My company is looking at a Feeler VMC with a Fanuc controller. Anyone have any experience with these machines? It is going to be a brand new machine not someone else’s junk like what we got with our last one. Will be used mostly for tool and die work for metal stamping with some light production stuff.
I worked on machines like these.Most likely it is a knock-off of another brand,and nothing fancy.3-axis with Fanuc OM control.Femco and Johnford are similar VMCs,only problems were the ball screws did not hold up for long with semi-abuse.
But for the money and warranty,you can’t go wrong.
What the heck is that? 
I’ve worked on CNC machines for the past 30 years.
Can’t say I’ve ever heard of a Feeler though.
Big G – I program, setup and run a 5-axis Haas. It’s a little different than the one in the link you posted but basically does the same thing.
Pretty cool video of the Haas though. Thanks for posting that. I always get a kick out of a machine tool tear the snot out of a block of metal.
When I was in manufacturing, I could watch them things for hours… 
Them and the Mazak Laser 
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My company is looking at a Feeler VMC with a Fanuc controller. Anyone have any experience with these machines? It is going to be a brand new machine not someone else’s junk like what we got with our last one. Will be used mostly for tool and die work for metal stamping with some light production stuff.
If you have any sway in what brand you go with, look at Haas.
Great machine for the money. Good service from the local dealer too.(Productivivty inc)
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My company is looking at a Feeler VMC with a Fanuc controller. Anyone have any experience with these machines? It is going to be a brand new machine not someone else’s junk like what we got with our last one. Will be used mostly for tool and die work for metal stamping with some light production stuff.
If you have any sway in what brand you go with, look at Haas.
Great machine for the money. Good service from the local dealer too.(Productivivty inc)
X2 on that!
I have been a machinist for over 40 years and have never heard of that brand of machine tool. Like the others have said go with a well known brand like Haas.
This is a pretty cool video of a V-8 being machined.
I’m so jealous of you guys. I would love to have your skills. I can just imagine sitting watching a hunk of metal becoming something useful.
Feeler is part of the Kitimura group. I don’t really have a say in what we get cuz I am not the guy writing the check. All these machines now are very good. It’ll be head and shoulders better than the ’93 Mori Seiki we are replacing.
awesome video!
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watch here
wow, it machines that aluminum block like butter! oh wait, all machines can machine aluminum like butter. i run more sfm & ipm in stainless than they are running in that aluminum. I run 1187sfm, 100 ipm, .2 axial cut, .6 doc, dry, with a stubby half inch variable flute endmill in stainless all day. this video here is impressive…. http://youtu.be/E3AqIZURMbI
as for haas, i agree it would be a good fit for your needs. we chose hurco over the haas when we purchased a new mill 3 years ago, mainly because of the price. hurco is no slouch either, but neither the hurco or haas will compare to some of the high production mills like matsuura 
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I’m so jealous of you guys. I would love to have your skills. I can just imagine sitting watching a hunk of metal becoming something useful.
machining can be awesome, especially when you have the freedom to work outside the box. take for example some nylon washers we had to make for our prototype chains. we had to drill, bore, face, part off, bar pull, and catch the parts, all in the meantime of trying to keep the parts and stringy chips separated. So we built a tool to do everything, so we saved alot of time by not having to rotate the turret for other tooling, as well as time for sorting. our tool
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as for haas, i agree it would be a good fit for your needs. we chose hurco over the haas when we purchased a new mill 3 years ago, mainly because of the price. hurco is no slouch either, but neither the hurco or haas will compare to some of the high production mills like matsuura
We have several Hurco’s here at 3M. Nice machine outstanding control, easy to MDI program, but horrible service from the company that sells them. 
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