I've got a Monster Mill and find it suits my needs very well. I had wanted a Sherline 5400 for quite a while but wanted a bit more working room and the A2Z MM fit the bill nicely. As above, I often describe it as a Sherline on steroids and one of the things that I really like about it is that there is the full Sherline catalog to back it up. Support from A2Z has been exemplary as well. I am using Sherline's 10k spindle on it as I do cut some hardwood from time to time.

I am using it much as you might a Sherline, but really appreciate being able to get the sharp bits out of the way when I need to get my hands near the work space. I've made a couple of Elemer Verberg's basic engines with it as well as numerous parts for my RC airplanes and helicopters. Most recently I was using it as a CNC lathe to turn and drill some rims and hubs of spoked wheels for vintage aircraft models. The Sherline CNC RT was priceless for locating the holes.

I draw with Ashlar-Vellum's Graphite, use D2NC for the G-code I don't write by hand and Mach 3 to run the machine. Other hardware includes a Gecko 540 driving Keling 282 oz-in NEMA 23 steppers with a power supply also from Keling.

Thayer