I'm looking at adding a CNC machining center to our manufacturing lab at the University of North Dakota and am looking for some suggestions. We do have some smaller CNC bench top lathes, including the Duality lathe for our Tormach; however, I would like to get into something a bit bigger. I am trying to keep the cost to around $20,000 give or take a little. Any ideas?

I am biased because I have all Haas machines but I think a Haas MiniMill may be the best value for money in your price range; it is a bit higher than the amount you mention but not much. One advantage with Haas is that you can also get simulators that are actually a complete Haas control that can truly simulate the running of a machine; these are useful for training and the cost is very reasonable.

I would look at the pre-owned equiptment from the Haas dealer or factory, and you can probably get an eductor discount, I would call a factory rep.

My advice, stay away from high speed spindles as they don't take nearly as much to fail, one good crash and your done, vs. the lower speed spindles have more ridgid bearings and such.

And I wouldn't worry too much about rapid speeds, I would limit them if possible to 200imp... Force = Mass X (Velocity X Velocity)... Do the math, the square root of 2 is 1.4, roughly, meaning 1.4 times the speed doubles the impact. A crash at 200ipm will do far less damage than a crash at 800imp or more. I remember the trade school days :)

Not to mention how user friendly the Haas controller is to learn!!!