Advise on a possible purchase required.

[alboy]

Hi Jim

I can't really help you much with the use of a Chinese machine yet but I have ordered one that will be with me in a couple of weeks. The machine will be used in a production environment however. There are good machines to be had from China but sorting out the wheat from the chaff is quite difficult.

The main problem I could see was the availability of spares and support. The spares issue was addressed by ordering some spare parts with the machine, an extra spindle and a couple of drivers. Support may be an issue but I tested this to some degree by talking to the supplier to judge whether language would be a problem. There was no problem there and any email queries I sent were answered quickly.

My choice regarding the Chinese machine was of course finance led, a machine sourced from the UK to a similar (in some cases lesser) spec would have cost me £24k plus. The machine form China cat me under half of that including import duties and taxes.

A quick spec of the machine I ordered is.

1325 model, will take a full 8x4 sheet with room to spare.
Leadshine drivers and hybrid servo motors.
Hiwin rails.
Helical rack and pinion on x and y axis with anti-backlash gearboxes
4kw water cooled spindle.
T slot bed
Anti-backlash gearboxes
Heavy gauge Steel construction throughout (weighs 1600kg)
Lubrication system
4 chamber dust extractor included.

The control options for the machines from China tend to be either NC Studio, DSP or Syntec although Mach controllers are starting to become more common.

During the build of the machine I was kept updated with pictures and videos of the progress, which was reassuring.

Don't know if this helps you at all.

Cheers

Alan

[jimleach]

Thanks for for that Alan im will be very interested to here how you get on with it, are you planning to set it up and commission it yourself? do you mind me asking which company you opted for?

Kind Regards

Jim

[alboy]

HI JIm

Yes I will commission it myself, should be very little to do as the machine was prepared and tested in the factory, will need to connect up things like the water cooler for the spindle and the leads between the controller box and machine and just check nothing has come loose in transport. Still trying to find someone with a forklift to help move it :-)

I will let you know how it performs as soon as I can.

Cheers

Alan

[stepmores]

hi jim and Alan
i am always thinking how smart foreign customers can handle everything. i mean no questions from customers after sold. it seems most customers buy from china has certain enough knowledge about cnc router. they are also keen to modify our machine. it makes me very surprised. anyway, hope you can get a good machine and post review on forum. i am very looking forward to it. hope more and more customers can buy machine from our china.

[stepmores]

i am eric from china. cnc router maker. i am glad to see you chose our chinese machine. here i can see a good review for now to our chinese cnc router. i am very glad to know it. as some customers dont trust our chinese machines. of course, it depends on which company you choose. there really huge quantity companies in china. and it is not easy to find the best one. i just registered this forum because i think i can get more information about feedback or review on cnc router. i like to design cnc machines and keep improvement. for a seller. i am always entangled to make cheaper machine or keep high quality ones. as some customer like cheap . but after few years selling and service after sales. i have one important idea. for one machine, the most important thing is the customers feeling of using . of course. it mostly depends on the controller. like you say mach3 are starting to become common. but for some customers, mach3 is complicated to use. and they also want to use it. maybe after few days using. they can learned. haha. i really hope there is only one controller system. so we dont need to be entangled about which control system should we sell . maybe customers have same idea as me. haha.