Small CNC mill - reccomendations? - Not 'hobby' but professional qualtiy..

[dr wogz]

Hi,

a few months ago I had a post about a hobby style CNC mill, 5 axis preferred. A few answered. thank you!

Well, in response to the meeting here at work to discuss the findings, and the desire of a larger more professional machine quickly became apparent! So, the initial budget has been increased, and the task is to now find / research a much larger machine. This would be mainly for prototyping, as well as small production runs as needed. It'll see a lot of stainless! 304, 316, typically.. (Food grade stuff..) Nothing overly complex; a few tools / bits only.

So, any recommendations on a small job shop / small production capable machine? 5-axis preferred...

HAAS? Matsuura? Dahlih? Okuma?!

 

[ChrisAttebery]

You'd be much better off posting this on Practical Machinist. You'd better have a really good idea of budget and capabilities. Personally if I were looking for a new machine I'd find out who the nearest dealers were and start working with them. You don't want a machine that you have to fly in a tech every time it needs service.

 

[PatB]

HAAS I really popular among the machinists in my area. A lot of machine shops are going out of business and you can get some very good deals on Craigslist. I'm talking high-end equipment- $20-30K being sold a deep discounts.

A local machinist I used passed away last year and his family sold his equipment really cheap. I didn't have room for it, but they unloaded everything rather quickly.