20 x 40 vmc purchase

Evaluating the purchase of used VMC's with tool changers. Fadal and Milltronics leading the way at this point. Will be doing prototype to medium runs. What is the experience out there? Programability, set up time , reliability , rigidity ,value, options to have etc. etc.

Bossman, I cannot coment on the Hurco, but I have a milltronics partner 6. Circa late 96 model. I can say that the accuracy of my mill is exceptional ON POSITIONING! I just did some plates with 8 reamed holes +-.0003 in dia, and +-.0005 location. I was a little worried about how they would come out. All of the plates fit together perfectly! All 8 pins went right in with no noticealbe problem. As to rigidity...well the old (my make/model) vmc leave a lot to be desired. Mine hs a 15 horse, 4400 rpm spindle on the column. I have tried to take a full h.p. cut, only to have the column shake horribly. I tried to even go less than half of rated h.p. The stats were... 1.25 dia. 3 flute iscar ad 1.25-1.25 cutter .15 deep axialy, full dia. at 3400 rpm, and 40 ipm. NO DICE!!! What I am getting at is, if you are going to die work...forget it. Not in my humble opinion. Standard steel, stainless, aluminum, plastics... not a problem. The milltronics has its good points though. It is open arcatechture. That is a big deal! I do not believe Hurco is. Nor is Haas for that matter. When a drive card goes out,(or anything computer related) you can go direct to Servo Dynamics or the respective manufacturer. A BIG SAVINGS!! Maintenance is another issue. Milltronics has a tech. line you can call m-f 8-5. I did that monday morning as my mill would not reset. It turned out to be just pluging, and unpluging the drive cards a few times...
He-He (PHEW!!!) The guys are pretty good on the phone, in trouble shooting. Haas has the HFO's that can be there in lees than an hour if need be. So you get to decide. I do not know about Hurco tech. support, it may be great.

I bought a used 94 Fadal VMC15 with 88HS control about a year ago. I didn't have much experience with cnc's, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Fadal's Format 1 programming is nice and simple. I haven't had any major problems with it. I've replaced the servo motor on the x axis, and fixed some settings that were not set correctly. The z servo motor and ballscrew are starting to show some signs of wear, but with all the tool changes it's to be expected. All in all a good machine, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy another one. Good Luck.

Oh yeah, I ususally do short production runs of around 15-500 parts.

As far as options, I wouldn't worry to much about that. Try to get a machine with graphics and make sure it has a 232 port. Just hook up a pc with a halfway decent cad/cam program and you'll be set.