I just made a program that has 43 minutes run time. That's the longest I have ever done for a single part. I did a Zeiss program that was 9 hours but it was for 20 parts at the same time. What is some of your run times?
Funny thing, the new Global (3.5 years old now) was basically the same cost (new) as the Validator was (new) all those years ago.
Original OEM 'specs' on the Validator: +/-0.0007". Yeah, that was how it was listed. It is much better now. Between the 3rd party cert guy and myself, we have it down to a TOTAL error of 0.0006" (was just calibrated/certifed) a few weeks ago. Between him and Rondog (other site) I have all the 'info' for the table map of the machine (ASCII file on the hard drive). When I have slack time, I use my home-made step bar & ball bar and tweak the table map a touch here, there, and save the file as a 'backup' for when the cal-tech is here. I load it up for him to use, once it is certed to that file, I use that version from until the next year. Yeah, max X error (total) is 0.0004", Y is 0.0006" and Z is 0.0002" (linear on a step gauge). Max square difference ANYWHERE on the machine (I use 29 positions) is 0.0007", XY, XZ, YX, 45 degree, etc.
Oh, and the new Global is a foot+ wider (X), taller, and several feet longer (Y) than the Validator
