Hello everyone,

I've been asked a LOT lately about what I think of the "import" machines, as I'll refer to them. Unless you've been living under a rock, you know exactly what country these machines are being imported from, and exactly what I'm talking about. One former customer of mine actually had the chutzpa to call and ask me for help on his import machine that he bought direct from the manufacturer. He wanted the benefit of an engineer's hard work and help while paying the junk machine prices.

Rather than go over this again and again with the people who ask me about them, I thought it'd be good for me to spell out my feelings on them, and perhaps spark some discussion.

Why I don't like cheap imported CNC machines:
a) They're all the same damn thing. They all look alike, they all work the same, and they all break the same (frequently!). Are some of them slightly better than others? Sure. Are any of them even remotely as good as a machine designed by someone who knew what they were doing? No way.

b) They were designed without the user, product and process in mind. They're difficult to use, very light on features, and reek of "cargo cult engineering", where machines are built in a certain way because that's how the engineers there saw it being built before.

c) there is no QC. I've seen machines come in that were clearly never run. Missing parts, loose screws everywhere. Wiring that fails on first use, or is downright dangerous.

d) Underrated or counterfeit components! One major example is some of the switches in some machines I've seen - The switch was made by Schneider Electric, but it was a discontinued model that hasn't been made for years. it was 100% counterfeit and all of them failed inside of weeks. Other components were either terribly underrated or simply the wrong things to use. Forget any kind of UL or CSA listing!

e) no regard to warranty or longevity. Many of the machines I've been proud to be associated with work literally for decades without any trouble. The ones that do have trouble get fixed and continue on their way. This is absolutely not the case with the import machines, all of which are designed with the lowest quality parts possible to get things out the door. There is no pride in this work. Nobody in the process cares about the equipment or the customer.

f) Lastly, and most importantly, the ethical side: I don't believe that things built on the backs of what is basically slave labor are acceptable these days. When I bring this up, people will bring up many examples, such as the American industrial revolution. They tell me that the oppression of the common man is a growing pain that comes when a country moves from third to first world. I'm no sociologist or economist, but I do see a few major differences between then and now.
Now, you have entire countries benefiting from the cheap labor, materials and goods being built, without providing anything in return.
Moreover, we're supposed to learn from our mistakes, not benefit from watching other people make them. We are a nation resting on its laurels, reaping the suffering of a country that wants to be like us. It's global-scale economic hazing, we're charging a steep entry fee to get into the fraternity of the middle class. For what it's worth, by the time we do, at this rate, we won't be members ourselves.

Am I a hypocrite? Sure. I've got a phone made in China, probably and 90-99% of the computer components I use to design equipment are made in China, Malaysia or Indonesia. Do I have a choice? For most things, no. But whenever I do, I steer clear of buying things made with the benefit of suffering. I went 10 years, refusing to buy a new winter coat until I found one made in the UK. All my shoes are US made. I understand that my choices have less than a negligible effect on the situation, and some people even argue that by not buying these things, I'm prolonging the abuse of labor, that the more trade we do, the faster things will get better for the laborers.

What would I like to see? Sometimes people accuse me of wanting to keep everything the way it was, and that's quite the opposite indeed. I'd love to see all the major producers rapidly increase their standard of living and working. I'd love to see China do what Japan did in the 70s-80's. If the quality of products and labor in China were to go up, if the workers were treated properly, if the products were on par with the quality of the modern nations, we wouldn't have the trade imbalance we have. Yes, you wouldn't be able to get an ipod for $100. A tv would cost twice or three times what it does. In exchange for this, however, there would be less drive to make things as poorly and cheaply as possible, and ultimately, less suffering.

Eric