China or UK

[JohnHaine]

There's an X1 cnc for sale on this site if you look in the for sale section....

[davegrennan]

Hi,
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I can't offer any advice on choice of machine, but I can tell you that I've personally bought a lot of stuff, both for CNC and non-cnc from China and had no problems ever. Even once when I had a DOA they just took it back and sent another. I had to pay the return post though.
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I note the bit you mentioned about almost deciding upon a machine and then finding some bad comments. If you find the best machine in the world you'll find some sod who'll thrash it. I'd look at one or two negative comments in the context of the overall impression you've gleaned from your research. Don't be afraid of aluminium, keep in mind that its a soft metal. You could cut a .25mm aluminium sheet with a scissors so imagine how easy a 1kw spindle would go through it. Long as you are realistic with your depth of cuts etc. If you are really worried about the China thing, why not look at sourcing just a frame from China and adding the electronics/spindle etc from the UK?

Go.od luck with it all.