Haas seems to have found/created a real niche with regard to the "tool room" mill.
Although Bridgeport may have preceeded them with a machine CAPABLE of tool room mill control (the late 90's V2XT's had the same BMDC controller as the MUCH more full featured VMC's of their day), sadly, they did NOT put the effort into the iron as Haas did. Too bad they didn't.
Although the BMDC control COULD have made a true tool room mill (ergo mini-VMC), the brilliant suits who ran Bridgeport (into the ground) clearly missed a golden opportunity to create a market for a tool room mill much sooner for a 'min-VMC/tool room mill'. Instead, they appear to have spent too much time/effort on cost cutting and other misdirected efforts that ultimately led to the demise of a machine tool icon.
I'd be inclined to concur with STYMYE that "...there is no comparision" if you consider the control, the features and the packaging of the TM-1 Haas. Haas created the "Bridgeport mill" of tool room mills and God bless them for doing so. They deserve the success that the machine can/will bring.  |