[maxbela]

Originally Posted by Oldmanandhistoy Hi Max, Do you have any pictures or a link to your machine; just want to see how beefy it is. John

Hi John,
My machine is a Heiz S-1000 or google "prototools" for a UK distributor.
All the Heiz machines have twin X axis drive screws which means the gantry stays square, a big help if you do heavy work well off the centre of the table.
I suspect the smaller machines would be more rigid as there is less length to flex.
My client for the alloy blocks won't let me post pictures, -copyrighted design or something-, but basically I was taking a 130mm by 260mm pocket 22mm deep out of 30mm thick alloy blocks.
I made 10 of them altogether.
I can think of several ways to beef up my machine, if I needed to, but the basic design of it is excellent.
As I have said elsewhere in the forums, I needed a machine in a hurry for a specific contract I landed, and bought this one on the grounds that I knew it would do that job and, even if it didn't come up to scratch on other work, it would have paid for itself already.
I have been doing all kinds of work on it for a year or so since then and I am very happy with it. I also like the Win PCNC software that came with it. I upgraded to the Pro version to get a 4th axis control and the ability to digitise with a probe which the supplied version does not support but for most 3 axis work the included version is fine.
I bought direct from Germany since they had no UK distributor then and got excellent customer support via e-mail from both Heiz and Lewetz " www. lewetz.de" who wrote the software. I consider I got at least what I paid for and probably more.

Cheers,
Max