[NeoMoses]

A little background...
When I started CNCing, it was mainly a few parts for myself and a few others. Hobby stuff, not much more. Lately, I've found that I can make a little bit of money on the side with my CNC, so I've been spending more and more time on it. Right now, my biggest time killer is sizing material and squaring the edges up so that barstock can be mounted properly and repeatably.

I also have been using my CNC mill quite a bit for engraving logos on metal.

A third use that takes quite a bit of time is cutting thin grooves with a slitting saw on an arbor. It's a job that would be much better suited for a horizontal milling machine, but I don't have one.

For a while now I've been thinking about putting together a machine that would do these 3 tasks (accurately cut barstock, engrave, and horizontal milling) to clear up some of the mill's time. I'm kind of thinking of something along the lines of a 3D router, but with both a vertical router motor and a horizontal milling spindle. The vertical router/engraver would be easy to make, but I'm a little unsure about the horizontal mill.

First, has anyone seen a machine similar to this? Also, does this sound like a bad idea? The horizontal milling will be making shallow cuts in aluminum and copper (about 0.050" deep) and also cutting the aluminum and copper to length. I think a 4"-6" slitting saw should be the maximum size I'll need in the forseeable future. I'd like to try to put together a table with about 2'x4' of workable space.

Any input would be appreciated, especially on the horizontal milling capability.