I'd be interested in seeing photos of where the failure was in the gearbox. Mine is still running just fine after nearly three years, so perhaps I got a good one. It does seem to indicate there are some variations in manufacturing and quality control. Mine was one of the first ones they imported, so perhaps a bit more care went into it.
-
Welcome back Guest! Did you know you can mentor other members here at H-M? If not, please check out our Relaunch of Hobby Machinist Mentoring Program!
Craftex CX701 Lathe
- Thread starter Drifter1885
- Start date
Not that I had any plans to buy a machine from Busy Bee, but in case they do happen to read this thread, here's another Canadian that will not consider it in the future......
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2013
- Messages
- 102
Wow I have been looking around their site lately checking at the small lathes. I even made a search on busybee on the forum but missed this particular thread .Even if im not ready yet to buy one I now know that when it happens it wont be from them! One less option will make the choice a bit easier! I dont understand how people feel ok selling non working crap in the first place and then look at you with the "who cares " face when you come back at them.
Sorry for your bad experience but glad you shared it
Sorry for your bad experience but glad you shared it
Never been happy with BusyBee service. Example, the last time I tried to place an order online... after 5 days with no tracking number I send them a message and find out that 80% of my items are on 6 week backorder. Not only did their website fail to say anything was out of stock, but they were just never going to tell me about it either. I cancelled that order and haven't ordered since. Also when they opened the new location in Saskatoon (lasted less than a year IIRC) it took them forever to get my bandsaw brought up to me.
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2013
- Messages
- 22
Realize that this thread went quiet a year ago but wanted to add another opinion on the lathe topic:
Busy Bee: horrendous! They originally advertised their CX-series as being 'better made' and that most of the machines were 'Made in Taiwan'. If you check as of today, not a single CX-series lathe comes from Taiwan...but China.
- I have a CX701 and it was barely a decent machine. Had a problem with the carriage jamming and found that the pinion that drives along the bed rack was bent. Got replacement parts ordered (paid parts price + 60% for RUSH shipping since I was told 3-4 months wait if I didn't) and 1/2 of the replacement parts I ordered were WORSE than the originals I was replacing. Wrong dimensions, poor finish, dull tooling making jagged cuts...you name it. Clearly they're not even making machines from these parts as they DONT FIT!!! Other than my original parts being damaged, they actually had a better fit/finish than the new ones!!!
- Called Busybee back and asked what these garbage parts were supposed to do for me. Their answer 'yes, there may be issues...we have no control over what they send and you'll have to modify them yourself if you want your machine running again'. What?!?? WHAT?!?!? Complete cop-out of taking responsibility and the audacity to tell the Customer that they have to compensate for the manufacturers short-comings. Complete BS and some of the worst quality control I've ever seen.
Was considering the CX707 as the next plausible lathe and told them I will never buy their junk equipment again. The entire reasons for buying from these guys was 'local support' and 'Canadian Customer Service'...and they are almost entirely absent. Heck, my lathe would have actually been a complete write-off unless I was willing to spend the time modifying the junk replacement parts and making them fit.
Grizzly: I hear guys frustrated with Busy Bee and say 'I gonna buy from Grizzly instead'. Really? Do you know that they're owned by the same family?!? I was on a vacation in Washington State and was stoked to be able to finally see the Grizzly Showroom and their lathes (was before I bought the CX701). What I saw was a bunch of cheap Chinese garbage. Lathes were sloppy on all axis, rough casting in a few spots and just by feel you could tell they were low quality machines. No one came to provide me assistance in the 30min I was looking around their showroom and I had to hunt down a salesperson to get information. Picked out a set of NPT tape set and they were $50USD...and claimed to be HSS. I thought 'this is an incredible price' since even a single tap in the larger sizes is worth that in HSS in Canada. However, I felt the taps and they edge didnt feel sharp...and I also noticed there was no HSS marking on the dies. Salesman I hunted down said 'it doesnt have to stamped to be HSS' and I said I've never seen a HSS tool not marked. Asked him if he wasn't interested in metalurgical test results since my wife is an Engineer and one of their Depts can do that testing. Changed his story and said that 'maybe they aren't....' Their 2015 printed catalog still shows them as being HSS but lo and behold, their webiste had been 'updated' to state that they are 'carbon steel'. BUSTED!!!
Frankly, I am frustrated with the garbage that is being sold as the Chinese have gotten very good at making products that 'look good', but arent...and there are a number of unscrupulous resellers that flog their junk and claim that its better quality than it is.
Dont even get me started on KMS 'Magnum' equipment and the plaster that they use as filler in the casting holes/heavy blue paint on top of to make the machinery look solid. Salemen said that they get such 'good pricing' from Magnum that their policy is to simply to throw out all returns becuase they're not worth the cost of shipping defects back to manufacturer for claim purposese. Instead, they get a reduced cost to compensate for the expected 'failure rate'.
Pathetic.
Busy Bee: horrendous! They originally advertised their CX-series as being 'better made' and that most of the machines were 'Made in Taiwan'. If you check as of today, not a single CX-series lathe comes from Taiwan...but China.
- I have a CX701 and it was barely a decent machine. Had a problem with the carriage jamming and found that the pinion that drives along the bed rack was bent. Got replacement parts ordered (paid parts price + 60% for RUSH shipping since I was told 3-4 months wait if I didn't) and 1/2 of the replacement parts I ordered were WORSE than the originals I was replacing. Wrong dimensions, poor finish, dull tooling making jagged cuts...you name it. Clearly they're not even making machines from these parts as they DONT FIT!!! Other than my original parts being damaged, they actually had a better fit/finish than the new ones!!!
- Called Busybee back and asked what these garbage parts were supposed to do for me. Their answer 'yes, there may be issues...we have no control over what they send and you'll have to modify them yourself if you want your machine running again'. What?!?? WHAT?!?!? Complete cop-out of taking responsibility and the audacity to tell the Customer that they have to compensate for the manufacturers short-comings. Complete BS and some of the worst quality control I've ever seen.
Was considering the CX707 as the next plausible lathe and told them I will never buy their junk equipment again. The entire reasons for buying from these guys was 'local support' and 'Canadian Customer Service'...and they are almost entirely absent. Heck, my lathe would have actually been a complete write-off unless I was willing to spend the time modifying the junk replacement parts and making them fit.
Grizzly: I hear guys frustrated with Busy Bee and say 'I gonna buy from Grizzly instead'. Really? Do you know that they're owned by the same family?!? I was on a vacation in Washington State and was stoked to be able to finally see the Grizzly Showroom and their lathes (was before I bought the CX701). What I saw was a bunch of cheap Chinese garbage. Lathes were sloppy on all axis, rough casting in a few spots and just by feel you could tell they were low quality machines. No one came to provide me assistance in the 30min I was looking around their showroom and I had to hunt down a salesperson to get information. Picked out a set of NPT tape set and they were $50USD...and claimed to be HSS. I thought 'this is an incredible price' since even a single tap in the larger sizes is worth that in HSS in Canada. However, I felt the taps and they edge didnt feel sharp...and I also noticed there was no HSS marking on the dies. Salesman I hunted down said 'it doesnt have to stamped to be HSS' and I said I've never seen a HSS tool not marked. Asked him if he wasn't interested in metalurgical test results since my wife is an Engineer and one of their Depts can do that testing. Changed his story and said that 'maybe they aren't....' Their 2015 printed catalog still shows them as being HSS but lo and behold, their webiste had been 'updated' to state that they are 'carbon steel'. BUSTED!!!
Frankly, I am frustrated with the garbage that is being sold as the Chinese have gotten very good at making products that 'look good', but arent...and there are a number of unscrupulous resellers that flog their junk and claim that its better quality than it is.
Dont even get me started on KMS 'Magnum' equipment and the plaster that they use as filler in the casting holes/heavy blue paint on top of to make the machinery look solid. Salemen said that they get such 'good pricing' from Magnum that their policy is to simply to throw out all returns becuase they're not worth the cost of shipping defects back to manufacturer for claim purposese. Instead, they get a reduced cost to compensate for the expected 'failure rate'.
Pathetic.
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2013
- Messages
- 22
I hear your optimism...but it's unfounded and won't produce the desired result. If you had heard the tone of Busy Bee tech guy and how defeated he sounded, you'd realize 1) he doesn't care or 2) he's been beaten down by management and if he wants to keep his job, cannot afford to care. Really is only 1 way to have them hear us: STOP BUYING FROM BUSY BEE.