Had to pick between a used Haas and a brand new Tormach last month

I was saving for a second machine and found a 2008 Haas VF-2 for $18k or a new Tormach 1100 for $12k. Went with the Haas because it had more travel and tooling included, but the spindle drive died after 3 weeks and cost me $2k to fix. Anyone else roll the dice on used gear and regret it?

2 comments

2 Comments

simoncarr6d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, same thing almost happened to me. I bought a 2011 Mazak that looked great in the photos and the guy swore it ran perfect. Got it delivered, fired it up, and the coolant pump was dead on day one. Then a week later the Z axis started making this grinding noise that turned out to be a worn out thrust bearing. Ended up spending almost $3k in just the first month on repairs. It's such a gamble because you can't really test every little thing before you buy, and sellers always leave out the problems. I feel your pain on that Haas, at least you got a good machine platform out of it once you fixed the spindle drive.

thea_knight6d ago

@simoncarr the real gamble is trusting a seller's "test run" video when they could have easily swapped parts to make it look good temporarily.