[rees2001]

I find myself in a similar position to the OP. I have been given the OK to put in for a new machine. We currently have the Prolight 1000 which is great for my CIM class but not a whole lot more than that. We also have an old Bridgeport with a ProtoTRACK Plus 2 axis mill which was donated to the school and has suited us well for the past 6 years. Unfortunately this past year the Y-reader and scale went bad and I have had a hard time finding someplace to repair it. (I will get it done before build season starts.) This has alerted the school that it is time to upgrade our shop. We do have limited funds to spend so the question I have is would I rather get the Tormach (or other similar machine) with all the bells & whistles or a stripped down HAAS, or something else, maybe a new 3 axis Bridgeport? We are a PLTW school so we have Inventor with EdgeCAM so software isn't the question. I have until the end of the month to put in a requisition. Any more insight would be appreciated.