Originally Posted by
maker of things
I am curious to see a comparison between the mills, tech specs aside, how is it to use? I guess that's a little tricky since it looks like they have at least 4 controller options (which one is best). But for me that is a big deal. On many parts I spend more time programming than machining so the "user experience" is a big deal. /QUOTE]
This is why I bought a Tormach. I hesitated on it because of all the, just get a haas, just get a used this, just get a second hand that, stuff that's out there. Ultimately it came down to my local college having a public maker space that included a pcnc440. I came from a heavy engineering and cad background but with zero cnc, zero cam, and very very little machining. It took me all of 2-3 hours to get the machine powered up, load the sample program, and make (wood) chips using nothing but the owners manual. The guy running the maker space barely looked over his shoulder at me except when I asked him to come over and check my work because I was about to hit the scary cycle start button. That immediate success and incredibly intuitive interface sold me on the machine. Two years later I'm thinking I should really learn how to operate the Haas's and Doosans I have access to through my employer so I can utilize them when needed for larger projects but I'm still very happy I went with the Tormach. If I had to do it again, I would still buy tormach, even with the higher prices putting them closer to everything else, just for that relatively easy learning curve. The other major benefit to me as a complete n00b was the fact that the machines aren't really capable of hurting themselves.