my Rong Fu 45 clone from China

Starlight Tools

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Tom

Walter from Starlight again, I had looked at getting one of these mills. I first was looking at the round column mill that KBC Tools sells as it had the power downfeed, but they wanted a whack of freight as it had to be shipped from Toronto. Then I contacted Rick at Modern in Vancouver and he quoted the ZX45 in the R8 version for $2995.00 CDN. He also suggested I would be happier with a vertical knee mill in the long run. He did not have the 10x50 in stock, but their Calgary branch did, so they suggested I deal with Calgary to get the mill, turns out that the South Eastern corner of BC is in the Calgary territory.

I have a few clients with the square column mills and am on the yahoo groups for them and they are very capable machines. Mind you I have pushed the limits of the 10x50 and in hindsight, would have been sort of hog tied if I had gone with a smaller mill.

Walter
 
Hello to all

I'm Gerard from Belgium. My friend Tom has send me a mail to tell me there are people interested to make a shaper. Initially I was planned to build a Gingery shaper but it is all made of aluminum castings. I have no experience with aluminum casting, so I decided to make a shaper from steel stock material. In Belgium it is very hard to find cold rolled steel in small amounts so I'm started with a lot off scrap steel, with success. I'm temporary stopped with my shaper to make first a Brunell tool grinder. I guess I'm ready end of August, then I will continue with my shaper. When my shaper is finished I will put all the information, drawings and pictures on my web site. When you are really interested to start earlier, please send me a mail and I send you with pleasure the drawing and pictures I have available until now. All the drawings are in metric scale.

My friend Tom has made a mistake in my site address. It is

http://home.scarlet.be/mini-draaien-frezen

DSC00382.JPG
 
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Tom,

How does this story end? Did you get your mill? What condition? Would you do it again?

Arvid
 
Tom,

Would you mind sharing who you would NOT recommend and also any information about who you WOULD recommend?

I may be foolish enough to try to get a mill "direct" and could use the advice.

Thanks,
Arvid
 
Tom,

... In general, how happy are you with your Timeway mill? ...
Ed

Ed,

Based on the pdf in the first post of this thread it looks like Tom ordered his mill from "Shaanxi Yuanhang Machinery Equipment Importer & Exporter Corp. LTD" and not from "Zhengzhou Timeway Machine Tool Co., LTD.".

Back in the "Show Us Your Import Lathe" thread is where he mentions that he ordered his lathe from Timeway.

At least that is what I get out of the threads ... and lets hope the Timeway Lathe story is not as scary as the Yuanhang Mill story is.

Arvid
 
... Arvid did you find a mill yet? ...

Sent the down payment to Timeway this afternoon. I'll have to take some time and write up everything that I have learned about the process. It was a heck of an education.

Arvid
 
I've got enough grey hair as it is. I don't know if I could handle as much "excitement" as you guys have had on these deals.

-Ron
 
Story ends a little short the mill arrived wityh the wrong taper instead o0f ISO30 for which I had purchased all the tooling it arrived MT4 I was shorted the vise, 8 inch rotary table + a few small items, also only shipped to Vancouver so I had to pay the Freight from there but the machine is nice, works great has a very7 nice DRO + coolant system, I am just fooling around with it now t-nuts sine vise etc but all seems fine. I would like to fighur out how to post a derrogatory review of this supplier so that others are aware of his methods before dealing with him. Any help in doing so would be appreciated.

Does anyone know how to get to the thread on Gerards shaper since it was moved? tom

Tom, it's called the better business Bureau here, but if it's china making the problem then I am sure there is some board of trade to help you out. The same thing happened over on either the smithy or 3-in-1 site. Except he ended up with an MT3 instead of the R8. He finally got one and had to instal it himself. And all his stuff wasn't there when he inventoried. Gotta watch em if you go direct.
Bob
 
G/Day Tom.. sorry to hear your import difficulties -- have had recent experience in direct purchase of SX4 mill together with a host of accessories & would highly recommend Sieg as supplier . Easy ,efficient & truthful - super courteous . Final cost was approx 60% of rrp in Aus. Really a no sweat exercise -- m/c arrived in pristine condition 2 weeks ahead of scheduled date!!
To any persons contemplating this route my advice is to be precise in knowing exactly what you want -- then go for it!!!Regards Jim.
 
I can see some cost saving for the basic mill as against purchasing locally. But from previous posts this has been whittled away due to shipping charges, incorrect extras, missing items, incorrect tool holding,[which would be a substantial loss if expecting it to match existing tooling].
If you are looking for a quick equipping of your tool room extreme care is needed. China is a long way away and returns etc is not cheap if possible at all.
I started by going to as many machinery auctions as I could this gave me a good background of what was what and prices to be expected.Over a period of about 5 years I had accumulated a fair amount of tooling concentrated on Int 30 and collet systems, and a substantial Harrison Lathe in good condition at about a quarter of the cost new.
Earlier on I had purchased A cheap import mill from a local supplier which was adequate for most job but lacked stability.As time went by the local supplier imported a neat universal mill http://www.machines4u.com.au/view/advert/HAFCO-METALMASTER-Milling-Machine-HM-52-X-600mm-/7058/
Without DRO at that time, so I availed my self with a trade in price with delivery and pick up of my old mill.
So this machine at just under a 1000Kg which would fit in most home workshops with road access was just what i needed. The thing is I you can take your time do so and you will have what makes you Happy.
Millalot.
 
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