Advice needed. CNC for watch dials and engraving.

[Angrybear]

Thanks for the reply John.

After doing some research on your recommendation I have no doubt whatsoever that the Denford would be capable of doing what I need. But I fear the amount of learning involved may be slightly too much for me.
I have absolutely no experience of cnc whatsoever (this is a slight lie because I studied a design degree about 25 years ago and im sure we had 2-3 hours tuition on how to write G-code for a CNC mill. A completely pointless exercise that is now so vague I can't guarantee it actually happened!)
If I have my facts right the Denfords in question run on older technology that involves Parallel Ports, ancient PCs and antiquated software. I understand they can be updated, but I wouldn't have the faintest idea where to start. Im currently relearning CAD, and have yet to still learn CAM, speeds and feeds, work-holding, etc etc. Im not sure my limited brain could also fit in having to learn the seemingly complicated skills involved in how to update everything, and get this working with that and so on. I fear a Denford would quickly become a very heavy, expensive, paper weight.
Ideally I would like something a little bit more plug and play, so I have more mental capacity to focus on issues such as 'why do I keep breaking end mills?'
I know im going to end up paying through the nose for this modernity, and end up with a machine less capable and well made. But I fear its the only way into this for me realistically.

Does anyone have any experience with the Nomad 3? Is it a pain to import from the US? Are there any other alternatives that are available in the UK?

Does anyone have any experience of the slightly higher end Chinese gantry machines such as the 3020 Pro max? or the smaller foxalien machines?

Are there any plug and play CNC Micro Mills that are relatively affordable, and which I don't need to convert to CNC myself? I originally was looking at the Proxxon machines and converting one but it seemed a bit too involved for me.

So many questions I apologise.

[dazp1976]

If I have my facts right the Denfords in question run on older technology that involves Parallel Ports, ancient PCs and antiquated software. I understand they can be updated, but I wouldn't have the faintest idea where to start. Im currently relearning CAD, and have yet to still learn CAM, speeds and feeds, work-holding, etc etc. Im not sure my limited brain could also fit in having to learn the seemingly complicated skills involved in how to update everything, and get this working with that and so on. I fear a Denford would quickly become a very heavy, expensive, paper weight.

I wouldn't be too concerned about something that uses a parallel port. It's still widely used, you can get a PC with one for very little, and use WinXP or 7 32bit.
Admittedly I know nothing of the more industrial machines but I've had no problem with the likes of mach3. And I updated my parallel controller to an ethernet controller for more I/O. Re-wiring wasn't too difficult and changing the software ports and pins
If you have all the documents it helps.