Anyone have any experience with the EC-300 Horizontal. We are looking into getting one (because of the size and price). I am told that the machine is built on the same casting as the MDC-500 (which is a vertical machine) and am wondering if this pose an issue. Any input is appreciated.

We bought our first horizontal last October, a Haas EC-400. I looked at the EC-300 first, but came to the conclusion that it was too small for our needs, and was limited to 45 degree indexing on the pallet unless you buy the 4th axis option. The EC-400 has standard 1 degree indexing, handy for angular features. Make sure the machine travel and pallet weight capacity will do what you want.
The EC-400 has been a fast, reliable machine. Our EC-400 ended up at 175k, with tax and all tooling (including some very nice Chick tombstones), sitting on the shop floor. Hard to beat that.

Good luck with your decision.

Are you kidding me? Haas horizontals? Are you f kidding me?

Glad to see some one's being constructive.(nuts)

We have had our EC-300 with full 4th axis for about 9 months and have had very little trouble. The walk-around control had a glitch once in a while. A new wire harness fixed that. We are pleased with the speed of pallet change and their repeatability. We have an HS-1RP that I cannot say anything good about. A lot of issues with the pallet changer. Finally found out that the pull studs that hold the pallet down would get dimples in them over time and then the pallet wouldn't unlock. Also all the new studs are not the same length, so we have to put a .01 or .02 washer on them when we change them out. It will run about 3-4 months between new pull studs. We are looking at a EC-400 to replace it with. We are totally pleased with our EC-1600 with 4th axis.

wow someone is pleased with the ec1600