Bikepete, Thanks again for providing your honest input. Thanks to Jazz as well. I do not have more than 15 hours machining experience. I was aware of vibration during operations but I was telling myself that the vibrations would only be present in a severity level that causes concern when machining at fast speeds. I intended to use the machine very slowly. I suppose this is just trying to shoot for the sky when a few mountains are in my way... I appreciate the reality check. I thought about the VMC option all night well till about 4am or so. I even revisited the machine I had thought to purchase about three years ago. The Tormach PCNC 1100. All decked out at least for what I would like to learn and do its about 15k. That is what I estimated this project to cost me if I shopped smart and got all the parts I needed. Alas I am thinking this is not going to happen for 15k. I just believe that buying an already built machine will limit what I can do due to the size. The tables are so small. But then again I don't know what it is to be a real machinist. Just the one in my head. ;) I am definitely not giving up but I will be putting this project on ice to revisit the VMC option and then make the decision to proceed then. I do not have a manual mill. Is that a sad thing? I'll go drink a few drinks and mull all this over and figure out what I need to do. After all, at least with the Milltronics or Tormach option I will have a machine capable of producing profit worthy parts if my skillset can be at that level, right? Not all hope is lost. I will be thinking about all this in the next few hours. Please feel free to post anything that you think is helpful for a beginner if I do go with the Milltronics or Tormach option.

The paper on rigid cast iron was interesting. I have not finished reading it but its pretty cool. I studied Material properties while in college and this is a great paper to show that adding a pinch of this and a dash of that can make a big change.