The Haimer is pretty fantastic, but I would take the Tschorn over it. Especially if you're on a budget as their SavePlus model is significantly lower priced. Some notes:
- The Haimer is IP6X rated for water intrusion, and they intend for it to be left in the turret/carousel. I had one leak living in the Robodrill. I took it apart and got it working again, but it was under warranty.
- Haimer's warranty service for them in the US kinda sucks; they ship everything back to Germany and it takes 6+ weeks. They do not have loaner units or an exchange program. I bought mine on Amazon and Haimer told me to buy a new one, swap the units out, and return the busted one to Amazon (yes, that is literally what they told me to do, and it worked! even though it felt a bit janky).
- You would think I would stop running the Haimer in my turret, and I would have! Problem is, removing the Haimer from a Robodrill turret (having to pull it with some force out of the holding fingers) instantly threw it out of calibration by up to 0.0007" in random directions. So even after the leaky replacement, I left it in there.
After the leak incident, I got on the phone with Haimer and their US VP of engineering called me up and was very gracious and generally knowledgable. The sense I got was that Haimer USA is really in the shrink fit/tool balancer/big $$$ business, and that this whole 3D Taster thing is sort of a German deal with a niche market for them in the US. Hence, the poor 6+ week repair turnaround. The Haimer is beautifully crafted, and (aside from the notes above) works exactly as advertised. It's a huge time/frustration saver.
Having said that, the Tschorn is equally accurate and works the exact same. The design is a bit beefier. I never had to use it, but Tschorn's US warranty coverage is superior (they told me they swap units out quickly in the rare instances of warranty issues). More importantly, when you email Tschorn in Germany, Robert Tschorn himself answers questions. 3D Tasters is *what Tschorn does* it is not a rounding error in their primary line of business.
I just sold the Robodrill and included a 3D Taster with it - the Haimer. I'm keeping the Tschorn for use on the Speedio for inspection and alignment tasks that the Probe is no good at.
TL;DR
3D Tasters are great devices (80% of the convenience of a spindle probe at less than 1/10th the price). The Haimer is good, but the Tschorn is a smidge nicer, and is better supported by a company 100% dedicated to this product line. The Tschorn is the one I would buy.
