You've picked a very expensive hobby. I started out with the intention to spend less than $1000 on my mill and everything, and to date I have spent well over $5000. It comes down to this: do you want to spend $600-$1000 on the mill, and have an OK mill or would you rather spend $1500-$2500 on a great mill? I would recommend trying to find a used bridgeport as your best option. They're huge, but they're the best available.
If you don't go for the bridgeport, the best quality mini-mill I've seen is a Rong-Fu. They're made in Taiwan, with much better quality standards than the chineese made mini mills. I would recommend a square column mill rather than a circular column, whichever way you go. Each time you move the head on a circular column mill, you'll have to re-index it to make sure it's square. It quickly becomes a huge PITA.
Another thing that I haven't seen much talk about is tooling. You'll likely spend about $500 on tooling. It's very hard to make anything nice without good tooling. A good vise, a set of parallels, and collets are necessary. You'll also need to purchase drill bits if you don't have them, and end mills. A good facing cutter is highly recommended, although not necessary.
For the vise, there seems to be a huge price increase once you get one that is guaranteed more precise than 0.003." 0.003" should be plenty good for making waterblocks, so unless you plan on recutting the heads on your car or something, I wouldn't spend the extra money. but make sure you get a good vise! a small vise will flex more than anything else, making it impossible to get a good surface finish or dimensional accuracy. My vise weighs about 90 pounds, for example.
Sorry to write such a novel, I just thought I would further inform you of some of the money pits that I have fallen into. Although this hobby is not cheap, it is very rewarding. I love going out and "making chips" rather than just sitting here at the computer. I would recommend it to anyone who can afford it.
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