As said I got by for a long time with a poor pillar drill mounted next to a very dead lathe. It was pretty crap but better than the one I didn't have!. Mostly I'd just not bother to use it and work out ways to make stuff with hand tools only.
Having a proper mill now though is great and allows so many more possibilities. I bought A Sip 30 Mill, (which appears to go under many other names in different parts of the world, (Rong Fu for instance), and by the time you've added all the extras you'll need like a collet chuck and mill bits it ends up at just over £1000, (including Vat). As far as proper mills goes it's entry level if truth be told, but it is strong robust and has all the features you need for water-block making. If looked at closely you can see it is built to a cost, (it's a fact that £1000 IS cheap when talking about real mills), but it's new and single phase.
It's much bigger than it appears in pictures, (that's a TI4600 on the mill bed), weighing in at almost 400lbs (180kg) more than two times my weight.
I'm updating my site atm so should have a little more about this in a mill article on it soon, (next few days). It is a hobby and can get expensive like most hobbies if you let it, and it wont stop at buying a mill because you'll need a proper lubrication/cooling set-up, material, more and more milling bits, etc.......... now I could do with a rotary table and a better vice....... it goes on and on.