Re: VM-B Myford Mill import

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@e..., Alan Marconett KM6VV <KM6VV@a...> wrote:

> Hi to the list,
>
> Have any of you chaps in the U.K. seen the VM-B mill that Myford is
> importing from Taiwan?
>
> http://www.lautard.com/
>
> Look under Myford, for the mill pix at the bottom.
>
> It was mentioned before on one of the lists. What do people think?
> Approximate price and shipping is around $2000 USD, figuring about

$625

> for shipping and packing to west coast U.S. Guy also mentions

a "Baby"

> Bridgeport.
>

Alan,
Myfords have been importing this for quite a while. In the early days
they stripped them down and rebuilt them, put either UK or French
electrics on and sold them.
The same machine has always been available here from various
importers at a lower cost and usually at a lower standard.
Over the years though there has been massive investment in Taiwanese
industry with CNC taking over from the old hand produced machines and
the quality has risen sharply.

This same machine is still offered in the UK by importers such as
Warco and Chester [ no connection ]and is now to the same standard as
the Myford one. Last year in the search for a new lathe I examined a
lot of imported machine tools and was very impressed by the quality
and features offered. I would now go as far as to say that I can't
see how, other than a paint job Myfords could improve the quality of
one of these machines, electrics excepted.

As these are just straight imports there must be importers in the US
Jet,?? Grizzly ?? MSC, ?? or others who offer the same machine.
From a current issue of Model Engineer the Chester offered model is
priced at 1450UKP [ $2175 ]complete with electrics etc. Bear in mind
that we pay far higher in the UK for something like this than you in
the US due to import taxes.

One machine I saw at a recent show was a Chester displayed mill.
Three quarter Bridgeport size with a table at about 6 x 32, it was a
horizontal mill with a swiveling turret a'la Bridgeport on the top so
you got the best of both worlds. The vertical head was on a single
swivel, not a double knuckle, quill feed and seperate motor. The
whole setup probably weighed about 500 - 600 pounds and was very well
made. This carried a price tag of 3000 UKP [ $4500 ]As a price guide
the Bridgeport clones were 5000 UKP
Unfortunatly they had no leaflets on it and I don't have a Chester
catalogue. I guessed that they had only just started importing it as
non of the other stands had anything like it.