Probably, my biggest use for a milling machine or lathe is to be able to do miters. And I’d especially want to do the difficult miters that I’ve always had trouble with when hand filing. That is, the seatstay miters and unicrown fork blade miter where it attaches to the steerer.
Secondarily, I probably won’t do a whole lot of milling because I figure it’s just going to be easier to sub out any milling of small aluminum parts and stuff to an online machine shop like SendCutSend or somewhere. I think they’d be able to do a more accurate job than me if I provide them with a CAD drawing. However, I do still want to do some machining because I’ve always wanted to learn basic machining. So, my plan is to get a mill (vertical or horizontal)… I’m kinda leaning towards a bench top mill. And then, when I move into a bigger space in a few years, I will just Craigslist or eBay the mill and possibly get something bigger if I’ve gotten to the point where I also want a bigger, stouter machine. Or maybe I might keep the bench top mill if learn that I can live with its lack of rigidity and other inconveniences of a smaller than standard sized mill.