PM-25MV original manufacturer

[hedeon]

I really hope I will not offend Precision Matthews or anyone really by asking this question here.

I am quite interested in buying my first mill (never machined before) and PM-25MV seams to come up a fair bit in my searches as one of the best in that price range. I consider buying it, but I am based in UK. Now, I learnt that this these mills and lathes are not really manufactured by brand names, but are imported and rebranded from China. Model PM-25MV apparently it is based on (cloned?) another machine of Optimum. And there are many manufacturers of these clones in China, and some of them are good, some of them are not.

So does anybody know who is the original manufacturer of PM-25MV? What I am trying to do is to identify which machines available in UK market are the same as PM-25MV. Alternatively, I would like to know how to distinguish a good clone form bad.

As a side note, I would like to express my frustration. I find rebranding of these machines really confusing. For someone like me, who is new to hobby it is very difficult to follow what machine is what. I don't blame anybody, I know that Chinese suppliers are giving this option to put your own brand name and colour on to ordered machines...

 

[T Bredehoft]

Precision Matthews [brand], is one of the products of an (unknown to me) manufactury in China. Their products are made to specifications from the customer, PM. Not just paint and name, but tolerances and other items. For instance, lead screws are in inches rather than metric, ditto dials. Quality is specified, not guessed at. Matt (PM) has a very good reputation based upon the machines he orders and sells. Sometimes something slips through and Matt will go as far as needed to put any problems right.

So, in reality it's not the manufacturer but the customer who is responsible for quality.

 

[petcnc]

Life is strange sometimes! People from Europe buy their machines from UK and British people looking in USA for their machines.
I believe that as PM sells machines "made according to their specs" many other companies in UK and rest of Europe follow the same route!
Do not take me wrong!
I have no relations to any of them companies! I just made my research and bought my machines from UK.
Petros

 

[hedeon]

Life is strange sometimes! People from Europe buy their machines from UK and British people looking in USA for their machines.
I believe that as PM sells machines "made according to their specs" many other companies in UK and rest of Europe follow the same route!
Do not take me wrong!
I have no relations to any of them companies! I just made my research and bought my machines from UK.
Petros

Not trying to buy from USA. I am just trying to avoid buying a lesser machine. As a noob, I have to rely on some sort of guidance. Because of the population of USA, PM comes up a lot more on the internet and youtube than i.e Warco. Thinking of going Sieg SX2.7 (LMS HiTorque 5500) anyway. So what did you get if you don't mind me asking?

 

[petcnc]

I have bought a CLARKE CLM300M VARIABLE SPEED mini lathe from Chronos some 10 years ago and a SIEG SX2 PLUS Mini Mill from ARCEUROTRADE 5 years ago.
I am happy with both of them and they perform well for mini machines. Of course I made a number of modifications to them as I was learningg how to operate them (you can see all of them in the section MINI-LATHE & MINI-MILL INFORMATION)
If I had to start again today I would choose bigger machines so I could machine the same parts I do but faster (deeper cuts)

Petros