Haha! Thanks for the input! Yeah, I agree - I'm thinking along the lines that perhaps a second-hand machine for that size might be a longer term aim, whilst a smaller machine for making details etc might be more realistic as an entry point.

We end up with a lot of small/medium ply offcuts from our main work, so my thinking is leaning towards a smaller machine which I can use for details/letters/shapes in-house with minimum fuss, using what would be waste wood. If it proves to be useful, then an 8x4 or 10x5 machine as a longer term investment might make sense.

We make a lot of our work by hand, and CNC stuff ends up being no cheaper a lot of the time, so it has to reach a point where a big job would justify the cost. But because our work is all large scale, the quality/detail level isn't as tight as maybe it would be for furniture etc. For that reason I was also wondering if there might be a route to go down with an old/basic machine perhaps?

Hopefully I'll get my head a bit more into it all by hanging out here anyway!