Best Vertical Mill?

[bvandenb]

Curious as to what you all think is the best and or better mills on the market right now.

I have run a Haas VF-2 with a fanuc controller and a cincinatti milacron sabre 1000 and arrow 500 with the acramatic a2100 controller which I prefer.

If there are any good mills that use the acramatic a2100 or newer controller that would be prefered. Let me know what you think are good mills nowadays.

[ty1295]

I personally think the Hass is toward the lower end myself. Each has their own opinion though.

We have a cincinatti milacron here, seems to work well.

Matsura and OKK is another couple brands I have heard good things about.
Okuma mills might be good also, never used their mills but have several of their lathes.

[mavs84]

Depending on your budget. If you want to be close to the Haas or Fadal price range. The Leadwell CNC VMC will out perform the Haas and Fadal for the same amount of money. The best VMC machine out there is the Kitamura Machines. But you pay for it. It will out perform any machine no matter what material you are cutting. Box-ways machine with 1900 IPM rapids, two-speed gear head spindle.

Here's my email address mavs84@aol.com. If you want more info. I have work for Hitachi Seiki, Mori Seiki, and other manufactures. I will be glad to help out.

[michaelpaul74]

Originally Posted by bvandenb Curious as to what you all think is the best and or better mills on the market right now. I have run a Haas VF-2 with a fanuc controller and a cincinatti milacron sabre 1000 and arrow 500 with the acramatic a2100 controller which I prefer. If there are any good mills that use the acramatic a2100 or newer controller that would be prefered. Let me know what you think are good mills nowadays.

I would have to say that Okuma's are probably my favorite mill as far as reliability and horsepower are concerned. Haas are acurate machines, but they definitly lack horsepower.

[CAMME]

yes on okuma mills. have 8 of them no service calls in the last 7 years. fadals no!! have 5 the service people should be on the payroll here. matsura and kitamura are also very good . you will never stop paying for a fadal.

[carbidecraters]

If you can leave your Okuma on all the time its decent....LOL I personally vote kitamura for the better with fadal behind it and Okuma then Haas. Just because you have a bad apple doesnt mean all Fadal's are junk

[CAMME]

All of my Okuma's run 24/7. That is why I am here today. I am loading 8 machines (Okuma's) and going home. They will run unattended until Monday at 5:00 AM. Let see, "bad apple" HOW ABOUT FIVE BAD APPLES OUT OF FIVE ????? Fadal tech was here Friday. He had to replace the encoder coupling. It broke and sent the table in X at rapid to the end of the ball screw!!!!! One more bite out of those bad apples.
I have been in this business many years (1966) There is nothing like a Fadal !!!!!

[carbidecraters]

I am curious to hear what year and model fadal's you've had issues with

[trubleshtr]

Our matsuras and Okuma's run great. Replaced 2 spindles in Okuma mills after heavy crahes though $$$$$
I recently re-placed ball screws and re-aligned turrets on a few Okuma lathes that had been crashed also by poor operator programming. $$$$$$
I will say that if you do crash a okuma lathe it tends to hold it's own, but man, are the parts ever expensive if you damage something.

[Dan B]

We have 4 Fadals, and they do require quite a bit of TLC. We are very careful not to beat them up (light cuts at faster feedrate) but we still see our service guy at least once a month. Our Hermle (HS 5-axis machine) runs like a champ day in and day out. We have 2 Haas machines, and they are definitely more trouble-free than the Fadals.

Dan

[CAMME]

Dan,
Your Hermle is a great machine. I am thinking about getting one. Tell me about the things you like about it.
thanks,
camme

[Dan B]

Hi Camme,

Accuracy. That's our C800U's greatest feature. We build gauges and fixtures for the automobile industry, so accuracy is very important to us (we usually work to 10x greater accuracy than the parts being checked). We have found that we can cluster any amount of holes in a single detail, and hit them all within .02mm.

It is a very solid machine. We ran test cuts on both the Hermle C800U and the DMG evolution 70. The Hermle seemed to be a much more solid machine, whereas the DMG seemed to not be built with longevity in mind. Of course that was my perception, others may disagree.

The trunion on our machine can rotate 110° in both directions. While I limit the rotation to only 20° in the + direction (so that the trunion doesn't block the view of the cutting) having that 110° in the - direction means that we can avoid extra set-ups when cutting most undercuts. By the way, limiting the + travel only means that the post rotates the rotary table 180° so there is no loss in capability.

The only negative thing I can say about it is that it has little "crush cans" in the spindle to prevent damage if you crash it (in the Z). It doesn't take much to crush them, and that requires a service tech to come and replace them. Our machine was the first one that our distributor sold, so we were used for training. We are not too happy with the service we get, but that is not Hermle's fault. When dealing directly with the head office, we have been more than pleased with the response. Our next machine will be purchased directly from them.

Hope this helps,

Dan