Dunno if this helps but I'll give my "journey" with CNC and actually having owned a Taig for the last 4 years.
I have an engineering background and some woodworking experience but none with machining.
I ended up bidding on ebay for a 4 axis Taig CNC setup and lost, contacted the guy, worked out a deal, and ended up with a pretty decent (for a taig) machine with 250oz steppers and a Xylotex control board.
I've since modified the taig by ripping the stock motor off, making a custom toothed belt drive using alu pulleys from SDP/SI, putting a 1/2hp motor on a VFD controller that controls spindle speed from the computer. I learned more about robotics and motion control in the month I spent doing that than a years worth of senior design classes at a world class engineering university.
I ended up buying Mach 3 which for 90% of home shop machinists seems to be THE choice for motion control software, it is probably one of the best written and supported pieces of software for 150 dollars I've ever seen and I work with global software companies in my day job.
Important point: As a noob to machining, I had to learn a LOT about machining that had nothing to do with CNC. In fact, I think CNC added to the mix made things HARDER to learn not easier. I had the common misgivings that CNC machines magically spit parts out after you draw them in cad.
Here are some lessons I learned that I try to pass onto friends looking to get into this:
1) Learn material characteristics, feeds, speeds, and what type of cutter to use for certain types of cuts.
2) Fixturing is the THE biggest challenge for any machining operation let alone for CNC work
3) Learning to think like a machinist rather than an engineer, sometimes the coolest looking parts are a B*tch to machine and don't have to be to function well in the application.
4) Precision is a sliding scale, usually repeatability is more important than drilling that hole to 1/10th of a thou precision
5) ***BIGGER AND HEAVIER MACHINES ALWAYS CUT BETTER*** even and especially on small parts.
6) You will spend more time trying to get your machine tuned to cut accurately and maintaining it than you will using it to cut metal. Especially if it is a small one
7) Setup, edge finding, etc take more time than cutting parts.
8) Coolant is a must, flood is desirable, (the Taig is no exception, build a tub or enclosure, use and bucket and a fishtank pump if you have to)
CNC lessons learned
1) Computers are accurate, metal machines aren't, just because the computer says it's going to X1.0441 Y2.3251, doesn't mean the machine is actually there in reference to your 0,0 point (unless you have a closed loop system
2) CAM software is worth what you pay for it, and until you can think like a machinist instead of a CAD designer is still mostly useless (comic sarcasm here)
Final thoughts:
I would have started with the Grizzley sq column manual mill if I had known then what I know now (and incidentally a machinst friend of mine told me this way back when and I didn't listen).
The taig is a nice VERY small mill, and if you really work hard, you can hold about 1 thou tolerance (which is really good for this machine) but you'll have to machine and rapid slowly since the gibs will be really tight. It's also not designed in any way shape or form for coolant and chip management so you'll need to keep it clean. It also does NOT fit standard vises and T slot hardware so you'll need to make or buy custom stuff for the TAIG. Fitting a good vis on it is hard, I had to have my friend with a big mill cut down the smallest "Kurt style" vise I could find to get a good one on there.
Also the biggest tooling you'll be able to get on that Taig and use reasonably is anything with a 3/8" shank. When I actually try to mill w/ a 3/8" carbide cutter, the whole machine vibrates, the realistic capacity for cutting most stuff is really going to be a couple hundreths per pass using something like a 1/4" em.
Also get good at making and grinding your own tooling, finding good hoggers, fly cutters, etc, that fit this mill can be a challenge.
Overall for cutting small alu parts, it's OK. For the 2K price tag you'll pay, I'd have been better off buying a bigger square column 9x32" mill, learning to use it, and then retro fitting a CNC setup to it.
Frankly I'm shopping now for a manual Sq column mill that I'll end up fitting a DRO to. If I could fit a full size knee mill at bridgeport capacity in my shop, I would go find a used one and restore it. Somethings are actually easier to do manually than on CNC.
I quit my last real job about 8 years ago and have been full time with knifemaking since. In addition to my CNC mill, I have Feeler turret lathe. The Feeler is a Korean clone of a Hardinge HC chucker. I also have two surface grinders and quite a collection of belt grinders 
