Quote Originally Posted by martin54 View Post
Probably your best bet would be to read through some of the build logs, this will help explain a lot of things you may have questions about & give you a better insight into individual components which vary in cost tremendously as do complete machines.
Unlikely you are going to be able to buy a machine that will do everything you want it to well with that sort of budget. What sort of size machine you would like will also play a big factor.
thanks for the reply. sorry for my very tardy response.

Actually a relatively small device is required - desktop size for small metal pieces for models/small prototypes and circuit boards. The build logs look interesting but experimenting seems expensive and I can't make sophisticated parts myself.