Maplins are a joke! If they did it be a toy at best...

If you have that space and access to a welder I'd consider building a steel subframe to mount it on, giving yourself room to put a soundproofing box around it. You'd probably want to look at the 2' x 2' designs (footprint 1m x 800mm approx) to give room for expansion. You wont get a lot of change out of £1000 and could easily spend more to hit your goal.

If you want a kit for the controllers then Roy's stuff at DIYCNC is quite well thought of, but many would argue that the savings are not enough to warrant it. If you want to buy the PCB and populate them yourself then Phil at pminmo.com has some good PCBs - I would advise you have a good understanding of your needs before purchasing anything... at least have a basic design in mind and some idea of sizing.

Don't be afraid of asking focussed questions... we are always happy to help those who are prepared to do the reading and research for themselves. You can appreciate we get a lot of 'newbies' who just want the answers without the effort. A good many of us here are just weekend hobbyists (like me) but there are others who do it professionally and have experience in spades that is a valuable resource. (they can't help being, with a few notable exceptions, northeners with a strange sense of humour :heehee:)