[Bob La Londe]

The problem is still the working envelope. You need 11-12" in X & Y to easily do everything on a 10x10 part without rotating it. Tormach has a good following as does Novakon. I don't know if Syil has what you are looking for in your price range either. BUT, most of the mills have a spindle that is on the slow side for efficient plastic cutting. The PCNC 770 has a 10K spindle, but its too small for you. The Syil Speedmasters have a 24K spindle (optional 35K) but they are WAY to small for you. Standard spindles on most of those machines are in the 4500-6000 peak speed range. A little on the slow side for plastics, and still not having that XY envelope you need.

Some of the others who suggested a router are pointing you in the right direction. A decent quality moving gantry router is your best option for plastics for price and size. If it is decent quality, you learn what you are doing, and you setup jobs properly it can also do many/most non-ferrous metals with light fast cutting and some form of coolant or chip clearing blast.

A slooooow (quality) moving gantry router is going to have feed rates as fast or faster than any of the mills mentioned along with higher acceleration rates. Much more suitable for cutting plastics. I tested the little one I showed you (with my controls) upto 600IPM before backing it down to 300 XY and 200 Z as its final top speed. You should see it whizzing through a piece of mohagony at 180IPM (proper feeds and speeds calculated of course).

120V is limiting, but not impossible. Obviously there are plenty of wood routers that turn high speeds (8K-28/34K), are adjustable speed, are 120V, and options upto 3HP apx. They are fine for wood and plastics, and as I showed you are possible to cut aluminum with planning. (That was an actual part I am installing today.) There are even some modest power 120V 3phase spindles out there, but power is limited to about 1HP readily. There are some imports with higher power, but you want to only buy from somebody who has been in the business a while. "Deals" almost never really are. I like Solar Jean on Ebay for 3phase spindles. Ugra CNC is good also, but more expensive. Ugra does have some cheap not great supplemental stuff though. All of that really only concerns you if you are going to build a machine though.

You need to define your NEEDS not your WANTS for a machine choice and then you can budget shop. If your NEED is to cut plastic, and removing aluminum by the gallon is only a WANT then buy a decent quality moving gantry router in the size you want. 12X12 is pretty small for a router and should be readily available within your original budget. Heck, send me your $5K and I'll build you a nice one. LOL.

There are some pretty impressive bed mills out there with 15K spindles 20HP, low and high speed, high acceleration, huge working envelopes and high feeds. They will do everything you want, but they aren't a magic bullet either. Price, Voltage, & Size, all blow away your limitations like they don't exist.

We heard your question the first time and understood it. Restating it didn't really get you a different answer.

Depending on how much variety of work you are going to do it is not unreasonable to plan on acquiring multiple machines. (I have more than one machine, and plan to buy or build a couple more as time and money allow.)

So, buy a good quality CNC router and cut a zillion plastic discs with it. When you have sold enough plastic discs you can use the money to buy a CNC mill if you still need or want a more rigid machine.

[CosmosK]

Currently, I'm eyeing this one:
Stinger I CNC Router
Upside seemingly that it comes with computer, big work area, seems fairly stout and it’s NOT huge.
I have some advising me to just get a Bridgeport as routers are not mills and can't do AL. Long term, I WANT a Hurco or a Haas, but short term I'll probably be doing mostly plastic parts and maybe some wood and AL. I've made plenty of parts on a Bridgeport style mill with 2D Accurite control. I always find myself needing the bigger working area for flat parts. I don’t really want a Bridgeport sized machine to start with. I’d like to be able to move it someday.
I'm leaning towards the router understanding it won't cut steel and won't have much Z travel. Like you said, I can save up for the Haas for the next phase.
I'm actually more concerned on the programming end. Any advice on the software end? I'm trying to understand the layout. You have the machine with 3 axis, then you have the motors and scales (or is position just encoder position?). A computer’s in there and you have a CAM software. I’m on the design end and do lots in Solidworks, but I’ve never stepped foot into the CAM side. Is there a better a worse way to go such that I’m positioning myself to grow into a Haas or such that I can upgrade the machine to have a mill spindle with more travel? I guess I don’t want to end up using a program that’s really just for 2D stuff and nothing at all like the pro CAM software.