Hurco 5M Neeed feed Back Please.

[roadbyte]

I need alot of feed back on a 1996 Hurco Hawk 5M with the 3D modeling software with less than 1,200 hours run time on the unit.

How does it compare to other Mills in the same price range of $17,000 to $20,000.
What issues with this unit.
Can it be repair at reasonable cost
How easy or hard is it to deal with Hurco.

If you where going to purchase CNC Mill within the above price range and capabilities which one would you choose.

Thank you for your feed back on completed newbie question.

[RON MEYER]

i have one in my garage. a 1994 model. parts are available. the control is pc based and can if needed be upgraded. the control is conversational or g code capable. the head has a mechanical variable speed head run by the control. there is a head upgrade package to convert it to vfd. try the conversational side of the control. it is extremely user friendly and totally capable of all machining functions except for complicated 3d surfaces where only g code can be used. the 3d software option, if it is installed, is for what is called conversational 3d. this allows the operator to define a 2d shape and drive it along or rotate it about an axis. there are several other software options that are available. if you are able to see the machine under power, push the auxiallary key and then the software options softkey. this will show the software options installed in the control. the price quoted is somewhat high for this machine. if it has only the hours you say it has, that would justify the price. when this machine was new it would have been about 50k. chances are the control has 4-8 meg of ram and about 150 - 250 meg of hard drive. watch the screen when the control boots up. it's just like a pc. there will be a memory count. if you need more info, call me at 207-610-6074 or at sjmeyer@gwi.net.