New mill purchase, Acer vs. Sharp, others?

We got the ok to purchase a new milling machine at the current place I work. The local machinery dealer has a new Acer 3vs-II and a Sharp LMV-50 sitting on the floor. Which would be the better choice out of these two? Any other brands/models to look at? We got the ok for around $10,000 purchase price and are looking for a Bridgeport style vertical mill. Hoping to stay around $11,000 with a X power feed and 2 axis digital readout. I only mention those 2 because they are local but am up to other suggestions. The Acer is a little cheaper than the Sharp at this dealer.

We did get two new Acer's of the above model at the last place I worked and they seemed like decent machines. This mill will also not see full shift or even daily use.

I want to recommend Lagun,don't know price,
have a look,very good machines.
best of luck what ever you do.
Gw

Wells Index.

Craig Laurich a Rebuilder up in Hibbing MN who was my foreman when I had my shop told me that he can't rebuild a Bridgeport and end up with the quality of an Acer. It's hard to beat a Good Taiwanese build machine. I would stay away from anything made in China. Lagun is a good brand too, Index is American and they are still built new, but I would bet the Acer or Kent or Sharpe knee mills are just as good of quality. I would look for the best bang for the buck on all of them. Rich

PS: Member jamie76x is in Pittston PA and he sells and repairs used machines too, might be worth a call to him and see if he has anything.

I have run all the aforementioned mills, and I concur, that they all have advantages over Bridgeports. I like the Sharp mills with the box ways and 40 taper. They even made one with a horizontal head, like the Wells Index 860. That said, I found a Lagun FTV-2 to plunk in my garage. I fit it with a three axis DRO (Z on the knee), an Ultron Snap Change tool changer, and a quill DRO. I paid $2500 for it and it was 25 miles from my house.

It is going to be hard to beat an acer emill.

We just got a package deal on an acer mill and a lathe hooking them up today.

The dealer we bought from also beat up bridgport mills pretty bad He wouldn't sell us one in good conscience. He said they are 100% Chinese and way over priced.

I purchased a new Sharp LMV-50 last year and it looks very similar to the Acer 3VS except it does not have a Baldor motor. My machine is the electronic variable speed version with Yaskawa VFD which will run on both single and 3 phase.

Overall the machine is ok, but the fit and finish is a little rough in some areas. One thing to be careful of is that Sharp does not make their own mills. They buy batches of machines from different Taiwanese manufacturers (low bid wins). The 1st machine I received looked like the ways had been finished with a belt sander using 36 grit paper. After several months of complaining they finally replaced the mill with another one, which has beautiful ways, but lacks in some other areas. The head casting on the 2nd machine is a little rough and the lower knee lock can't be used when the knee is lowered 75-100% because the gib is off the male dovetail (design flaw). The 1st mill I received had a M cast into the base for Mehanite. The 2nd mill does not have the M or a plate that indicates it is Mehanite, so I suspect it may not be Mehanite even though it is supposed to be.

The original Sharp mills were made by First (Long Chang) and they were nicer quality than the machine I have. After I received my machine, I inspected an Acra brand mill at a dealer and found that it was made by First (said so on the side of the machine). This Acra looked identical to the 1st machine I received, but fit and finish was like the older Sharps. If I were going to purchase again I would propbably get an Acra if I could verify it was indeed made by First.

I would inspect the machine in person before paying, even if it means traveling to the distributor. Quality changes from batch to batch, so even inspecting one that is a year old could be different from the new one you get.

I bought a new Webb two years ago, 3HP with a VFD, digital readout and power feeds. It is a very nice machine and looks to be of heavier built than some of the others I considered. No regrets in the purchase, would buy again.

Ken

Acer would be my pick. If I was going to get a new mill today it would be the acer with the frequency drive and 40 taper. I think they are 17 grand. I have worked on and run all of them and that drive is sweet.

Thanks for the replies. I will check out pricing on some of the others, I think the Laguna new will be a little more than the budget allows.

I have been inside the First / Sharp factory and taught scraping classes there. They are owned by the same family. Acer, Acra, KentUSA all buy machines from factories and put their name on them. Hardinge has factories in Taiwan and China. I was in the Leadwell factory and they make several CNC machines sold by different companies. Before Hardinge/Bridgeport built factories in Taiwan, Bridgeport CNC VMC's were built by Quasar.

Take a look at Webb Milling Machines. They are built in Taiwan. All parts are available as I discovered when I refurbished mine and converted it back to manual from a CNC machine with a missing computer.

I bought a new 10 x 50 Acer 3VK about 22 years ago, still really like it. No problems with it. I have run Laguns, not so crazy about the the two I ran. Seemed to be rugged, but also seemed to have a few problems.

JH

Some of the South Bend mills that Grizzly sells are on sale on there website. I bought one several weeks ago and as far as I can tell it is a excellent example of a Taiwanese mill. There are several that can be shipped for well under $11.000 and have room left over for a DRO

I forgot to add that when I received the 1st Sharp mill with the bad ways I considered buying a real Bridgeport for about double the price ($16,000 instead of $8500). I asked Hardinge / Bridgeport to send me photos of the machine and knee ways. The base of the Bridgeport was identical to the 2nd Sharp mill that I received except it was painted gray instead of silver.

Here are some photos of the ways on the 1st Sharp mill that I received. The rest of the mill was perfect, but the ways were a disappointment.

Here are some photos of the 2nd Sharp mill that I received:



Here are the photos of a new 2015 Bridgeport mill:



They seem to share a striking resemblance of one another with exception of the gray paint on the Bridgeport, different one shot lube pump, and black dials.

We got a brand new Lagun. It's very nice.

I've used the an Acer and it was fine. Not as nice as Lagun.

John, are those Lagun's still made in Spain? mine was, but, looking at that new one now, its got lots of differences. Pretty much an entirely different machine than their past models, hopefully just as good eh.

SND said:

John, are those Lagun's still made in Spain? mine was, but, looking at that new one now, its got lots of differences. Pretty much an entirely different machine than their past models, hopefully just as good eh.

Click to expand...

I don't know where it was made. I always figured Taiwan. It kind of seems Taiwan-ish from looking at it.

The fit and finish seem better than the Lagun I used 20 years ago. Spindle sounds great and all the controls feel good. I really like having a VFD speed control.

*It does have those retarded safety handles on the x axis. I need to figure out how to lock them out. The dickweed that came up with those needs to be shot.