The company I work for has a small machine shop with 7 manual mills, a manual lathe, and a surface grinder. The shop supports the assembly of our own automation machines and does not do production work. Typical quantities are 1 to 4 parts and there are few repeat jobs. Our parts are typically fairly small (1/2" to 6" dimensions) and not at all complex, about 75% aluminum and plastic, 25% 1018cr, 4140, A2, or O1. We are at the point now where we want to introduce a small VMC into the mix in order to keep more work in-house, as well as open our capacity a little as far as basic 2d profiling, and for occasional runs of slightly higher batch quantities. I/we will be programming with HSMExpress (or Works, if we start feeling limited) and/or manually - as I said the parts are not complex, so I suspect HSMExpress will suffice.
The used market in Ontario doesn't seem to be yielding much right now, so we are looking at new "low end" machines. I have looked at Haas VF-2's, a small Hurco, Okuma (not new, but barely used), and now a First V-700. The First is a basic, no bells 3-axis VMC with a Fanuc Oi-MF control. It seems to suit our needs just fine, and fits our humble budget nicely.
Is anyone familiar with these machines? Does anyone have or has run one? What are your thoughts? This is obviously a "budget" machine, but for what we do I just can't see what the extra $25,000+ gets us for a Haas or other similar-size name-brand machine with the same (or fewer) options. The warranties are the same. Service is a risk of course, but after today's visit to Heinman I feel fairly comfortable with that aspect. I gather the control is at the low end of Fanuc's line-up, but I don't really know how, or if, that would be an issue for us.
The boss is itching to pull the trigger on something asap, probably the First, so I would appreciate any and all thoughts you have whether you are already familiar with this particular machine or just have opinions on budget vs name-brand machinery in general.
First V700 VMC - opinions?
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