Are you glad to have bought a Chinese made CNC Router?

[salimnirjhor]

Dear mates, thank u all. since longtime i'd bite my nail and read interesting post of experience about cnc and laser machines . Mostly i preferred chinese machines for their affordable price and tested all good compliments frm this forum. Thank u Rocket, for express ur positive experience about machines as a satisfied user.Buying a machine is a good invest i know but without experience or operating knowledge isn't few difficult?
Last three years (A lots of hours, non sleep nights almost) i'd research for cnc and laser machine at net, books. But as a very newly introduced tech at our country i expect little much concentration about promotional activities or education etc. whatever, in this long journey i meet a lot of wise person, learned friends and they enrich my knowledge, still even, But now i want to execution my few knowledge and dream by purchasing a sample machine from china ( i stated why?). One major issue that i face most of chinese comp accept only L/C but our country do not allow T/T as an import payment method.
Rocket, as i havn't even any cnc i was in touch with excitech earlier (As like u) but few greedy non professional behave of li maxri (may b manager) keep me fade up and i consider to buy machines from jinan quick (As like u boss). If they serve good support we are preparing to be an agent of their machines at Bangladesh.

we have experience of selling of woodworking machine like planner, Thicknesser, moulder and panel saw. we also own a popular wooden door manufacturer here with full equiped with those kind automation. Wish i'll b post every detail of contacting with Taney. As well as be a happy user and member of this cute forum.
Rocket, K6100 A isn't a good choice for woodworking as i want at least start the journey and worth my madness and uncounted time.
------------------Nirjhor

[chev55]

Great reading haven't got much work done but has being real interesting reading the different comments.
My situation is I'm down to 3 quotes from china on our first cnc machine.
We are looking at a 1500x3000x250 with ATC ,boring machine and Rotary.
Prices seem to be very close Excitech have come back the lowest and also say they will throw in the shipping to NZ.
Have read about the shipping dramas and can watch for that my problem is now the comments about Excitech and by all accounts their down hill climb.
Would appreciate any feed back and really suggestions for the best company to deal with.
This is a big investment for our small company and really don't what to be ripped
Appreciate any help.

[rocket67]

Greetings fellas and welcome to the Forum.

In my opinion the Chinese machines are very similar to each other in build quality. Not much difference between our Excitech and Quick CNC Routers.

But there is a MAJOR difference in after sales service. Taney from Jinan Quick CNC Router Co has proven time and again over the last couple of years that he is our " Man on the ground " in China. Unlike another business - Taney will always answer Emails and help you after you receive the machine. This is a most important fact.

Only you can make the call for yourself. I know where my money would be going!

As far as Excit... throwing in the Shipping, i would have extreme reservations!! Speak with a Customs Broker Receiver in your area and get a ball park figure for the Shipping and Receiving costs, then you can organise it with your own man ( or woman ). They have already proven to me that they do not keep their word.

All the best.

Rocket.

[salimnirjhor]

hello Rocket and other. I'm new on cnc. Taney offered me frm his database may b. but whn i replied with some query he's not responding.I m still waitin fr those ans. May b he's much busy2 reply (good excuse) but I want2 make decision early about purchase cnc machine (small bedsize) k6100. wish i could execution my huge huge spending hours to reading and surfing about cnc and laser machine. I decided to buy frm china. pls Taney dont make it complicated

[HobbyCAD]

For us in Australia, the "free shipping" they throw in becomes VERY expensive on the Australian side. When the guy's in China offer "free shipping", they book in the shipment as LCL container load, and have it loaded onto a vessel bound for Oz. That means, the container is shared with other customers. They only pay to place it onto a vessel, you pay to get off at the destination, plus all other handling. For my 1336 router, it cost them US$500 be FOB at the port in China. Once it arrives in the Oz port, customs and AQIS clearance has to be done seperately, i.e. the shipment is split up into individual customers. They do this by putting each shipment into a seperate container, have it cleared from the wharf, transported seperately to a clearance agent, have it custom and AQIS cleared, then released for collection. If you share a container, YOU PAY for a forklift and manpower to haul your 2 ton machine out of the shared container at the wharf, and placed into your own clearance container. You pay for renting that OWN container, until you collect your shipment at the clearance agent. A LOT of extra costs.

Next cost driver, is the collection and handling of the shipping papers. These costs all add up. Don't let them courier the papers to the shipping agent in Australia, and then have your clearance agent request it from the shipping line agent. Get the router manufacturer to courier the original shipping docs directly to you, you select your clearance agent, and send them the papers, no fees involved then.

If they offer free shipping or not, insist on FCL container FOB port in China. That means you have your own unshared container, they pay until it's on the vessel, they insure it. Pay the difference between LCL and FCL, usually around $500 to $800 for a 20ft container. This way, your own container gets used all the way to the clearance yard. You pay more for FCL, but you save a LOT when clearing an FCL, than clearing an LCL.

Arrange your collection so that once your shipment is cleared, your router is pulled out of the container, directly onto your collection truck. Don't pay for removing it, and later again, for picking it up onto your collection truck.

I have prior experience with these processes, I saved more than $3000 on a second router shipment, the first one went as per their method, on the Australian side, there where a gazillion, "local charges", "collection charges", handling charges", you have no control over it. The second import, 2 months later, same router, same Chinese company, same Ozzie clearance agent, was $3000 cheaper !!

[Andre09]

This is one of the best pieces of advice anyone will ever receive. Saying that there is free shipping of your goods from China to Australia is very sneaky by the manufacturers. I paid approx. $6,000 to get my 8' x 4' machine from China to my door, all the while having the manufacturer tell me that the shipping will be free. Don't be fooled into thinking that there is a cheap solution for freighting your goods. There isn't. If I had my time again, I would do exactly what HobbyCAD did the 2nd time. I would have appreciated this knowledge.

[Rick Carter]

This is one of the best pieces of advice anyone will ever receive. Saying that there is free shipping of your goods from China to Australia is very sneaky by the manufacturers. I paid approx. $6,000 to get my 8' x 4' machine from China to my door, all the while having the manufacturer tell me that the shipping will be free. Don't be fooled into thinking that there is a cheap solution for freighting your goods. There isn't. If I had my time again, I would do exactly what HobbyCAD did the 2nd time. I would have appreciated this knowledge.

Andre, that shipping cost is charged by the shipping company and the destination port agent, I have no idea if our forwarder join this sneaky thing, but we are also quoted as free shipping from our forwarder. So actually the shipping company transmit the risk and bad reputation to the manufactures but the real beneficiary is them... you can ask some forwarder friend if you don't believe my words... We can only recommend the friends who want to purchase router from China, to require the final destination charges before purchase, expecially in LCL way and when the goods volume is bigger than 12CBM, to prevent the overcharge when receive the machine...

[Andre09]

I think that the manufacturer needs to bear some responsibility because they are the people who organise the shipping. It is there business to know what happens to their product when it gets shipped to the customer. You can't just throw your hands in the air and say, well we don't know what happens after the crate leaves the factory.

If you are honest and you don't know about the final costs of shipping for the customer, you should not promote the idea that the shipping is free.

At the end of the day, the shipping has to be paid for and one way or another,its coming out of the purchasers pocket.. I prefer knowing up front, rather than having the feeling that someone is extorting me after its too late to pull out...

[Rick Carter]

We never throw our hands in the air and we want to save the shipping cost for the customers too. We are in the same time knowing the shipping cost trick as you, so after the customers' reflections we discover, wow it is not single shipping company doing that, it is most of them. So now when the customer order machine every time we give them the same reminding, the free shipping cost in LCL way is absolutely a trick!! You can ask the other friends who buy our machines after you to see if we have discussion about it or not. We don't want to make too much explanations cause we did has some responsibility on this, but the others have the right to know the truth, and it is unfair to ruin the Chinese manufactures' reputation because of the shipping companies' extortion.

[HobbyCAD]

Can anyone tell me what the grey tabletop plastic material on the routers are called? Where can I order sheets of it in Australia, I want to modify a vacuum table top.

Thanks.

[HobbyCAD]

We never throw our hands in the air and we want to save the shipping cost for the customers too.

Rick, my apologies if you think I blamed the China manufacturing companies for bad shipping. It is the importers duty to check out final landed shipping costs. But it is you guy's out there that instruct your forwarding companies "WHICH METHOD" to ship. The shipping companies only do what your forwarder company instruct them, they make no selection, so to say they are guilty of "tricks" is also wrong. You guy's instruct the forwarders what to do, that is the problem. Neither the China side forwarder, nor the shipping company has any dealings with the buyers, you manufacturers are the only ones "instructing" them.

What I do blame the manufacturing companies for, is quoting the words "free shipping" to the buyer. It gets interpreted as "free shipping, from factory to door". You should advertise "FOB LCL SHIPPING paid for". Don't use the words "FREE". Also wrong is quoting a price, like "$10,000, including shipping". You should state exactly what the shipping method included in the price is.

People importing CNC machine are not shipping experts, they don't know what all the jargon means.

Hopefully these posts will make them aware of all the steps and charges involved.

[cge77]

Hi

Just thought I'd share some rules about buying anything chinese, I just purchased a 4x8 machine with 8 tool ATC, 7.4KWspindle, LNC contol, AC Servo Drives + Ball screw on all axis. Due to arrive in a month

This is not my first purchase from China, have purchase a number of chinese machines for different tasks and deal with Chinese companies daily.

1-Do your research and find out what you want, don't expect the sales people to guide you.
2-Find the manufacturer, China has a N number of actual manufacturers and N x 10 number of Agents for these manufacturers. This is due to the fact that there are still a number of manufacturers who don't have an English speaking sales team or don't try and sell to export. So anyone that can speak English can become the de-facto middlemen and portray themselves as the "Manufacturer" Beware.

3-Get pictures, not only overall, but details of the machine ? Guide rails, Frame ...
Before (from existing machines), during the construction of yours and videos of it running before shipping

4-Get pictures of the factory, see how clean/dirty it is, you have to understand some of the low end manufactures will build your CNC in a souped up shed, in the country side !

5-Don't pay all upfront, try and pay the last 50% once it leaves china or when it arrives in Australia

6-Don't buy the cheapest. You have to understand how the chinese operate, if you ask for the cheapest prices they will find ways to build it for an incredibly low price, but they are not magicians, quality, materials will also be the cheapest, worst you can find.
Lucky for us Good chinese quality is still cheaper than the equivalent western quality.

For example I got quoted a 4x8 CNC from China biggest and I was told best CNC manufacturer, $45K USD for a basic model.

Thanks

Nick