I'm in the market for a PCB router to do DIP and SOIC boards (low speed digital and analog, no RF stuff) and I'm wondering what might be available out there for $6000 and under for a complete package. Anyone have any suggestions?

I checked www.pcbprototyping.com and t-tech, those machines are out of my price range (I could get the M7 but then no money would be left AT ALL for anything else).

Did you think about building one? With a 6K you can have your self a very very nice machine. Even if you had a local machine shop machine a lot of parts for the router.

That was my original intent but between a hand injury and lack of time building my own from scratch with hand-tools just isn't practicle.

I just ordered a K2 2514 (Forum advertising works!) with a few bells and whistles along with Rhino/VisualMill/Mach3 which should arrive in January sometime.

If I find the 2514 just cannot do the PCBs I can always use it to make a smaller machine specifically for that purpose - I still need the bigger one for enclosures and model making - maybe make some money on the side cutting parts etc, though I cannot see why it wouldn't be capable of 10 mil traces and DIP/SOIC pads. I'll be trying a V-bit first and just be real careful in choosing the copper clad boards I mill.