Mini Mill (VMC)

[Tony]

Were Thinking of Buying a Hurco VM1 mini mill.

Anyone can use it (Conversationally)and I can upload to it If need be.

 

Does anyone else have one?

How are the Mini Haas or Mini Fadal?

[Jim Whipple]

Tony

We have a Haas Mini Mill. If you can live with only 6k on the spindle and not a ton of power it is a great machine...within it's design limits!

We've had ours a little over a year now, no reliability issues. It will every now and then fault on a tool change but I think that's because I don't have a lot of time to clean the machine. It's a little limited on memory also but when I need a big program I just DNC it so that's no big thing to me

I don't think I'd go for the super mini mill though cause you can get more mill for the money with a larger Haas. The only other snivel I have is that it is a pain in the butt to get chips out of

Other that that I think its a good machine

HTH

Jim

 

[ 12-13-2002, 10:23 AM: Message edited by: Jim Whipple ]

[chad fisher]

We have 3 of the mini haas's here and they are pretty nice for the small work that we do here

the only problem is they lack power on larger cuts. My only issue with them is i think they should of went with a smaller taper than the 40.

[Roger Peterson]

Milltronics also has a mini mill. I am not sure if it has box ways or linear bearings. I beleive it has a 15,000 rpm spindle and their controllers are quite nice with lots of memory without spending a fortune. The controller also has a fairly good look ahead and compensates for overtravel instead of just slowing down in corners and I think it does somewhere between 1200 to 1500 blocks per minute. Unfortunately everyone thinks of the Milltronics as the toolroom mills they make, their VMC's are quite nice for the $$$. I've been around all three of the machines mentioned, not neccesarily the mini mills, and I don't think you can wrong with any of them. IMHO the best machine with the wrong guy/gal wont get you as far as the right guy/gal with a file.

 

have a good weekend all,

[Charles Davis]

I have many customers with the Haas mini-mill; no complaints, only compliments.

[Chris Rizzo]

We are running the Haas mini-mill here, and were seriously considering the Milltronics...Decided to go with the Haas for a few reasons. Easy financing through Haas Automation, widespread service and availability of parts, and the things are dam cheap. 30K+. Tech support/service is generally good. However the control is mid 1980's technology, my 99$ cell phone has a better screen and alot more memory! The operator interface/ergonomics leave alot to be desired, too. Machine could use a bit more rigidity, too. Once you get used to these issues and remember how little you paid for the thing, the Haas is a pretty good choice.

[Tony]

Were going with the Hurco.

This machine is mainly for the guys on the shopfloor so the conversational ease of

the hurco comes into play.

Although, The hurco is $10,000 more

then the others.

 

Thank you for all of your feedback.

 

[ 12-14-2002, 07:01 AM: Message edited by: Tony ]

[mold100]

Our shop has 4 hurcos 1 50 taper, 2 knee mills and 1 bigger 40 taper.I would recommend these machines the may lack rigidity to the makino i run but they have got to be the most user friendly machine I have ever got behind.If it is the same control its well worth the x-tra 10 g's it will pay for itself.The hurco dept. here does not use mastercam they do everything at the control.