I manage a fablab used by grad students. We have both manual and CNC machines. Haas, too, but the cheaper stuff (TM and an older OM, VF stuf is $$$ for research

I manage a fablab used by grad students. We have both manual and CNC machines. Haas, too, but the cheaper stuff (TM and an older OM, VF stuf is $$$ for research budgets). The eternal compromise is this: it's way easier to dismember or kill yourself on a manual machine (https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/nyregion/yale-student-dies-in-machine-shop-accident.html https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/nyregion/yale-student-die...). However, it's even easier to seriously fuck up an expensive CNC mill with a programming mistake. Serisouly, these machine can and will destroy themselves if you tell them to, no questions asked or warnings. One single bug in your g-code and and there goes a 15K$ set of spindle bearings or worst. Of course, a few tens of thousands down the drain is still better than dismemberment. But that also means that sometimes our machines are down for months or years until we can get a new grant to fix them.