Mills Steady Eddie or Turbo?

[LabRat2020]

Hey All,

We currently have a Weiland Select and a VHF S5 which are the same mills just different software. We started with the Weiland and needed more capacity so we bought the S5 years later.
The Weiland AKA Turbo is %100 faster milling crowns out in 10 mins where as the VHF AKA Steady Eddie is about 20 mins per crown.
The VHF is %100 more reliable never breaks down (knock on wood) but the software sucks in my opinion and is slow as snail ****.
The Weiland is so fast it kills it's self and breaks down frequently.
We only mill dry zirconia and PMMA.
The dilemma we're having is we have one that is fast and helps get more crowns in the ovens by the end of the day(approx. 80-100 units) per day while the other is slow and steady Eddy but slows us down in production.
Does anyone have experience with the PM7? and does it break down a lot like the Weiland does?

Also we will never ever ever touch a Roland even if it was free.

 

[CoolHandLuke]

have a look maybe at a versamill. best suggestion i can make if you are both budget and quality conscious https://www.axsysdental.com/305Dcompare.html

 

[Brett Hansen CDT]

We had a wieland mini when we first started milling in house. Then we bought a PM7 about five years ago. We only mill zirc, wax, and pmma. The PM7 is awesome. VERY reliable. Support is excellent. We follow the cleaning guidelines and have only had a couple of down times in the last five years. If the mill does go down, we are able to outsource our milling to Troy Michigan at no charge until the PM7 is back up and running. It's never been down longer than three or four days in the two instances that we had to outsource. We mill around 50-60 units a day. I highly recommend the PM7

 

[brayks]

have a look maybe at a versamill. best suggestion i can make if you are both budget and quality conscious https://www.axsysdental.com/305Dcompare.html

Or this one. Just look at the specs, and under $40K. Save your money. It could be the last mil you’ll ever need and you don’t have to sacrifice speed for reliability!
See them both at Labday Chicago. It will be worth the trip.
Versamill ax314DW

 

[LabRat2020]

We had a wieland mini when we first started milling in house. Then we bought a PM7 about five years ago. We only mill zirc, wax, and pmma. The PM7 is awesome. VERY reliable. Support is excellent. We follow the cleaning guidelines and have only had a couple of down times in the last five years. If the mill does go down, we are able to outsource our milling to Troy Michigan at no charge until the PM7 is back up and running. It's never been down longer than three or four days in the two instances that we had to outsource. We mill around 50-60 units a day. I highly recommend the PM7

Good to know! Our Weiland Select would go down from time to time under warranty and had that same support system which was nice until the warranty went out.
The R5 looks cool but the mill speed is the same as the S5(with a30k more price tag). You would think they'd speed it up but they didn't
How do maintain it now that it's out of warranty? Ship it to Ivoclar or do they send techs out still?

 

[Brett Hansen CDT]

Good to know! Our Weiland Select would go down from time to time under warranty and had that same support system which was nice until the warranty went out.
The R5 looks cool but the mill speed is the same as the S5(with a30k more price tag). You would think they'd speed it up but they didn't
How do maintain it now that it's out of warranty? Ship it to Ivoclar or do they send techs out still?

They send a tech out. The PM7 doesn't move once it's installed. Its a beast! Our warranty just ended, but we signed up for their yearly maintenance package. So once a year a tech comes out to service our mill. Hasn't happened yet so I am not sure what is all entailed.

 

[tuyere]

FWIW we've been very happy with our PM7 as well. Our mainboard died and we had a pump break down, but they were pretty quick about remedying it while under warranty, and they've shown themselves as pretty accommodating wrt guiding us with post-warranty user-serviced work, which some companies aren't always thrilled about.

 

[RileyS]

What’s the backpark cost on a PM7?

 

[LabRat2020]

They send a tech out. The PM7 doesn't move once it's installed. Its a beast! Our warranty just ended, but we signed up for their yearly maintenance package. So once a year a tech comes out to service our mill. Hasn't happened yet so I am not sure what is all entailed.

Thanks for all the info Brett!
I used to fix as much as I could but I've learned it's just better to pay the guy that really knows what he's doing.
We almost went with it when it first came out but were nervous well because sometimes the newest "best" has the newest best problems!

 

[LabRat2020]

FWIW we've been very happy with our PM7 as well. Our mainboard died and we had a pump break down, but they were pretty quick about remedying it while under warranty, and they've shown themselves as pretty accommodating wrt guiding us with post-warranty user-serviced work, which some companies aren't always thrilled about.

Good to know
Ivoclar is pretty good even if it's out of warranty

 

[Brett Hansen CDT]

What’s the backpark cost on a PM7?

i think $80K

 

[Car 54]

What’s the backpark cost on a PM7?

i think $80K

Let alone the new compressor you may need to buy to run it regarding its cfm demand.

 

[cadfan]

Or this one. Just look at the specs, and under $40K. Save your money. It could be the last mil you’ll ever need and you don’t have to sacrifice speed for reliability!
See them both at Labday Chicago. It will be worth the trip.
Versamill ax314DW

Sycotec Spindel ??

 

[LabRat2020]

Let alone the new compressor you may need to buy to run it regarding its cfm demand.

The compressor won't be an issue for us. We have 2 dedicated airstar 70's. One airstar 70 can run both the VHF and the Weiland if we have to but not recommended all the time. They are some pretty expensive but impressive compressors.

 

[brayks]

Sycotec Spindel ??

Yes