New guy needs advice!

Hello to all,

I'm very excited about purchasing my first CNC milling machine, and
want to make sure I get the right one 4 my needs. An engineer,
(Mariss), from Geckodrives, told me this was the best place to seek
advice on how to put together a cost-effective CNC milling machine. I
saw an ad in a machinist magazine for a MAXNC10 mini mill and was
surprised at how affordable it was. So I started calling a lot of CNC
companies to find out what's available in my price range. I
explained that I needed a machine that could mill to .001"
consistently for prototyping small engine designs from RC models to
motorcycle size. The largest piece I could see cutting right now
would be a 6 in. diameter turbine wheel made out of stainless-steel.
Some mini mill companies have told me their mills will do everything
I need. Others have said I need a bigger machine to cut the harder
steels. Unfortunately for me there is a huge price difference
between mini CNC mills and the next step up. I'm turning a storage
room in the basement of my apartment complex into a tool room so I
have enough room for a larger mill. It even has three phase power
available! So all I need now is the right machine and software to
get me started. I'm a mechanic who is computer literate with lots of
spare computer parts laying around, but no CAD CAM experience. I've
downloaded evaluation versions of, Rhino, Solid edge, Visual mill,
XCAM and machine tool path viewers to play with, but I'm not going to
install them until I get my CNC mill because they're all time bomb
versions. My email address is, (smcleod007@...).
Thanks to all who can help me get started. Scott McLeod.