As far as MAM series machines, their are probably less than 20 in the country also. Custom built 1 offs basically.

I would suggest that anyone that has a chance to take a tour of Haas in Oxnard. Even if you sell their comeptitor's amchines, they will walk you around and show you what they do and why they do it. While their, you can see their Mori-Seki's, HItachi-Sekis, that they are replacing and running "lights out" 100% robot loaded. They have 400 spindles in their place, less than 20 of them are builders other than Haas. Yes, there is a place for everyone in the market. Ferrari doesnt make a car for everyone either. As far as a pallet changing 5 axis machine, it is called the ES-5 As far as a high horsepower non-belt spindle, all of the 12k machines are direct drive 30HP and I would put it up against anything else with the same specs. DO it here everyday. BTW - I am a apps guy for a very large HFO, and we sell more than Haas also. Many of the machines here that are mentioned.

Been working with Haas since the begining (VF-1 lunar landers) and I will put it with most machines costing allot more money. I work everyday with Robodrills, Makino, Matsura allong with the Haas. And they run and run and run. When they break (all machines break) the cost of the parts and service is 50-75% LESS than anyother. And the guy down the road has the parts and will be there the next morning to put it in. I have put the VF-2 thru VF-4SS machines up againt Makino "S" series, which is almost 2x the money and one with good programming skills and knowing your tooling can get 80-90% the performance under 15,000 of the S series. Of course it will never get 100%, the Makino is a fine machine. But for the same money, 2 spindles are much faster than one. Also, Haas is building 70+ machines A DAY. If they are throw away, cheap, starter machines, I would like to see the hole they throw them all into.

MultiAx- Thanks for backing me up. G41 and G42 only comps in X&Y, no Z compensation. Change Diam. by .02" and your part will get wider or narrower, but will not get any taller or shorter.

G41, G42, and G40 are all for G17 compensation (Compensate in the X&Y) with no Z comp. Yes the Heidenhein, Siemens 840D, and a couple other controls are capable of 3D comp, but they don't use G41 or G42 to execute it. I have run a Hermle 5 axis that we had here on our floor, and programmed it with a .5 ball, and setup a simple X&Y toolpath that faced a 4"x8" peiece of material with that tool, flat with a .005 step over. Start the program with the A&B axis flat, and let the machine move X&Y, and WHILE RUNNING THE PROGRAM, you could put the machine in hand jog and move the a axis and the machine would compensate the centerline of the tool center ON THE FLY. Then you select the B axis and start rotating the part on the other axis, and the machine could compensate all 5 axis at a time. To this day this is the only machine/control that could do a "true" 5 axis comp. Most machines can only comp in the X&Y axis. Even if you turn on G41, then start moving the Z, the Z will move, but it will not compensate for it.

Proceed with caution on adding g41 manually, surface geometry accuracy will vary (the more comped away from true diam. the more inaccurate the surface)

That is becasue most controls can not do 3D cutter comp. If tool size changes the surface will probably have to be re-posted. IMO - best to use on size tooling for surfaces