Re: Another Mill - Haas, Another Tormach, or a Novakon?
Everyone has different needs. If you are building and selling product as fast as the machine can run them a faster machine is surely worth it. Without starting a massive argument I'll say that you don't know the difference until you experience it running on both. If you do simple 2D brackets with low cosmetic standards it's less important. If you run parts that often have machining on 3 or more sides you should be using a 4th axis.
For example, my main product I've been working on is 4 parts, that require 14 setups in traditional vises. On a machine with a 4th axis and a double station vise I can get all of that into a single setup and have 4 complete parts finished at the end of each cycle. Splitting those parts out to a few machines with traditional vise setups would never be faster than running on the single machine with the optimized setup. But it requires a true commercial grade 4th axis, and enough table space to hold the 4th and a double vise, and a machine with a 20 tool magazine.
PM-45 CNC conversion built/run/sold.