Hi Guys,

I thought I'd just start the thread to document the process of buying a chinese machine. I'm from the UK, so my experience might be slightly different from most users on here....

Anyway, I've come to the realisation that my machine I'm building isn't going to get finished and I'm loosing work that could earn me money. The best option for me at this stage is to buy a new machine and that points me in the direction of the Chinese market.

I have read through a few forums about buying from China and there are some horror stories, but there are many many happy customers, who now own machines that are just as capable of machine manufactured in the USA, Canada, UK etc etc, but for a fraction of the price. I'm hoping to add to that list with my purchase.

Reading through many posts I've heard good things about Omni cnc and Quick cnc, so thats where I start first. I have contacted both companies and have found both Taney from Quick and Jack from Omni to be fantastic at replying with information, prices and advice. I'm looking for an 8 x 4 machine or 1325 format as they commonly come in (2500 x 1300). With my budget as my guide I find that the K45MT / 1325 and the Omni 1325 are my best options, both with similar specifications, both similar prices.

Quick K45MT/1325: This was the first machine that I looked into and I really liked the look of the quality of the machine and other users have documented their machine purchases with detailed photographs, which is really helpful and encouraging! When I first made contact with Taney he was more then helpful and was very forthcoming with information and prices. I was provided with a price list of all the machines and configurations within that machine type, so I could see what my money could get me. The prices also had 15% discount at this point, which made it even better! I was lucky enough to find an old customer of Quick with the same machine only in a bigger format and not to far from me. I went to view his machine this week and was very happy with the overall build quality and sturdiness, the machine was a few years old, but still performed very well.

Omni 1325: I thought I'd settled on the Quick machine, but tried Omni just to settle my mind. Jack has been very good to deal with and he replies very quickly with the information that I required. I would say that Omni allowed me to customise a quote a little better and to add on and take away what I wanted, maybe it was just the questions I asked? There seems to be a good following of these machines and many fans of Jack's willingness to help. I haven't yet seen an Omni machine in person, but I'm quite confident that the quality will equal that of Quick's

So.... I'm in a dilemma.... Which machine??

Just from personal preference alone I think I'm leaning towards the Omni 1325 with 6kw air cooled spindle, vac bed, mach3 (for now) and possibly servo's... The servo option is slightly more than I can afford and this would be for chinese servo's and drives. I was working on the theory that if my machine had cheap steppers and drives, if 1 failed then I could replace cheaply and quickly, or even keep some as spares just in case. However, with servo's I think these might be more durable, but costly to replace. I'd like the speed, smoothness and accuracy I'd get with the servo's or perhaps i don't really need them?? Any experiences and advice would be welcome on this matter. I'm thinking mach3 for now because I don't really like the DSP controller, that and I eventually want to upgrade to an atc spindle, so could incorporate this into mach3 or Eding cnc, which is what I will probably end up with.

Anyway, these are my thoughts for now. If anyone has any additional things to consider then please feel free to chip in