All,
Many thanks for your excellent advice - I'll pass on the Snow machine then, for all the reasons given (work jumping about, wheel clogging and the bowing at either end).
Unfortunately, the big machine - which I'd absolutely love to own - is WAAAY too big for the space I have available. If anyone else is interested, it's on eBay (
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331545105660), BIN for £1500 or make an offer. Sadly, I expect it'll end up being scrapped.
Oz - great video find, that looks like exactly the sort of machine I should be looking for - relatively small footprint, but big capacity. I'd be happy to run an insert tool in it to just do ali heads, I reckon it'd be in use all the time, there's only a few places around me that can skim heads; and once I relocate to Portugal, I reckon I'd be the only one for miles around.
Either that, or I just need to look for a decent CNC milling machine with a bigger traverse than my old Mk2 Interact; I keep seeing Mk4's go past for moderate money, maybe one of those would do the trick; either that or a proper VMC in a box.
Thanks all! You just saved me 350 quid + P&P... The Snow is also on eBay if anyone wants it -
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151690273977