general machine shop work , no real production , large variety of work , mostly steel and 4140 with some aluminum
haas vf2 or hurco vm2 ?
hurco has better price and more included options
saw the haas vf3 at the recent demo day , and with the reni shaw part probe and tool ofsetter it was pretty impressive
now keep in mind all off the cnc we have in the shop is a little dpm trak mill and a nardini lathe .
so basically we are starting with cnc from scratch
we are modelling most of our new parts in inventor , will probably buy gibbscam as well this quarter , but would still like to be able to program at the machine for small quick jobs.
any opinions from actual users , as opposed to this guy i know
Google back a couple of months. I think there was a similar thread on this subject.
I have a Hurco "99 vintage" with an Ultimax 2 control as wall as a Fadal. I have a friend that has an older VF1, and a brand new 50" VF2. Of the three controls, I like the Hurco the least. Not so much because of features, or user friendlyness, but bacause i'ts flakey. It's 100% PC based, and just like every PC based control "I've" ever used, it has a mind of it's own. Sometimes it can't find the network, it freezes up alot and has to be restarted, but the worst thing is the occaisional "navigation error". You can use your imagination on this one. Let's just say that some of the guys that use it, have their hand hoovering over the red button until it's finished. We have kept the software up to date, but they don't seem to be very interested in fixing the real problems. The newer controls may be better, I don't know.
The Fadal and Haas have more traditional hard wired, firmware based, propraitery controls, and are much more stable (rock solid in fact) in my experience.
Since your going to be modelling in Inventor, and programming in Gibbs, I can't really see how the conversational programming of the Hurco will really buy you much. I use Solidworks and Mastercam and can get even a simple finished part off the Fadal 5 times faster than a guy programming at the Hurco console.
Regards
Mark
PS: There's also that bit of a shakeup at Haas to consider. May mean nothing to the company, as a whole, beyond some bad press. Thing is, ya never know.
The Hurco will import a .dxf file and allow you to create toolpath at the control. This is a very, very fast way to generate a program.
I also think Hurco makes a better machine than Haas does.
If you want to talk to a shop who uses the dxf functionality and programs at the machine all the time, drop me an e-mail and I will give you the number and someone to talk with.
If Gene Haas had put a CAD/CAM system in the Haas control he would not be in the trouble he is in.
Yea, their iron is first rate. Ours also runs 3D G-code pretty good. It's just unpredictable. (maybe we got a lemon)
As for the DXF, it's pretty handy, but it is an extra step if your using a solid modeling system. You've got to create a drawing, then output the DXF. I don't know if this is still true, but ours won't read a DXF in from the network. You have to copy it to the machines hard drive, and read it in from there. You can "see" the file in the network folder, but when you try to read it in you get an error. I always thought this was very odd.
As for ol Gene, it's hard to believe someone smart enough to build up a business like that, would be stupid enough to pull that kind of bonehead con.
It seems that his motivation for not paying taxes like a good boy was to get back at the Judges that ruled ~$9M against him in the Hurco suit from year
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.