I have a Milltronics Partner 6. It hasn't
been a bad machine, but I also have a Hurco hawk 40 which is a single tool bed
mill. the Hurco runs circles around the Milltronics for ease of use and
programming efficiency. If your going to us SmartCAM to generate code and
run a lot of the same parts, the Milltronics would do a good job for the money,
but if your more of a Job shop or want to program at the machine, or have lots
of different parts to cut, the Hurco is by far the superior
machine.
I have a pretty good Code generator for SmartCAM
and the Milltronics Centurion 5 control (which is functionally no different then
the Centurion 6).
Are you going to do any 4th Axis work? If yes, the
Hurco is the ONLY way to go. Milltronics says there control can run a 4th
Axis, but actually that's an over-statement. It's more of a glorified
indexer, not a 4th Axis machine.
I'm sure the Milltronics people said they
have excellent Conversational Program capabilities. Once again an
over-statement, I tried to program my machine with that crap but it is
junk (IMHO, In My Honest Opinion) I do have to thank Milltronics for their
controls inadequacies though, I probably would have never used SmartCAM,
had I not had to overpower their control with G code, for the 4th Axis
anyway.
As for using SmartCAM to generate code for a
Hurco... It is possible, though I haven't ever had to do it. The Hurco's
control has never forced me to do something on a CAM system.
In closing, and to answer your original
question. You could do worse than a Milltronics machine, and yes they are
very affordable.
Check out Hurco before you make any
decisions http://www.hurco.com/
HTH
Jon Wilshusen
SmartCAM guy to the end, Hurco guy until and after.
:
snip...
> > Hello All,
> >
> > I was wondering if anyone had any opinions and/or template files of a
> > Milltronics Vertical Machining center. I saw them at IMTS and they were
> > very affordable, but cost is not everything.
> >
> > Sean
> >
> > I was wondering if anyone had any opinions and/or template files of a
> > Milltronics Vertical Machining center. I saw them at IMTS and they were
> > very affordable, but cost is not everything.
> >
> > Sean
snip..
