Thread: Importing A Chinese Machine......Roger Webb/Pacific Tooling - CNC Router

I notice that there are a lot of threads about Chinese machines and, in particular, about Roger Webb/Pacific Tooling on this and other forums. So, having actually bought a Chinese CNC Router from Pacific Tooling, it seems like a good idea to share my experience. I should point out that this will be a somewhat lengthy post. Not necessarily of general interest to everyone but more for those who are planning to get a Chinese machine and very specifically for those interested in one from Roger Webb/Pacific Tooling.

I have just bought a PT6012 CNC Router from Pacific Tooling. I say Pacific Tooling and not Roger because it’s my belief (I can’t say with any certainty) that Roger and his good wife have little or no financial ownership of Pacific Tooling. I believe it is just a marketing agreement that he has. This matters, as I will demonstrate later.

Roger refers, in his videos and correspondence, to 'my partners in China', to 'my design engineers' and so on. However, on the sales invoice, the payee is a 3^rd party called Boost International Company Ltd which happens to have the same address as the factory. All this is conjecture but Roger has been a bit cagey about saying specifically that he owns Pacific or any part of it.

Post Script: Roger has just confirmed, at my specific request that "Boost International is Pacific Tooling’s Trading name in China and yes, we own it."
I will discuss this with Energy Safe Victoria (see below) to ascertain if this changes anything regarding Roger's liability re the electrical safety of the machine.


In terms of delivery times, the machine arrived pretty much on time. I chose to use my own shipping agent and this proved a good choice. I am based in Melbourne and I used Seaway Logistics. The staff there were very helpful and professional. I chose them because a good friend of mine who does plenty of importing recommended them. He had had bad experiences with a previous agent but since moving his business to Seaway all had been sweet. Anyway, they kept me informed as to what was going on and didn’t mind any of my questions no matter how obvious the answers were (I’d never done this before). They also have their own agent in China. Further, they saved me over $400- in import duty, something that Roger Webb knew nothing about.

Before I move on, I should mention right from the get go, do your homework regarding price. Roger advertises his price in USD which is fine but he constantly emphasises how cheap his machines are for the spec and, on face value, he seems right. However, you must factor in a few extras.

Firstly, of course, there is the exchange rate. That’s simple and straight forward but is, of course, subject to the exchange rate at the time of payment. My machine had an advertised price of USD4175-. I also upgraded to the 2.2kw spindle, gantry extension, and the 4^th axis with the Mach3 4^th axis port and USB connection. This brought the total to USD5990-. After conversion to the Aussie dollar, this became approx AUD7500-. So far still ok but add to this the freight, shipping agent’s fees, import duties and GST as well as all the misc charges such as Port service fees, terminal handling charges, Melb port license fees, customs clearance fees, quarantine processing fees etc, etc, etc, the final cost to me was approx AUD11,000-. This was a bit of a shock to me but that’s my fault for not doing enough homework to ascertain the full costs. I still don’t know if I could have done better overall and I’m not sure that I want to know. Anyway, do your homework!!

A point to note here is that my agent told me that, had a Certificate of Origin been supplied by the factory, it would have saved me $430- in Import Duty. I’m still trying to get one of these as it will entitle me to a refund of those duties. I’m in Roger and Maria’s hands here so we’ll see what happens. Maria was quite annoyed that she had to provide this.

Now we can move on to picking up the machine and unpacking. I asked Roger how big the crate was so I could be sure that it would fit in my trailer. He didn’t know. Could he please ask the factory? No, he said, it’s already left the factory. But, he said, the crate is very big and you’ll need a full size 10 x 6 car trailer. That, he said, is what he used and “it only just fit”. Well, I’m thinking that the machine is only 1200mm (just under 4’) wide and crates are always a snug fit to save on freight. Length and height were no problem on the trailer so I took a risk and used an 8’ x 5’ tandem trailer. And by risk, I mean it’s a long drive to the shipper’s warehouse and I didn’t want to arrive with a trailer that was too small. Well it fit with room to spare as the photo shows but I wouldn’t use a 6’ x 4’. The crate was exactly 4’ wide and whilst you might squeeze it in, there’s absolutely no margin if that crate were a few mm wider.


As the attached photos show, the crate was undamaged and upon opening, it was clear to see that there was no ‘in transit’ damage. The machine was well bolted down through the timber base and in to a steel subframe under the crate. However, as I unwrapped the machine, several things were evident.

1. A significant amount of metal drillings were caught between the packing wrap and the gantry at both ends. Later, when I investigated, I removed the two ventilated boxes at each end of the gantry. One, of course, houses the X-axis stepper motor and the other one….well it just looks balanced at the other end and covers the bearing at the end of the ball screw. Having removed them, I found more drillings inside the boxes and I can only assume that through some slip up, drilling needed to be done after the wrapping started. It’s an odd thing to happen but I can’t think of any other reason. When I showed the photos to Roger, he declined to even comment.

1. One of the aluminium T-slot panels that form the table was bent in at the corner and slightly bent down as well. I’m being a pit picky here but when I buy something brand new, I like it to be straight and true. Roger sent me some pre-delivery photos of my machine before it was boxed for shipping and the bent panel could clearly be seen once you knew where to look. When I raised this item with Roger and pointed out that the damage was clear in his pre-delivery photo, he denied that any damage could be seen and that “my shipper must have trodden on the machine”. What a ridiculous response!

1. The last item was a bent dust seal on one of the linear rail bearings for the gantry. It would not press back into position and was going to allow dust and grit to build up against the actual bearing. I certainly wasn’t happy with this and it is a simple matter of three retaining screws to remove and replace it. When I sent photos of this to Roger, asking him to send a replacement, his response was “We see no evidence that this was a result of our factory processes”. How else could it have happened? I'd only just opened the crate and it is well shielded from damage by the gantry itself. It could only have happened during installation of the part.

Roger seems to have a real problem with admitting his product might not be perfect.

A little while later, I discovered that the X-axis slideway cover has several small tears in it. This, although easily repaired with a little cloth and some adhesive, is very annoying. I have not broached this with Roger as I am now quite confident that his reply will be as per 3. above.

Later on, when I removed the slideway cover to repair it, I found more drillings and so I decided to remove the Z-axis slideway cover as well. Sure enough, there were even more drillings and they were sitting on the bearing seals. Given that they were sitting loose and not forced up against the bearings or rails, probably there would be no harm in leaving them there. I did, of course, clean them up. Just another thing that was easily sorted but which I shouldn’t have had to do myself.

I ordered the accessory dust boot and this seems fairly well designed and quite robust. Unfortunately, the bristles are only glued on to the painted metal housing with what looks like hot glue gun glue. This has not bonded well with the gloss paint and the bristles across the rear have already fallen off. Once again, this will be an easy repair but I’m getting very frustrated at the amount of time I am having to spend sorting out these little issues. (Note: It’s now a couple of weeks down the track and I have just had the bristles on the front fall off as well. I think I will need to pull the remaining bristles off and fix them to the boot properly before one of them gets sucked into the dust extractor hose.)

During my commissioning of this machine, time came for installing the coolant pump. Pacific Tooling provide a 20 litre tub which serves the dual purpose of being a container for the various extras that ship with the machine and being a reservoir for the coolant pump. I quickly discovered that there was no way I would be able to install the tub through the rear opening of the machine because I had placed the machine with the rear facing a wall. However, with some minor body contortions (actually major contortions at my age), I was able to remove a side panel (screwed in from behind) which I have since refitted with hinges. This gave me the access I needed.


Another thing worth noting is that Roger says he gives you Artcam Software and, indeed he does. However, it’s a 2008 version. I use Vectric Aspire (the latest version) so this doesn’t matter to me…..I’ll probably never use Artcam. I also don’t know if it will matter to anyone who does want to use Artcam but if they do, it’s worth noting that this is 10yr old software.

Post Script: Roger has just told me that Artcam is no longer available from Autodesk. Period. A quick google search confirms this… https://www.autodesk.com/products/artcam/overview

On the same note, I already have a registered copy of Mach3 and thought I would be able to set things up using my copy. However, Roger informed me, after I had some issues with the software on the provided USB drive, that I would need to use the unregistered version of Mach3 that he provided (an older version than my registered copy) because “my engineers have set it up as a plug and play with all the settings done for me”. That being said, he provides a Mach1Lic.dat file which licences the software to “MaoA~A↑ -Dtonar” rather than to me. I’m not particularly happy about this. It will almost certainly be an issue when I need Mach3 support from Artsoft.

Post Script: I have been informed by a Moderator and by a member on the Newfangled Solutions » CNC Software Home of Mach3 forum that this licence is a pirated licence and should not be used. Also, it is likely, as such, to be 'buggy'.

All of which brings me to the USB drive containing all the software, additional files and instructional PDFs. Mach3 wouldn’t load and one of the PDFs wouldn’t either. I tried them on three different computers with different OS’s and all had the same issues. After much frustrating time and angst, I called Roger who said that I needed winzip because the files were compressed. Not the case! None of the files were compressed and certainly didn’t respond to unzip commands. After even more wasted time, Roger reluctantly agreed to send me a replacement USB drive with the necessary files. I have since received that USB drive and all the files on the new drive open easily and as they should. In my mind, this confirms that the original USB drive was faulty/corrupt in spite of Roger’s insistence that it wasn’t.


I noticed, while looking at all the components in the control box, that the machine is not earthed. I’m not an electrician but I do know that there are two types of electrical machines/tools/appliances with regard to earthing.

1. Double insulated. These items bear an international symbol of two squares, one inside the other. If you don’t understand, go check the label on you corded electric drill or almost any other corded electrical tool. This machine has no such designation and I didn’t expect one. Double insulated tools have all the dangerous stuff wrapped in a plastic shell (the body of the tool which can’t conduct).

2. Earthed machines. These have a full metal construction. If there is a short circuit and a live wire touches part of the body of the machine, that body becomes electrically live and very dangerous. Hence the green and yellow wire that we all know as the earth wire. Your wall socket is earthed and the cord from the socket has an earth wire as well. Where it enters the machine, the earth terminal MUST be attached to the main body of the machine. In this way, if there is a short to the body, it should earth through the power cord rather than you. An alternative is to drill a hole in your workshop floor and drive a copper bar into the ground. Attach the bar via earth wire to the machine chassis. But who wants to go through that process and what if I need to rearrange the workshop? More holes in the concrete floor. Add to that that I happen to know that the local earth (dirt) is quite non conductive and therefore needs a very substantial and long copper earth bar.

As a result of this, I contacted Energy Safe Victoria with my concerns. I sent them photos and they confirmed my suspicions. Remember when I said earlier that it mattered that I didn’t think Roger had any ownership of Pacific Tooling? And also that the invoice was to a 3^rd party? This means that I am the importer and therefore hold the sole responsibility for this matter as far as Energy Safe is concerned. They are unable to pursue Roger Webb over this electrical safety matter although they did say that they would have their Tasmanian counterparts talk to him.

Going back to the torn slipway cover, when I removed the damaged ones to repair them I discovered that the X-axis has a hard limit switch at one end only. On further inspection, I noticed that each axis is the same…..only one hard limit switch per axis. I had asked Roger during the initial discussions if this machine would be equipped with those switches and he assured me that it would be. Since I didn’t specify how many or where they would be fitted, I can’t say that he was dishonest. It does indeed come with the switches. It just seems to me that they should be fitted at both ends of each axis. I raised this with Roger and his response was
“You do not seem to understand the rudimentary operation of your CNC or the operating program of MACH3” and that “Limit switches are only required ONE per AXIS.”
I may be wrong (please correct me – I’m not an expert) but if you are going to rely on a hard limit switch at one end of each axis, wouldn’t you rely on one at both ends?

I have now started using the machine and it is as good as I had hoped and way better than my old home made (not by me – I bought it second hand) machine. It is very heavy, very rigid and, so far, powerful enough for the work I do. I say that with the qualification that I have only used it on wood at this point. I intend to use it on brass and aluminium in the near future. Roger, in his Youtube videos, assures me that this machine will easily cope with those materials.

One of the first things I noticed when preparing for the first run was when fitting the cutter. The accessories supplied with the machine included two double ended open ended spanners…one 19mm/22mm and one 27mm/30mm. Now the 30mm spanner fits the collet nut quite nicely. However, the spindle needs a 21mm spanner. The 22mm spanner is way too sloppy and even if you ignore the rounding off possibilities, it is just annoying to have so much slop when the right spanner in the first place should have been supplied.

I have just run my first job and it’s come out ok. It was one of the Vectric Free Projects and the project itself has a couple of minor errors in it. However, the machine performed well until the end of the project when I pressed the ‘Stop’ button and turned it off at the wall to shut it down. The next time I went to start the machine, having reset the stop button, the machine would not start. No power to the machine. I checked the wall socket, pressed and reset the stop button and the mains button all to no avail. Now nearly every machine I have is happy for me to turn it off using the resettable stop button and, on some of these, the resettable stop button is the only way to turn the machine off other than at the wall socket. I realise now though, that those machines will not restart when you reset the stop button. You have to press the start button as well. This machine will restart when you reset the stop button unless you have also pressed the start button (to off).

Anyway, although the stop button is labelled exactly as that, Roger admonished me never to do that again saying that it was strictly for emergency stops and that I could fry the circuitry using it for anything else. Interesting but I’ll do what he says here. All that being said, he instructed me to check a few things with my multi-meter after unplugging the power at the wall.
Now this is where it gets a bit strange……he asked if I knew how to check resistance using the multi-meter. I said yes. He told me to check certain things including the switches (in the on position) and a fuse. He said that if my meter showed a zero reading, then the current would not be able to flow and that that’s where the problem would be. I dared to correct him here and say that if the resistance showed a zero reading then the circuit was closed and current could, indeed, flow. ‘No’, he assured me. ‘That’s absolutely wrong. If the resistance is zero, current can not flow and that’s where your problem will be.’ I asked if we were definitely talking about measuring resistance as apposed to current and he assured me we were.

Anyway, the long and short of it is that I checked a few things and got the right readings (zero resistance) but changed nothing. When I tried the machine again, it worked fine and I can only assume that there is some sort of overload device that needs time to reset itself (I’m talking ½ hr or more. I let it sit that long before I gave up and called Roger).

This brings me to another issue here. Had there been a warranty issue, even if Roger had not blamed me for hitting the stop button, how would this have been dealt with? I pretty sure now after my dealings with Roger, (even if he conceded a warranty) that he would not be paying for anyone to come and fix the machine and I’m also pretty sure that Pacific Tooling wouldn’t send someone from China to fix it. This means that, at best, the factory MIGHT post a replacement part but would leave it to me to install.

So if you are buying a Chinese import direct, think very carefully about how any warranty might be a) established as such and b) rectified. Get it in writing. Don’t just read the brochure which offers a 12 mth warranty. Make sure that the terms of processing a warranty claim are acceptable and in writing.

Dealing with a local supplier might be a much better choice. In the past, I have had two significant warranty issues. One with a Carbatec 20” thicknesser and one with a Hare and Forbes mill. In both instances, a mechanic/technician was sent (approx 90km each way) to repair the machine on site. There is a lot of comfort in knowing that you have a reputable local dealer to manage these issues.

Also, insist on written confirmation that the machine will meet all relevant Australian electrical and safety standards.

So, in summary, I'm pretty happy with the machine and it's operation. However, with the benefit of hindsight, I don't know if I'd go through this process again or if I'd deal with Roger again. He seems like a nice bloke and probably is. But in business terms, he is not user friendly. It would be easier to convince a Flat Earther that the earth is round than to convince Roger that there is a fault with one of his machines.

I doubt that Roger would agree to this but if I were to buy another machine from him, I would probably insist that my payment be made directly to him and have him pay Boost Int'l Co himself. This would make him subject to Australian warranty and standards laws.

I would absolutely recommend using a customs/shipping agent unless you are experienced in matters of importing items like this. And if you are in Melbourne, Seaway Logistics has my vote.

Finally, let me apologise for the length of this post. However, I hope it has been useful to anyone considering importing a machine themselves or buying one of Pacific Tooling's machines. If you have any questions relating to this, please don't hesitate. If you have already bought one of Roger's machines, I'd like to hear from you. It would be nice to share the experience and to have a bit of mutual support.