First off, I am not trying to start a IH vs. Tormach flamewar - simply trying to obtain the sage opinion of this group. There was recently another similar thread and that person purchased an IH mill I believe. Both the IH and Tormach CNC machines appear to be really nice machines (best as I can tell from the webpages). The main guys at both locations seem to be great and know more than I ever will about machining. I am a hobbiest though have built some small automation assemblies for pay. I would like to get a mchine that I can grow as I learn more and is not the limiting factor. It would be nice to be able to produce a few parts for pay once in a while but mainly remember hobbyist descriptor. I already have the IH mill and have been using it manually and it has probably about 50 hours of chip making hours on it. I like being able to raise the head but honestly I prefer the HF round column mill for the most part when it comes to table/quill motion (hate the round column though). I have used Bridgeports and Enco Bridgeports clones at the local college and they're great by not practical (expense, size, expense) I have been writting modeling software for many years and the thought of having a machine that can produce what I can draw or that I can write software to control is really exciting. I have considered doing a custom CNC on a mini-mill but they are so small... So, I am considering a IH CNC or a Tormach. Has anyone seen or preferably used both machines and can provide an unbiased opinion which might be better for my situation? Perhaps these machines do not have the same target audience. In which case how do you think their audience differs? Tormach is pretty close so I might go visit them. Unfortunatley there does not appear to be another IH close by. I don't mind tinkering a bit to get a machine working well I am just tring to understand the comparative limitations and abilities of these machines.

Thanks