How does Fadal compare to Fryer, ect?

[ThatguyDave]

I'm in the market for my first CNC for doing alot of production and some misc prototype and tooling work. The machine budget will likely be $50-80ish and the machine will likely be located in Philladelphia. Right now Fadal and Fryer seem like the leading contenders for their box ways, American construction, (abet less so on the Fryer), and overall value. I plan to do most of my own machine maintence and troubleshooting. The occasional problem will be tolerated provided parts and knowledgeable support are available. The horror stories I hear about thru spindle coolant systems here and on the Haas list, or the story a vendor told me about his Daewoo lathes which will literally rapid the tailstock the full length of the lathe bed if it fails to properly initialize itself absolutely scare me.
For those not familiar with Fryer. They bring in finish ground casting from their foundry in Taiwan and build up the machines in upstate NY. 3/4 of their machines come with Anilam controls, the rest are Fanuc and a proprietary control used on their toolroom lathes. I toured they factory recently. Interesting stuff. Anilam and Fanuc are comparably priced. Std Fanuc control spec is the Oi with the mold 1 option std and mold 2 optional for $3000ish. I was told Anilam would have superior look ahead over 0i with mold 1 and would be very competitive with 0i optioned with mold 2 option. Fanuc reliability was also mentioned.
On a NY note, anyone deal with Monarch machine lately.

Opinons are very welcome. Thanks a bunch.

[little bubba]

I would be scared of the new Fadals, just too many horror stories and too much change of ownership. It seems like they can't get anything right in the past 3 or 4 years.

I looked into the Fryer's a while back, our local Mazak distributor dropped them from their line 5-6 years ago because their quality had gone to hell. They picked Fryer back up after their quality picked up.

I talked to one guy that bought a Fryer about 2 years ago, a 60X30, and they run the hell out of it. They love it, they say it will get after it just about as well as their new Mazak, slower rapids, but seems to be a solid reliable machine.

Personally, for new, I would go with the Fryer over the Fadal.