Thread: Questions in regards of importing from china, taiwan.

I was the guy that wrote the thread you mentioned. In my experience - you are unlikely to find many recognisable brands from Chinese manufacturers. Most manufacture for OEMs - Original Equipment Manufacturers. This means they make the gear, and then brand it to whatever is required - eg HAFCO. On my visit to the factory that manufactured my mill - I saw at least 4 different brand names on the same sized mill - painted different colours, some different wiring/swiching/options. So I would forget about brand recognition. Taiwanese manufacturers sometimes use a global brand - some companies appear not to re-brand. Expect to pay more for them - they trade on their name, so the gear must be good.

Alibaba is where I souce most of my gear - there are many other B2B websites out there though - some concentrate on different areas/countries - eg India.

As for tracking down the manufacturer of HAFCOs lathe - I think you dont have a chance of getting that info. I imagine that HAFCO guards this knowledge quite well - and it could even be a requirement of their contract with the manufacturer - a non-disclosure clause possibly.

I checked out lathes with a few Taiwanese manufacturers - their starting prices are obviously much higher than the Chinese manufacturers. One company wanted a minimum of US$4500 FOB for what looks like an AL-540 - you would expect the qualiy to be pretty high - but is it worth it over the Chinese lathe? Only time would tell.

The other major consideration is the minimum order quantities that most companies have. The supplier of my mill had a three machine minimum - after lots of effort they agreed to a single machine, along with lots of accessories(which came very close to the price of two other mills).

Time is another consideration - expect 4-6 months wait for your machine. A month of negotiations - 2-3 months construction time - month shipping - 1-2 weeks Quarantine, Customs, etc. If you want it quick - forget it!

I am definitely not against the idea - but there are lots of pitfalls and questions you have to ask first. Good luck with it!

Hi,
You have got some good, first hand experience off Mark above.
Just remember he went over and visited the factory to see first hand the quality of the machinery etc.

I have no experience on importing machines, only tools.
I would think to import just one machine might not be worth it, cost wise. I think you would need to order a few thousand worth of tooling with it, to make it cost effective worth while.

Dave

thanks for the replies,
have come across a lathe that looks similar to the hafco, they do state the minimum is 1 item.
Didn't know i would wait that long, the site states 5 weeks for delivery.

tried to find Taiwanese brands with similar size and features of the hafco.
the only lathes i have come across are too large, using 3 phase power.
Do any members know what Taiwanese brands can be bought locally, the Taiwanese hafco is to large uses 3 phase as well.
My main concern with the hafco was the reported oil leaks + poorly manufactured gears.
doubt the local store will allow me to empty the oil and inspect this before purchase, if finding poorly formed gears after purchase i would expect some difficulty in trying to have the problem corrected.

Not sure about all of them but I know some are from SIEG in China, H&F now rebadge them so im not sure if all the chinese models are from SIEG.

https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/Pr...tockCode=L183#

I will be looking to import a lathe directly when I import from china again in a few months, to import one its not worth it you would be paying the same if not more because of customs fees ect. I will be bringing everything to Shanghai and consolidating my shipments.



Mark a large manufacturer like sieg wouldnt take that long to produce a Lathe.

30-45 Days to manufacture
30 Days for Ocean Freight and Customs Clearance



I believe this is Sieg on Alibaba
http://siegind.en.alibaba.com/productlist.html

Heres the Lathe from the H&F Link. "Looks damn close to me with slight differences but one of the images could be old as well"
http://siegind.en.alibaba.com/produc..._910_1000.html

lather - if they say the MOQ is one you should be fine - the 5 week delivery might be possible if they have the lathes built, sitting packed, ready to go. If you have an customization or options that you want included, then you will probably find it will take longer. The only way you will know is to contact them, and find out what their ready date would be, plus the dimensions and weight of the crate, and then get a freight quote to suit.

Chris - I was commenting from experience with the manufacturer of my mill. I would call them large - their factory filled 9 individual buildings - each one about 100m x 40m! There would have been 300+ individual mills under construction at once. And I had to wait about 80 days for my mill to be ready. I seriously doubt it takes 80 days to build - but that was the time frame they gave me - and thats how long it took. I think larger customers would get machines sooner - they probably fit my order in between larger ones.

I ordered my mill with a couple of options/extras - ISO40 spindle instead of ISO30, swivel table instead of fixed, mechanical power feed instead of electrical. It is possible this delayed my order - but the factory I purchased from produces mills to order - they dont build them and then wait for someone to buy them.

Having looked at the Sieg link you provided I doubt they have even one of everything sitting on the floor waiting for an order - that would be over 240 machines! If you have contacted them and they have told you a 30-45 day wait then they probably have more staff to throw at production than the company I used - there wasnt a hell of a lot of people around when I visited the factory.

If you are looking at the AL-336 size lathe, have you considered the AL-960B which is roughly the same size, made in Taiwan and, from my experience as a current owner of a 960 and a past owner of an equivalent chinese lathe, a much better quality unit.

My 12 year old 13X40 version (not supplied by Hafco) of the current Hafco AL336 was made by Shaoxing Tongli Machine Tool Co. Ltd. This model does not currently appear on their rather inadequate website, though there is a photo of a lathe which appears to be a similar size, but with no details supplied. No idea whether this company still produces their versions of the CQ6230 (12" swing) and similar CQ6240 (13" swing) models, but FWIW I consider it to have been reasonable value for money, though I would probably have bought a Taiwanese one at the time if I had had the choice. The only problem in 12 years of light use has been the need to replace the starting capacitor on the motor.

One point to note in comparing the AL336 and the AL960 is that the 960, according to the chart in the photo on the Hafco site, lacks four fairly common recommended ISO metric standard thread pitches, which are available on the 336. This might influence a buying decision if cutting a lot of metric threads is likely. The missing pitches are 0.7, 0.8, 1.75 (very common), and 3.5. It is worth checking any intended lathe purchase to make sure it will cut at least the commonly used ISO metric pitches - other metric pitches are a bonus. If it has a metric lead screw it should be capable of cutting all the common imperial pitches for bolts in the 3/16" to 1" range.

Frank

Made the leap and purchased a hafco 960b, it was on special at a price of $3575 all up.
have heard good reviews about this lathe and should be a better quality than the chinese made lathes.
Now the difficulty will be getting it in the shed when it arrives.