CNC Router for Aluminum

[bigbeezy]

Our team has been extremely fortunate to have the use of a couple waterjets at our main sponsor's facility. This has been extremely useful over the years, however we are consistently faced with relatively long lead times, down machines, sick operators, etc. We hold off on manufacturing parts until nearly everything is designed so that everything can be cut at once. Which means at times we have parts waiting over 2 weeks before they are in hand, and you better hope that they work... So, we are looking at purchasing a CNC Router to be able to cut aluminum sheet in house. We feel that this could be a game changer for our team by speeding up prototyping, manufacturing, improving quality, etc.

Does anyone have any suggestions on a CNC Router? I'd like to not spend a fortune but don't want some cheap machine that will break in a year. It should be fairly straight forward to operate. Most of the time it would cut 1/8" or less. I was thinking one that was 2'x3' would be a good size. Any experience and suggestions you might have would be greatly appreciated.