Buying lathes direct from China

Firstly I would endorse the comments by Neil and others - if you are not prepared to accept the worst case outcome of a potential 100% loss then do not proceed.

I have not purchased a lathe from China but have purchased a CNC router and a small CNC multi-axis mill.

The router - large, heavy and had to be transported by sea. It arrived not configured as ordered (to paraphrase the response - so sad, too bad never mind. Don't worry we will look after you - they didn't!

The extent of corrosion found on various parts ( feet, nuts and bolts etc.) led me to wonder whether it was one they found out the back when having a clean-up or whether it was just bolted to the deck of the boat for the trip to Australia.

Finally the ordeal ( and cost ) of getting it through the customs formalities and delivered to my home made it something I would not do again.

That said - it is very solid and does work as advertised (apart from the niggling physical configuration issue).

The second exercise in heavy imports was the CNC mill. It was small enough to be sent by air through a reliable courier and was delivered to the door with no issues other than needing a more detailed invoice from the supplier ( no issue there ) for the GST calculation ( this is now done automatically when paying for Aliexpress orders for Australia ).

Only problem was that some Berk, when partially dismantling it for shipment, had left various mounting screws sticking out and some of these had been bent in transport ( not a major issue to replace ). Packing - lightweight ply box for air shipment could have been better.

I had to do a fair amount of dismantling to move it ( it is not all that light! ) and haven't yet had the opportunity to test it out but all of the sub-assemblies seem to be fine and looks good value for the money.

So - by air possibly, by sea most likely not.

In both cases these were items where I could not obtain a reasonable equivalent item at a cost I could hope to afford in Australia - I note these were low end commercial use items - and I was prepared to take a punt.

In the case of a standard lathe or mill I would definitely shop local - you might find that the apparent saving of the import ends up being an illusion.

That said, I did import my Cowells lathe but that's a much different, and much happier story from those few days when the Australian dollar was worth more than the plastic it is printed on!

Pero

Edited By Pero on 14/02/2019 03:10:47

Not a lathe, but I purchased one of these a year ago **LINK**

It cost me $256Au shipped and arrived in ten days. This was prior to when 10% GST added tariff came into effect. Even with 10% added it would still be a bargain.

The best local price that I was quoted was $750Au + $25 postage with 14-21 days delivery.

I prefer to support local business but at almost 1/3 the local price I decided that the risk was worth it and it was.

* Danny M *

I've a mate who bought a minilathe direct from China. But when I looked into doing the same it seemed that with the shipping costs and various fees and taxes it was not much cheaper than buying locally. Not enough to make it worth taking a punt on no warranty, no return, no service etc.

If it were a screaming bargain to import a lathe direct from China I would expect many people would be doing it -- which they aren't. In this day and age of internet commerce that pretty much says it all.