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CNC Milling - Manual and CNC
- Thread starter NX - CAM
- Start date
- Replies 10
- Views 2,548
TRussell
Aluminum
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2015
What are you trying to do? The shop I work in has both a SX5P, and a FHM7. We also recently bought a VF2, and I can tell you, 95% of the time I run the Haas. It's better in nearly every way, and just as easy to use. The SX5P is a little faster and easier to drill a single hole, or something, because it has a manual quill, but both those machines have electronic handwheels, so you won't get any feedback.
The only time I use the FHM7 is when I need the travel. If I remember right, they aren't exactly cheap either. They mostly get used by a few older guys, near retirement, that use the control like a fancy DRO. I can honestly say, if I had to run a Prototrak every day again I would find another job.
You can do CNC and Manual work with anything with a handwheel. How useful any particular machine is at each task depends on what you're trying to do.
It's like you're asking "what is the best car and truck"? A texas cadillac F350 is a great truck and an okay car, unless you need to park it anywhere or drive in a city. A Subaru Baja is a good car and technically has a bed. My Honda Ridgeline is a great car and a surprisingly capable truck, but it won't tow for anything and it's not gonna win a beauty pageant.
If you want the best, have Hermle retrofit some handwheels onto something for a million bucks. Otherwise, we're gonna need some parameters or use cases to help you.
It's like you're asking "what is the best car and truck"? A texas cadillac F350 is a great truck and an okay car, unless you need to park it anywhere or drive in a city. A Subaru Baja is a good car and technically has a bed. My Honda Ridgeline is a great car and a surprisingly capable truck, but it won't tow for anything and it's not gonna win a beauty pageant.
If you want the best, have Hermle retrofit some handwheels onto something for a million bucks. Otherwise, we're gonna need some parameters or use cases to help you.
Vancbiker
Diamond
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2014
- Location
- Vancouver, WA. USA
Home and hobby shop forums are likely to be better sources of info for this type of machinery.
plastikdreams
Diamond
- Joined
- May 31, 2011
- Location
- upstate nj
You realize these are industrial machines right?
scadvice
Titanium
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2009
- Location
- "Stuck in Lodi", Ca
Vancbiker
Diamond
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2014
- Location
- Vancouver, WA. USA
Relative terms. They may fit your idea of "industrial machines". I've looked SWI's stuff at IMTS and would say that without an enclosure, no tool changer, and a whopping 250IPM rapid they are not my idea of "industrial machines". If one was given to me, I'd maybe add it to my home shop. Pay money for one? Never.
Not much ever gets posted on this forum about machines like this. That's why I advised the guy to maybe check some other forums.
TRussell
Aluminum
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2015
I completely agree, I've spent about 10 years making repair parts for the aircraft industry on a 1997 Prototrak. Getting ahold of a VF2 changed my life. Not even close to the same thing. A Prototrak is ok, if you don't care how long it takes,or what your part looks like when you're done.
People on here talk a lot of shit about Haas, but there really isn't any comparison to a Prototrak. It actually makes me sick to think of what I was missing all those years.
TRussell
Aluminum
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2015
Yeah, you're right, I forgot about tilting the head, also hanging tall parts off the edge of the table. I would never say Prototraks can't be used to make things. I've made probably 500 737 midflap ribs on a Prototrak, a real old shitty one too, that wouldn't do a full 3 axis move unless you were running DNC.
I've also made hundreds of 737 nose landing gear steering collar bushings on a Prototrak lathe and machined axial grease grooves that begin and end inside the part using a Prototrack mill with a Haas indexer, and the head tilted 30 degrees.
I will say that a Haas VF2 is a better way to do almost anything. With cheap CAM software around, I think conversational programming, at least in mills, for anything but the simplest jobs just doesn't make sense.
