Asian Import

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sailor1845

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Asian Imports are PURE JUNK! I had two that a client purchased new for my use and they did not hold up for very long. Both were inaccurate and constantly breaking down. Finally I purchased an old Logan 2555V and it is doing exactly what I need it to do with no problems. I would rather have a old used machine, than a new China made JUNK.

A local machine shop purchased two rather large China made lathe's and within three months both broke down and it took over a month to get the parts for the repairs.
They finally resurrected the old lathes these China made lathes replaced. They now sit in a rear section of the shop, probably never to be used again. That was a VERY expensive lesson.

Buy American, the job you save may be your own !
 
Remember when we heard that about Japan back in the day? One of the "Back to the Future" movies even made a joke about it.

China makes just about everything. They can make quality, but it costs close to what it costs to make the same quality elsewhere. They are just willing to go lower on the quality and the price than many places. And people choose to go cheap, or the importers do to increase margins. Almost nothing is 100% US made these days, sadly. Particularly things that this forum is about. I'm not aware of any hobby sized and priced lathes made in the US. I'm sure there are a few industrial machines out there, but a hobby user could not afford them. Even that is drying up as there's not a big market for manual machinery. There are probably a few CNC manufacturers, but the prices are not hobby friendly. We aren't the target market, so it makes sense.

Most of these posts remind me of ham radio guys complaining about the Chinese radios. Most of them test fine for our use and it gets more people willing to try the hobby. But the old timers complain about it. Enough to drive new people away. Most of the time they haven't the slightest idea the other side is using one till they say they are.

Do we want more hobby machinists? We aren't going to get many if we require a 10k investment up front to even try it out. And the fact is, most of us here have at least one import machine. Encouraging people to pay a little more for a known better quality importer like PM or even Grizzly is doable. But much more is going to drive people away. Besides, this is supposed to be the friendly machinist forum.
 
Many people have made good accurate parts on Asian import machines including me. I've had my China machines for 10 yrs now & none of them have broken down on me. Sure China makes junk, whose fault is that, but they can make decent products too if they are paid to. USA makes junk too. Taiwan & Japan are Asia also & they make great quality machines these days.

Some people don't have the option of buying used USA. Also not very many options of buying new USA machines that are not CNC if at all these days. If it weren't for affordable machines, many people would not be able to enjoy machining as a hobby. If one needs machines for production work, spend the money on something better, Chinese is not the best option but also not unheard of.

BTW, this site welcomes everything no matter what the cost or size. That's fine if you have a dislike for China but bashing them here is not welcome.
 
You used the words "client" and "local machine shop" in the OP which leads me to believe that you aren't talking about typical hobby applications or duty cycles that most of us on the forum deal with. Are these industrial type or hobby oriented machines that your trashing?

Tom
 
It is not possible to generalize with any accuracy, but I’ll give it a try. I have spent my 50 year career in technology product development, and have worked extensively with quality control and improvement efforts. I was surprised to learn from actual data that most customer complaints, and by most I mean more than half, stemmed from customer actions or inactions based on incomplete understanding of either the product or what they were trying to do with it. Frequently reading the manual would have avoided the reported problem.

So I take with some skepticism the idea that all (fill in the blank) are junk. Certainly quality can vary by supplier, and by price. But frankly, most products do about what they are designed to do, at the price point they are designed for. If it doesn’t do what you want, it’s probably not the right product choice. Managing user expectations might be necessary.

But otherwise, that’s what a warranty period is for.
 
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