I've got a BP manual mill, a smaller import manual mill and Sherline mill I converted to CNC running Mach3... the Sherline does surprising well for what it is prototyping in everything up to aluminum. The rub is I do mostly steel work and I really need a steel capable CNC solution so I can prototype and do several small parts in a shorter period of time. Recently the Sherline did cut the first sizable steel part I've ever dared to throw at it, but it took 26 hours with a 1/8" endmill to do it, lol.

I've got more tooling, setup, R8 toolholders, etc, etc than I'll probably ever use, and I've been machining on a hobby level for quite a long time, so this is just about the machine value, not the big picture value/investment. Oh, I also have a manual lathe and also mini CNC lathe (Sherline converted to CNC) so the CNC lathe feature will a nice bonus on the 3-in-1 but not my primary need because I don't have a large need for CNC lathe work. =)

The issue I have is I can't seem to find any videos of the new Patriot VFDs that have the newer features, ballscrews, etc cutting steel so it is hard to know how it performs and make an assessment on the value of the machine based on performance. No doubt it is a great price point at under $6k, but if a Tormach for instance is 2x or 3x the milling machine in terms of accuracy, feed rate, ability, longevity, etc than I would probably be better ponying up a little more since my initial plan was to do a retro on a old production CNC mill if I could find a good candidate, but reality is I may not ever find the candidate for the price I want or the time to do it, so I'm probably going to buy a machine in this class.

With all that said, can some owners give some examples of steel milling ability... like what size cutters they can at what feed rates, including depth of cut and stepover or full width without pushing the machine to the limit. And/or, possibly post a picture of any steel parts you've done on one and how long you estimated it took to complete it.

And, now that you've had the machine for a while are there any glaring issues or problems that have arisen, would you buy another one?

I'm on a budget for this upgrade so value is the most important thing... and not value meaning cheapest, just what is the best bang for the buck in this class of CNC.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!