You need to look at the other end of the spectrum. We have more than one machine that is getting close to the million dollar range. A bridge mill with 20 ft. of travel does not come cheap. Neither is the parts that go on it. This machine is not used as a production machine....The most parts it has done in a run is 36. Due to the capacity of it....there is virtually no competition locally. Another example is our horizontal boring mill 140" x 90" of travel (I remember the days when I thought a 20" X 40" machine was pretty good sized....) also a high $$$ machine that has tons of capacity. You simply can't machine parts that weigh 12,000 lbs on a $50,000 machine. We also have a 17 pallet MAM72-63V. Originally it was purchased for production....and it was used for that for the first 2 years of service. Various contracts ran out....That was when we discovered the true flexibility of the system. Right now we are in a mighty production run of 12 parts....6 lefts & 6 rights. Approx 5 hour run time each. Get the first ones proved out....then run all night. While its running...program & set up our next run of 8 parts. We do shut it down on the weekends tho....
Mainly for tax incentives, we got a H plus 630 this spring...150 tools fully optioned. Guess what....production runs of maybe 12 parts.....typically 2 or 3 tho. Mainly due to its capacity...that machine is more than paying for itself also.
The 5 axis waterjet is also a spendy machine.....yet it more than pays for itself also doing small runs. Plenty of work for that machine too.
We also have a bunch of smaller 40 taper machines....Matsuura's of various vintages....from a 760 to a V-plus 800. An odd Mori or 2 completes the lineup of the smaller stuff. An occasional production run is the exception rather than the rule. All of these machines paid for themselves long ago. Could the work that goes on these machines be done on a Haas? Of course....but I doubt the Haas would last long with the demands we put on them.
All of these machines (minus the waterjet & the H plus) have paid themselves off long ago. No payments on any of these....of course you have the maintenance overhead...however with a tight PM schedule this is minimal. Capacity (as in size or turnaround or experience, ect) & the right customers is what makes the $$$. Granted there have been times when one machine was not paying for itself...however with the variety of machines and experience we have the cost is more than offset.
Most places that I have seen go under did so because they were leveraged to the max....buying 10 machines at once while depending on
1 or 2 customers. The other places I see struggling are guys with 3 machines...(low end like Haas or Fatal or Hurco) that are not reliable. 1 of their machines goes down for a couple of days....all of the sudden customers are pissed because they can't deliver. No $$$ coming into the shop....no $$$ to fix their machine. I have heard of more than one shop that when a machine goes down....they let it stay down.