[wizard]

My first though, second and third thought is that you want to avoid those Chinese machine unless you like to tinker with electronics. They aren't extremely bad machines but that is only if you exclude the electronics.

I'm left with the impression that you don't have time to screw around with setting something up and getting it to run. In other words you need something that works out of the box so to speak. If true I'd consider simply buying another machine from Roland which should fit into your current work flow. Roland has more than a few machines to choose from that would do the job and they are known to offer decent quality.

However most of the Roland's don't strike me as being robust for milling type work. You might consider something like a TIAG mill in a CNC variant as a very low cost way into a CNC that takes the shape of a conventional mill. They can be found here: Taig Tools - Desktop Milling Machines and Lathes.. However I'm not certain this would be good enough for your needs.

You might want to consider a commercial PCB router like such: The LPKF ProtoMat S-Series. However the problem here is I'm not up to speed on how they process G-Code if at all. Another example is here: PCB Milling Machine System,PCB Prototyping Machine, with the same problem of not knowing how they handle G-Code, in any event lots of machines like this on the market. The problem with many of the desktop routers out there is that they are flimsy. If you go with one designed for PCB you at least know that the machine can handle copper and fiberglass well.

I have to wonder though if you might be limiting yourself too much here, why not buy a larger mill that could be far more flexible. Tormach come to mind here. A little higher end would be a Hass Office Mill or MiniMill. A bigger machine would be a long term investment. However a real mill would allow you far more flexibility, especially if you get away from milling sheet metal.

In any event no matter which way you go you need to buy something enclosed or fabricate an enclosure for it. This simply for safety concerns.

There are lots of ideas out there. At the moment I don't know of a generic router that fits your needs ( off the top of my head). The desktop market is limited because most people want larger machines when it comes to routers. I mentioned PCB routers because they seemed like an excellent fit for your immediate mechanical needs (small squares of sheet metal), your challenge is to find a machine that works well with your current design environment.

no i havnt , i work for a weird company..we are a fashion embelishment studio and we do sampling and prototypes for the garment/fashion industry. we have a very niche market that requires a very fast turn around time , so for the most part, everything must be done inhouse and done very quickly..its for this reason im needing to source another machine for cutting of sheet metal only...i have been doing a little digging and i found what appears to be a reasonably priced chinese cnc machine ..its called the cnc 3040 and i belive there is also one called the 6020. the bed size seems good for my purposes and they claim its good for metals as well...honestly i can even go with something smaller but i have been unable to find one, is anyone aware of a cnc router that is even smaller than these that can cut metal?