[BPJR502]

we are going to purchase a pair of vertical mills any opinions on which one out of these three that we looked at so far???

HAAS
MAKINO
YCM

thanks for any help!!

[txcncman]

The YCM machines I worked with (do not recall the model) seemed to be very robust machines with Fanuc control. I am very partial to Haas machines, especially when equipped with both tool setting and work setting probes. I also like the Haas control as being more user friendly than Fanuc control machines.

[tactical47]

We have four HASS VF-2 mills and they are good easy machines to run.

[BPJR502]

thanks alot for your input!

[underthetire]

A friend has a YCI, about 2 years old. 3rd spindle already.
His 10 year old mori-original spindle, so its not him.

IMO if your looking seriously at Makino, your in the high end market. Lots of other options up in that price range.

[BPJR502]

we are leaning towards the HAAS...i know makino is a better mill but you get alot for the money with a haas...thanks!

[BPJR502]

we are leaning towards the HAAS...i know makino is a better mill but you get alot for the money with a haas...thanks!

[underthetire]

Here is the conclusion i've come up with on a HAAS. They run fine, are reliable, however after you add up all the options, to compare as close as you can, the price gap gets quite a bit smaller.

[elliotc]

Haas: Lower purchase price (Significantly lower if you don't need a lot of options), easy to run/set-up/program, easy to repair, good support for parts and service. On the other hand, they are lightweight machines and rather generic when it comes to high end options. If you are going to be cutting super alloys such as inconel, hasteloy, or monel, this is NOT the machine you want to go with. For softer materials up to the 4340 Condition C classes of material, it will be semi decent for medium duty roughing and finishing. We run 5 Haas HS-1 horizontals from 96-98, and although they require attention, they are doing some pretty heavy roughing in 4130 every single day.

YCM: No firsthand experience with this machine. Have heard mixed reports from operators. (They often base their opinions on silly stuff).

Makino: Very high initial cost. Very high, but you get what you pay for. We ran two Makino/Leblonde horizontal machining centers for two decades 24/7 on cast iron and super alloy parts. They did great. Nice finishes, capable of running a good size cutter at an efficient federate without chatter. (Very rigid machine). The only reason that we are not running them today is because Makino stopped supporting that model. Replacement parts were very hard to come by, so we scrapped them when they got to the point where they would no longer run and replaced them with two Mazak FH-8800's. The Mazak does ok, but it’s not in the same class as the Makino/LeBlondes were.

There are a ton of companies making vertical machining centers these days, and all of them are good, but some are better suited to specific applications. What parts are you planning on running on the machines? (Material/Operations/Tolerances/Size)?

Elliott

[silverfoxx03]

we are going to purchase a pair of vertical mills any opinions on which one out of these three that we looked at so far???

HAAS
MAKINO
YCM

thanks for any help!!

Just sent you a message