Hi uli12us,

I'm not sure I follow your description of the Hermle machine. It looks to me like it uses a SINGLE gantry beam with the spindle hanging off the front, like most of the DIY machines on this forum.

As I see it the spindle moves left/right across the gantry, and up/down, as per normal. It is not a fixed gantry with moving workpiece (ignoring the 4th&5th axis for now). The whole gantry can also move fore/aft. This is same as the dmg except that the dmg has a TWIN beam gantry with the spindle in the middle so is potentially stiffer than the Hermle.

The Hermle may look like the spindle is 'fixed' because of the pieces either side but I think these are protection bellows to keep the swarf out and can move as the spindle moves. Let me know if you are seeing something I am not !

All this aside, I think it is generally agreed that for small machines a fixed gantry (with spindle only moving up and down) and a moving X/Y bed is better, which might have been the point you were trying to make as a general comment.

Thanks