Coincidentally I have been working in a very simple P&P machine using the Silhouette Curio hobby machine. The total cost of the setup is around $300 (US$). I just uploaded a video of an early "test" to YouTube I made about three weeks ago. I called it "test" because I ended up assembling a total of 300 boards. In retrospective, that was a mistake, because now I don't have any boards to test "for real" many of the improvements I made since. The smallest components I tried are 0805, but it may be possible to do 0603.
Roughly the workflow of using the Curio to do a P&P job includes:
1) Configure the job using a graphic editor (written in Python/tkInter). No much trouble here as the editor should be easy to use. Since the setup doesn't use a camera, it requires accurate measurements of the cut carrier tape to achieve good results. The editor allows for copy/paste, so that is helpful to speed up the job.
2) Cut a craft foam gig to place the PCBs and cut carrier tape. The Curio is used to cut this gig. This craft foam gig can be used many times. I used one 10 times and it is still good for more uses. This is the hardest part of the whole process and may take some practice to master.
3) Load the PCBs and cut tape in the foam gig.
4) Place the gig in the Curio tray.
5) Remove the transparent cover from the cut tape. This, as you probably know, is a pain!
6) Start the pick and place process. Wait. Remove the PCBs with the placed components. Reflow. Done.
My setup uses, out of the top of my mind, the following:
1) 1 x Silhouette Curio cutter. About 200$.
2) 1 x 12V vacuum pump. About 30$.
3) 1 x 12V solenoid valve. About 15$.
4) 1 x microcontroller to control both the pump and valve via a USB to serial adapter. I used a custom made board, but an Arduino or similar should do fine as well. 20$? Bot the pump and valve are turned on/off using an N-MOSFET.
5) 1 x Silhouette pen holder. Actually, it is better to have two. One pen holder for the pickup tool, and one pen holder for the sharpie marker. About 12$ each at Michael's.
6) 1 x 0.5 mm mechanical pencil with non-retractable tip. The one with metal tip works better. I am using the Pentel Twist-Erase Express which I got from Staples in a package of 4 for about 10$.
7) about 2 meters of vinyl tubing for the vacuum pump. I think I got it from Home Depot. ??$

3 x 'T's for drip irrigation or similar. I 'inherited' a bunch of these, but you can find them cheaply at Amazon.
9) 1 x roll of double sided Duck tape or similar. Amazon carries it. About 10$.
10) 1 x roll of double sided Scotch 3M tape (I wouldn't compromise on this one as I tried other options and they were awful). About 6$ from Home Depot; they call it "indoor carpet tape".
11) a cutting mat from the dollar store OR a piece of 30 gauge aluminum sheet or similar that is 256mm x 186mm OR a blank PCB that is 256mm x 186mm. They all work fine. The cutting mat is easier to work with, but the aluminum sheet and blank PCB are more robust. I paid 1.5$ for the cutting mat
12) a 12V dc adapter. 15$ perhaps? I am using a recycled one. It powers the microcontroller, pump, and solenoid valve.
13) a Silhouette deep cut blade to cut the foam. About 30$.
14) one or two fine point Sharpie markers. Red and black worked for me. They are used to write the values of the components in the foam. Cheap; I don't remember.
15) Lots of 2 mm craft foam. I got 40 sheets for about 15$ from Michael's, but also used the one from the dollar store.
16) A computer running Windows 10 or Linux. If running on Windows 10, a driver must be installed to access the Curio.
I'll leave it here for now. If anybody is interested on setting this up, I can continue with more details in a separate thread.