Gentlemen,

I posted this over in the Dyna section as well, and figured I would post it here as well.

I am going to look at two benchtop mills this week. I don't have a good feel for the condition of either as they are being sold by a machine moving company. The one is a DM2400 and the other is a Emco Concept Mill 55. I really don't know the history of either, but at least one, I believe the Emco came out of a high school.

From what I have read, while the travel is slightly smaller on the DM2400, it seems to be viewed as being very well built, albeit under powered. I haven't found many opinions on the Emco.

They both have aging electronics, but the DM2400 much more so. I know both are often retrofitted with newer control boards.

I like that the DM2400 is built more for coolant but it is so limited on drill size and endmill size.

What are your thoughts? I am not a great programmer, but I have a fair amount of experience with the siemens 840d for machine control rather than machining so I can handle programming and learning the quirks of either.

I will say if the Concept 55 has an ATC, that would probably decide it for me if I can get both up and running correctly. They encouraged me to come, see, and tinker with them, so I want to try to get all axes jogging and the spindles turning if possible. I know the Emco has a computer with it that hopefully works.

Is the Concept 55 sturdy for its size? Is it fairly robust? What are the typical failure modes for this machine?

Thanks,
Dustin