Agie or Mits

We are currently looking at either a Mits FA20S or a Agie Classic 3. Sizes & speeds are comparable on both machines.Agie has a part probe that sounds really interesting. If anyone has one, fill me in!! We had Agie machines years ago (AgieCut 123), & swithched to Mits because of Agie's service.We now have 6 Mits machines.Mits service has really dropped off in my opinion & I don't like some of their new "policies" (10% restocking fee,service rates keep going up,core returns keep going down,less knowledgable people working in their service dept. than ever before, etc.,).Let me say that I think restocking fees are fair to a certain extent,but,$400 to put a $4000 Power Supply Rack(that we never used)back on the shelf doesn't seem fair. I'm not sure about Agie's service.I am quite sure that Agie's service must be better than it was in the early 90's or they would be out of business by now.They may be the same.Can someone help me out. All information is greatly appreciated.

I have 4 Agie's. Agie service is superb. Agie does not charge the extra fees like you describe. Parts are always available and usually the next day. The machines run and run and my oldest (13 years) is just as accurate as when I bought it new. I have never replaced a wire guide on any of my machines. I don't think I will ever have to. The guides last the life of the machine. My 13 year old machine will soon have 31,000 hours and has not had an hour of down time due to machine failure for 3 or 4 years. It runs 24/7.

TMD

I would have to agree with TMD on the AGIE's. Our oldest machine has 65,087 erosin hours and still hols .0002 with no problem. We have 3 machines, and do almost all of the maintaince and repair work ourself. Phone support at times can be a little slow, but I think their people are stretched pretty thin. Only have had 2 times 18 years when a machine problem couldn't be fixed over the phone and had to have a tech come out. Good luck on your choice. I saw the alignment probe run at IMTS this past year, for what we do it would be super. The proble comes out of the upper head and probes the work piece on 3 places and skews the head so the wire it square to the work. I think AGIE rep said the part could be out as much as .062", man if it works it would save a lot of indicating time. Mark

we have an agie chalange and a agie 100D. We also have a two mits. the agie will do multiple jobs so you can set them up to run all weekend. they hold .0002 tol all the time the mits round off sharp corners and does not always clean up the raduis the auto threader on the mits hardly ever works right we had some old agie 123 we sold them and they have been rebuilt and are making money for the new owners i have to say that the agie are much better machine tools then the mits

We have two agie machines( 100 & 200d &sf) they both are workhorses. But like anything else a machine is only as good as the maintainence program that protects it.Our machines run an average of 120 to 140 hours a week. But we also spend about 8 hours per week on each machine cleaning.

Pete

GOOD POINT PETE!
wire edm needs a lot of TLC. a good maintace is the key to putting out quality work

We have 2- Progress 3 wire. Both machines are work horses.
Agie support has been good.
The probe works good.
Beats the heck out of indicating the part flat and square in the machine.

Thanks for the info guys. I have been calling around & everyone says the same thing "you won't be sorry with an Agie". I have to admit I'm leaning that way, even though I have been a dedicated Mits user for 13 years now.

EDM/CNCNUT

Spend between $300 and $600 for guides that have to be replaced several times a year, in several sizes (diameters) and you will soon see how the Agie Wire has it all over the Mits Wire.

I sold an Agie AC 100 that had 53,000 hours of erosion time on it (not machine time ---- erosion time) and it still held .0002" tolerances with the original guides.

Pete nailed it: do the maint and you have a lot fewer headaches - true of ANY machine.

my 2 cents

D_C