Importing a Chinese lathe

When I bought my Grizzly G4003G 3 years ago it was only $3,300+/-. The price rise you are currently seeing is the Trump tariff.

But be that as it may, the G4003G weights in at 1200 pounds while that things weights in a 280Kg = 616 pounds. In this case, weight is your friend.
 
Presuming your new lathe comes by ship, how long will it take to get here?
 
Sumore said the will continue to make parts available after warranty.

I have some coastal property in Oklahoma if you are interested.

I have zero faith in offshore suppliers who do not have a well-established domestic distributor with parts and tech help that speak English. Too many time what is advertised is not what is delivered and once you start complaining they start ignoring emails. If it goes south it will be a very expensive chunk of iron scrap.

I have the T-shirt. YMMV - Good luck,

Stu
 
any objections to buying a used lathe? $3000 is a decent amount of change to play with and could get you:
SB lathe, appears reasonably tooled, $2200

Large LeBlond, not super well tooled, $3500

Bit further afield
SB13, some tooling, $2225

Logan (11"?), well tooled, $2500

Cincinnati tray top 12", reasonably tooled, $3000 and it's in Cincinnati!!

REALLY nice SB heavy 10, $4200

12" Craftsman, VERY well tooled, $1250. Not a "pro" lathe, but it'll leave a hell of a lot in your budget for other things (like a mill?)

These will all require some effort to get, but no more than you're will to undertake importing one.

Just something to think about.
 
In favor of the Grizzly 10x22 they are available with both inch and metric dials. It is unclear whether of not they have inch or metric lead screw, but I know a complaint with the 9x19 is that it has a metric lead screw with inch dials.

Grizzly does have an 11x26 lathe for a few hundred more than the 10x22 but you would have to put a DRO on it yourself. Unclear if it is a metric with inch dials or inch with inch dials.

I've used Grizzly to get parts for my Enco 9x20 (same as their G4000) and they have been easy to deal with. At least worth a call to Grizzly to see if they offer any of their lathes set up with metric dials and metric lead screws.


any objections to buying a used lathe? $3000 is a decent amount of change to play with and could get you:
SB lathe, appears reasonably tooled, $2200

Large LeBlond, not super well tooled, $3500

Bit further afield
SB13, some tooling, $2225

Logan (11"?), well tooled, $2500

Cincinnati tray top 12", reasonably tooled, $3000 and it's in Cincinnati!!

REALLY nice SB heavy 10, $4200

12" Craftsman, VERY well tooled, $1250. Not a "pro" lathe, but it'll leave a hell of a lot in your budget for other things (like a mill?)

These will all require some effort to get, but no more than you're will to undertake importing one.

Just something to think about.

He works 100% in metric, most vintage lathes, even older imports are set up for inch.
 
Thanks, but I absolutely never want the nightmare of another used lathe. I've wasted 6 months of my life that I will never get back repairing my last one, when I should have been making parts. And I don't truck, don't have a lift, so have no way of moving a used lathe. And I need metric threading at least. I know there's a lot of people here into vintage machinery, I respect that, but I just want a tool that I can use to make prototype parts, not rebuild tools.

I don't know, maybe I'll just shell out a little more and get a Precision Matthews, and have something ready to go.

any objections to buying a used lathe? $3000 is a decent amount of change to play with and could get you:
SB lathe, appears reasonably tooled, $2200

Large LeBlond, not super well tooled, $3500

Bit further afield
SB13, some tooling, $2225

Logan (11"?), well tooled, $2500

Cincinnati tray top 12", reasonably tooled, $3000 and it's in Cincinnati!!

REALLY nice SB heavy 10, $4200

12" Craftsman, VERY well tooled, $1250. Not a "pro" lathe, but it'll leave a hell of a lot in your budget for other things (like a mill?)

These will all require some effort to get, but no more than you're will to undertake importing one.

Just something to think about.
 
Tariffs will likely expire after January if you catch what I’m saying.

They’re a political stunt, and serve no other purpose. US manufacturers have not made small lathes in FORTY years, they only make extreme high dollar enterprise CNC where there is more profit. There simply isn’t enough profit with the smaller tools for US manufacturers to bother with.

What tarrifs are doing is hurting small business and consumers because tarrifs are an extreme regressive tax.


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While I agree with this completely, I know that Grizzly sells South Bend lathes... where are they manufactured?
 
Another though in regards to importing, maybe hit up some of our Canadian members for vendors in the North. The US to Canadian dollar exchange is in our favor and Canada has taken the conversion to metric much further tha we have. Dealing with a Canadian importer / and service provider is probably a lot easier than one in China. Might avoid some of the tarriffs as well.
 
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