Maybe you are currently working for an oral surgery business as a single lab tech making surgical guides and you are wanting to expand into making custom abutments and temporary implant crowns. The workflow is minimal so you were looking for a suggestion on a milling machine that would suit your needs as you wouldn't want to spend too much on a machine with features that would accommodate a larger lab.
Here are the advices:
Depending on your production level (how many you want to make per month) i'd recommend either Versamill 5x400 or 5x450.you have obviously other options in other brands, but these two mills are competitively priced versus imes and AG.if you go back years on DLN searching anything related to milling you will not see any users of any model of VersaMill asking for help or complaining about problems with the mill, Cam software, or saying they had poor support. Can't say the same from other milling machines even though there are other good mills. Saying your planning to expand to milling abutments would make me lean even more so towards Versamill.
Btw, there are also many doctors across the country that bought the Versamill, for good reason.
DOF also makes a decent budget mill that can do everything you need. Imes 350i is another great all arounder with several support options.If oral surgeons are buying it, why are you concerned about spending too much? One $$ patient could pay for most of a decent mill. Im saying that because you only get one purchase and if you dont get something that will suit your future needs also, your mill could be outdated in a couple years, not to mention older models get replaced every 4-5 years and for sure in less than 10 years you wont find any support for it. Reps will lead you astray, they are just salesmen, selling one product, so youre on the right track here. Get a cup of coffee and read here and you will see the problems people have had with any mill out there.
Any small mill from Imes-icore will be amazing . we had opportunity to work with their 250i and it is a beast . Very stable good German engineering. But if you have money get a 350i . 250i did just about anything was thrown at it and did it well. As long as you calibrate on a tight schedule and clean it properly it is a good machine for a long time . New generation of mills from them is very pleasing on the eye as well.
