I had two main worries before taking the plunge.

1. Jon's review here. Having gotten to know the machine I would say that the Z-axis is it's biggest weakness, sure. It's a little bit sloppy during drilling and plunging operations and I'm wondering if perhaps the fine feed accessory can remedy this. That said, it takes half a second to lock it up and after that the rigidity is surprisingly decent in the X and Y axis. I had expected it to be a lot worse.

2. A russian on youtube was my only source of seeing some actual machining being done. In his videos there is a tremendous amount of chatter. I can't identify the source of this from my brief viewings but what I can say is that I have not been able to replicate it at home and I just finished making a QCTP for my lathe as a first project. Once you get a feel for what the machine can and can't do it works beautifully. Vibration free and at a very low noise level.

General findings:

- Climb milling is very much possibly despite the lightness of the machine. Lock the axis not in play and go easy and you will be rewarded with a super smooth cut that leaves a mirror finish. I did not expect this at all.

- The table is excellent after you've adjusted the gibs to taste (and I suggest anyone should aquire a taste for this). The hand wheels are beautifully smooth to operate. It's not fun to count the dials so I'm certainly going to try to come up with a clever way to install a cheap caliper DRO solution. There's not much space, but it should be possible.

- Make sure you order the vice, clamps and parallells. They're not cheap but I have no idea what I would do without them.

- Fly cutting is no problem on the machine and leaves a very smooth finish once you get a feel for cut depth and feed.

Overall I'd give it 4-4.5 but my 5 stars is to off set Jon's review.

anyone interested in precision work is advised to look elsewhere. german engineering has run amok with this mill. if you are cutting balsa wood or cardboard this would be ideal. cutting anything else is a challenge. the collet system is a joke. 10 mm will not hold 3/8 endmill. you need to tighten spindle and z axis to bring even close to square. save your money and buy an asian machine for half as much and get a standard collet system with it. the proxon is a wet dream and a misrepresentation of what it can do.Proxxon 34108 Micro Mill FF 230

I use it mainly for milling aluminum parts for 1:12 to 1:8 RC models. For this size of parts it works perfectly, I used both the 3 and 4 mm milling cutters and could take away 2 mm out of the full material with no problems. Probably even more material can be milled at once.
Despite the misleading description everything on the machine is metric (millimeters) which I consider a big plus.

It also works as an excellent drill stand. It runs very smooth and at really low noise.

The only reason why I didn't rate it with 5 stars: the compound table was delivered with excessive clearance on all parts. It is not difficult to adjust, but for example their micro compound table was delivered perfectly adjusted.

To make use of the machine you need at least order a step clamp set, milling cutters and also the machine vise is highly recommended. The machine vise (Proxxon 24255) is delivered with cap screws which are too long to fit on the compound table. I had to buy socket cap screws M6 x 16 mm.