I have had several attempts to own a mill without success due to them being to sloppy for my needs and my materials of choice changing from 6061 to Steels. I originally had a x1 but returned it for an x2 which I returned not much later as it was defective and haven't bought one since.
I have visited and made a few friends in the shurline to Tormach 1100 size machines and have figured out a more accurate need for my shop. I only have a single car garage and their is not enough room for a Tormach size machine no matter how I squeeze it but I don't have that much money anyways so no bother.
I have been seriously looking at the x3 and the cnc kit from CNC Fusion as my total budget for the machine, conversion and motors is $2500 (I have the controllers already) and I think I could make a very accurate and rigid x3 for that price except I have read alot of external reviews and alot of people complain about once you take the cowl off the column its quite piddily and even with rebar and concrete it gets flimsy mowing through steel.
My solutions are to reinforce the crap out of the column and possibly even use a piece of steel to cross brace the column in position and use high helix end mills. But this can get very expensive so Is their a more capable machine in the <$2500 category that is smaller then the Tormach but wont have these issues?
The only step up from an x3 I have really seen is the Grizzly G0519 and while defiantly more capable than an x3 its 8 times the volume on space being 45" x 55" I would need to put it on the floor so I could step over the axis to get to the lathe. Is their any machines in between these or should I just stick with an x3 and make it as rigid as possible and put on some good ground ballscrews, possibly add encoders to my steppers for PID so the system can deal with getting bogged down?