Quote Originally Posted by Neale View Post
Have you looked at any of the Chinese machines? Not the cheap end of the range, but some of the bigger machines? A friend bought an Acctek 6090 which he is using daily in his business and which seems to do a reasonable job. It has quite a few rough edges (literally, in some cases) and needed a bit of tweaking to get it running when it first arrived but it's steel and cast iron with profile rails and ballscrews. All up including shipping (he arranged his own), a 3HP water-cooled spindle (about right for this size machine), and USB motion controller, it was around £3K. The difference buys a lot of cutters and material!

I'm not pushing this specific machine or maker but something like this might be an option worth considering.
Cheers Neale, yes to be honest the Acctek name has popped up on my radar as one of the better Chinese machines. You've definitely got me thinking about it, like you say its a massive saving.
Ive just spent the last half an hour looking at the Acctek 6090 and a few posts on another forum saying they are a good company to deal with also.
If you don't mind me asking, do you know Where your friend placed the order? and do you know who he made the shipping arrangements with?.

I'm seriously toying with the idea, im going to research it a bit more.

Thanks Sean