Affordable toolroom mill, european market.

So, i live in sweden, and been looking for a while for good choice vertical mill to aquire.
Of course ive been looking at the tormach, due to its price point is excellent. The problem is shipping 2 ton of machinery over the pond.

Then we have the european market that seems very limited, of course we have some small desktop machines and some chinese clones.
And we have Optimum, that makes probably the most horrible lathes and mill out there. Chinese junk packaged in the glory of "german craftsmanship", well when it comes down to it, its still chinese junk that horrible. (have a lathe and a mill from them).

So. any other european people here, having .. well the same issue, or had the same issue and solved it..

Where would one get an affordable, preferable new toolroom mill / machine like the Tormach within Europe?

The machines i found and looked at in Europe is

f110 or f80, tc, cnc
Optimum Machines: OPTImill F80 (about 33.000 euros)

The haas tm-1
http://int.haascnc.com/we_spec1.asp?...=30_40INCH_VMC (starts about 22.000 euros, in the end is more like 29.000 euros with config)

Note, its about 15.000 euros with shipping, tolls and taxes to have a Tormach fully equipped imported.. But getting it from A to B - is not the easiest task.

Dead easy. Why not a secondhand VMC ?

You seem to have both space and budget enough. And accuracy of a wellkept secondhand machine is no lower than the new alternatives you´r looking at

Or maybe a used Deckel, Hermle or Micron. We are located in the USA and use a Hermle with a plain table and also have one with the universal rotary table.

Dick Z

The Swede, actually space is one of the reasons i look at a tormach, in comparison to a VMC a Toolroom mill is alot smaller. - and a good VMC is the same prices as the crappy optimum machines cost new.. the fact is that i prefer the price of the Tormach thats half off from the Optimum machines.. Or do you know something i dont? I keep track on most of the advertising sites and machine resellers..

Zastrow, i need to look into the german brands a bit more.. they arent that common on the swedish market actually. You can find old manual machines from Deckel, but well Hermle or Micron isnt that common here what i do know of.

OK. I thought you had plenty of space, since you are looking at the Haas machine. Why look at these machines if you don´t have the space ? Or the Money ?

Exactly how much space and height do you have ?. Much easier to give advise knowing this

If I had 15000 Euro to spend I wouldn´t heasitate buying a nice secondhand machine ahead of the new lower quality alternatives you have listed

If you have the height for a VMC I often see secondhand Bridgeport VMC:s advertised in Sweden from mid / end 90:is for less than 15000 Euro. Wellbuilt machines that seldom give problems to the owner. That´s just an example

If you have less height a toolroom milling machine that Richard suggests may be a very good choice. They often come from toolmakers that have taken good care of the machines. They may however be a bit difficult to find in Sweden with toolchanger for 15000 Euro. In this case I would recommend with Heidenhain Control (not easy to find support any longer on Maho Philips controls or Deckel dialog controls)

The Swede, well money is subjective isn't, its a damn big difference between 15000 euro and 25-30.000 euro.. So sure money can be an issue.

I have height issues, about 2.40m in roof, then an empty garage to put it in. Was in Örebro and looked at a Bridgebport VMC, but it was more around 3m, than 2.5m in height. But i guess i could make a hole in the floor in worst case.. Otherwise a Storebro Combimill, cnc version and do a control system swap.. toolchanger isnt a must.. i can sit on my chair and watch it run... Im not a professional user.. just someobody that enjoys making oddjob autoparts for drag cars.

Well, with 2,40 m in roofheight you will have serious problem finding a decent VMC to put in

Since you are doing one-offs, small lots and don´t absolutely need a toolchanger I would definitely vote for a toolroom milling machine. Mikron, Hermle. Deckel and Maho are all good machines. Go for Heidenhain control. TNC155 or newer if you want 3D-machining which I assume you want for special autoparts. It shouldn't be difficult to find below 15000 Euro

Look at Tovek auctionsite just now. There is a Deckel Maho with CNC425 (I believe TNC425 but with Maho designed operator panel). With TNC425 you have GOOD 3D-capacity. Start price around 2500 Euro and it will not reach 15000 Euro. Not a very high machine, but check by yourself

that i must check out.. *googling, didnt know about Tovek even*

Try looking at the Norwiegen market, they often sell machines after a short while at an low price

If you would be interestet in a Nice Maho 400C with a Heidenhain/Maho CNC 332 then i know a guy in Denmark who might want to sell his.

Well sure it might, depending on model year, condition of course.. That a really small 4 axis mill if i remember correctly from my googling adventures. =)

Rong Fu are a better machine for a similar price to a Tormach being industrial grade. I bought one recently and am very happy with it

post a link maybe?

Hello. This Machine might Be worth looking at

DahLih DL-MCV 720 selges ? Plustech AS har n