisions for any machine which is going to be used for cutting anything harder than MDF.

I build custom machines and I can tell you with 100% certainty that it's not possible for a business to build a Strong machine with the correct components for cutting aluminium that will be reliable and accurate an make any money for less than £2k, and that's a small machine. So this should give you some clue to the kind of machine these Sub £2k machines are going to be because they are making money at that those prices.

My advise is to build your own, or raise the budget get intouch with me and I'll give you a fair price for machine that will do the job properly.