I have a Taig CNC mill that I really like. I haven't yet run into limitations, but I can "feel" that there will be another new CNC mill in my near future. Anyway, I see a lot of discussion about the Industrial Hobbies mill and the Tormach. Those are about in my price range for an upgrade/step up from my Taig. Some of the things that I wonder about however, are these: The IH mill has a 6-speed gear head. How does this run as far as heating? I have a Harbor Fright mini-mill that I mess around with and it has a 2-speed gear head that gets pretty hot in high gear. My Taig can run all day, non-stop - really! That's what I'd need in my next mill. Secondly, with the Tormach - they say this on their website:

"Designed specifically for short run and prototyping applications, the PCNC 1100 addresses the needs of research, development, education, small business, and home shop machinists."

Okay, does "short run" mean that if I ran it all day, that would be too much?

I should elaborate a bit - I am making (primarily, right now), small molds out of brass and bronze - only a couple of inches (3-4 max) each. But I need to make one, take it out of the vise, clamp up a new piece of brass, start again - many hours at a time. I use small end mills - like 1/16" - 3/32" so I run at a nice, high rpm and only about 10ipm feed (average).

How will each of these machines handle all-day operation?

Thanks,
Mark