From where to where ?

Was reading the other day on the beeb that Maersk had lost money with the drop in global trade and the current cost of a 20ft container from china to europe was $233 a pop

Presumably that's the price if you're a big importer, but it's a starter number

Edited By Ady1 on 02/11/2015 15:23:50

Nigel,

I think you will find that the mill will come from Tormach in the USA, at least mine did and I know that they stock everything at their facility in Wisconsin importing it to the USA from Quingdao in China. If you can afford the extra I would recommend attending their workshop before buying or when ordered so that you get some hands on with it. Especially if you have no previous experience of CNC like me.

I am writing an article for the magazine about my first 18 months with my mill and it will be ready soon. I saw the second hand advert on this site and I can't help feeling that the seller underpriced his machine by a good £2k.

I used the same shipping agent that Andrew Johnson did and it was relatively painless for me other than some issues with my VAT exemption. (I imported it through my company as it is intended to use it for production work once I get fully up to speed with it)

Bob.

If you need any further help regarding import, or regards the mill itself, let me know via member messages.

I have also been looking at the Tormach mill and also discussing it with a fellow model engineer I have recently been lucky enough to meet who has been kind enough to spare his time advising and also teaching me aspects of CAD / CAM / CNC etc

Would it be beneficial if others were considering buying to somehow club together as a bulk order and shipment in order to reduce shipping costs or is that not how it works. I have no experience in the matter,

Possibly a better package deal could also be arranged with Tormach if more than one machine was ordered ????

Regards to all

Dave

Why not ?

It may be a worthwhile way of doing things even if it doesn't involve shipping.

If bulk orders brings in a better deal then surely thats better for all.

Dave

Im not sure but as you say we would not be selling them on just buying as a cooperative for our own individual private use which would I suspect be no different than buying a single machine.

I have no experience or knowledge of such a method but purely thought it would make sense as the machines would no doubt end up in the same container and on the same ship in any case. ( With us all paying the full price )

Perhaps one of our trade sellers / importers on here could advise if it wouldn't be treading on their toes.

Dave

After all there are no Tormach agents in the UK so we would not be trying to short cut anybody. Just helping each other.

Edited By Dave C on 03/11/2015 14:06:05

Thanks Ketan

I won't pretend to understand why but appreciate the warning.

Dave

If you give me a call, I might be able to explain.

Ketan at ARC.

Funny. I've just asked Tormach if they have UL (for US market), CSA (for Canada) or CE (for EU). The guy who replied may not be very knowledgeable about safety approvals but he told me they don't have any of these. Given that they sell directly to customers in the N American markets and sort of directly to customers elsewhere, he's either misinformed or they are flying very close to the wind there.

My suspicion is that for electrical safety they may be relying on the components within their products already having approvals so that their system then doesn't require approval at the system level. Again, I'm not convinced that is the authorised approach although doubtless those components are reasonably well designed so you may argue they are following best practice.

I don't have a Tormach myself although I'd love one. I'd also be perfectly happy to own one even without safety approvals. But the approvals situation seems rather surprising. I guessed that they use Leadshine PSUs as they appear to use Leadshine stepper drives, so I looked closely at the Leadshine PSUs I recently bought from the US-based distributor. Interestingly, they are completely devoid of approvals marking too. I'd be interested to know if anyone has a PCNC mill and is able to find any UL/CSA/CE markings on the system or the main components within (PSU and VFD).

I've taken many electrical products through the various global approvals processes, often at great effort. Hopefully Tormach will find their way through this business and continue to produce exciting feature-rich products – I wish them well.

Murray

Mark,

that would be the European (EEC) CE mark, thus enabling import into Europe.

Bob, I was referencing the fact that the import stuff often has a "CE" mark that just happens to look exactly like the European mark you mention but the font is arranged in such a way as to be technically different and it is used to signify "China Export". There was a lot of talk recently that it would be outlawed but I can't see it being enforced any time soon….

Mark