I Got Burnt!!

Coomba said:
Yes I do have two mills, and I have given it a great deal of thought to make one good mill. But the way in which some up guys talk. VERY knowledgeable I add. Flat tables, ways ground straight, lapped and scrapped gibbs. I know I could take them apart and build one, but it just might turn out to be a Frankenstein. And so far the track record for these two mill as been a dud. Heck guys I'm not a machinist.
My thought is to sell them and buy that mill from Precision Matthews. The model I said in post #69 is incorrect. It is a model PM828M. Does anyone have any knowledge of them
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As someone new to machining maybe a mill from Grizzly would be a better fit for you. They are a much larger company with tech support staff you can call if you need assistance, machines in stock ready to ship, and parts in stock generally if something isn't right. Something like this mill http://www.grizzly.com/products/Heavy-Duty-Mill-Drill-with-Stand-and-Power-Feed/G0755 for example given your price range. The power feed and power Z axis are a nice bonus.

I'm a little confused why you can just return the CO mills for a refund? It won't be easy selling a mill that has problems. And did I hear you right that you have two different sized mills from them the 12z and a 12z Junior that's smaller?
 
Most of the issues in your video are not unexpected at the price break of the mill, and most do not affect function or could be repaired. I have a gear head mill and it is quite noisy, but it has worked ok for several years. Yes, I also was disappointed at the quality of my Chinese mill (and I paid a bit more), and subsequently went with a Taiwan made lathe because of the QC issues with the mill. Different machine vendors may spec better QC and have some form of machine QC before it is shipped to the buyer. I would have expected better from CO, but they did send a second mill. I agree with Coolidge, just return the CO mills and purchase something else. If you used a credit card to pay for the mill, they usually will intervene on your behalf. The Grizzly G0755 or G0762 would be similar to the machine from CO, in general I have found a bit better QC and support from Grizzly. There are also other vendors such as QMT which have newer versions (such as variable speed) of this type of mill.
 
Wow that's something you might expect from a HF cheapy . Really looks like poor quality at least someone who assembled it should have cked it out!! Good pr is tuff with this happening !!
 
mksj said:
Most of the issues in your video are not unexpected at the price break of the mill, and most do not affect function or could be repaired. I have a gear head mill and it is quite noisy, but it has worked ok for several years. Yes, I also was disappointed at the quality of my Chinese mill (and I paid a bit more), and subsequently went with a Taiwan made lathe because of the QC issues with the mill. Different machine vendors may spec better QC and have some form of machine QC before it is shipped to the buyer. I would have expected better from CO, but they did send a second mill. I agree with Coolidge, just return the CO mills and purchase something else. If you used a credit card to pay for the mill, they usually will intervene on your behalf. The Grizzly G0755 or G0762 would be similar to the machine from CO, in general I have found a bit better QC and support from Grizzly. There are also other vendors such as QMT which have newer versions (such as variable speed) of this type of mill.
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Guess I'm going to disagree with the first sentence of your post. When you have a customer that is unhappy because he has a piece of equipment that does not work. It should be a priority to do what ever is necessary to make them happy. At least that's the way I ran my business. Also the purpose of the post was not to debate the quality of the mill, you seasoned machinists all ready know what to expect form a mill made in china, but us new guys, have no ideal. My intent was to inform newbies like myself, of the problems that I went through, so they hopefully they would learn from my mistakes.
 
If you review postings on many of these machines, you will see that all are built to a price point, you get what you pay for and quality problems seem to be endemic to the lower priced Chinese machinery and tooling. These days, I almost never buy any tooling from China, unfortunately on lathes and mills their are not a lot of alternatives at our price level (Coolidge is exempted). As Coolidge described, even more expensive machines have their issues. Some brands may be better than others. I do not disagree that there is an issue, and that the company should make amends to correct the faults in your mill. This is specified in their 1 year warranty, so you have options, but some companies have better customer service than others. The adage that others should reflect our ideals in business practice is long gone these days.
 
At this price point you will very likely have to deal with some quality issues regardless of brand. They could be severe enough that you have to return the machine for a refund. That's reality.
 
( I have tried to negotiate but that didn't happen ) ?

This is not meant to sound mean to anyone so please don't take it as such.

There is no negotiation.

We either live with what we buy or box it up and send it back for a refund!

From a Yankee living in in the south :rolleyes:
 
Yeah, I think 'make it work or send it back if you can't' is basically the only option. For folks like me just getting started, there is either the option to go with a used lathe in God-knows-what condition with God-only-knows what all is wrong with it and if replacements are available, or to go with a low-end new machine lacking the rigidity and ultimate capability of the heavier old machines. It's literally a crap shoot whichever you choose as a newbie, and I don't see how anyone could argue otherwise. With a new machine, the odds are higher you have some sort of recourse for refund if the thing's a lemon, or can be given another machine in exchange. A used machine bought from a private party? Good chance the money you gave them is spent before you can complain about it, and a refund is the absolute best shot you have at support.

TCB
 
That thing doesn't have an instruction manual. It has an instruction library.

Tom
 
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