[bigspike]

I am sitting here with cash in hand and cannot get them to reply to my email, call me back, or answer the phone. SO sad.

Last week I emailed IH with a couple of questions like:
Do you have any manual unmodified mills in stock?
How long will it take to put one on a truck?
If I have it picked up will I need to pay sales tax for an out of state delivery?

(I know these are very tough questions)
Then I called and incredibly a girl answered. I asked her if they had any manual mills in stock. After a pause she replied "I ... um ... think so?" Then she said I needed to talk to Tommy. She said she would have him call me back in an hour.

After reading of the problems some have had with receiving products I had a seriously low confidence level about IH, It went lower during that phone call. Five days later and a couple more attempts to speak to them and my confidence level is nil.

I had no expectation of warranty support if I did buy one of their mills, I expect they will be out of business soon.

Does anyone know of anyone in the US selling a clone of this mill? I really wanted the larger travels. MTW is out of stock and taking orders for the Aug shipment which means October or Nov delivery? And of course they are in Canada so there is the whole importing issue. I just don't want to wait till Christmas to cut some chips.

[doorknob]

Not good, although the holiday may be an excuse (although not necessarily a good one).

I'm somewhat interested in getting one of the manual mills, and as I'm not all that far away from the company's location in CT I'm considering setting up an appointment to visit the place and see the mill in person. I am at least a month away from making a purchase, though...

Please update this thread if you ever do get actual answers to your questions...

[Rbeckett]

Darn, that just sucks all the way around. If I couldnt get a person to answer if they have an item I want for sale I would look elsewhere for the product. In the current economy, there is somebody out there willing to take your money and give you service in return. That is really a bad deal. I would order/buy a good unit from another vendor, and send em an email showing the Pres of that company what I bought from his competitor and why. May just help the next poor guy get a little service. Just my .02 though...
Bob

[GITERDUN]

I am sitting here with cash in hand and cannot get them to reply to my email, call me back, or answer the phone. SO sad.

Last week I emailed IH with a couple of questions like:
Do you have any manual unmodified mills in stock?
How long will it take to put one on a truck?
If I have it picked up will I need to pay sales tax for an out of state delivery?

(I know these are very tough questions)
Then I called and incredibly a girl answered. I asked her if they had any manual mills in stock. After a pause she replied "I ... um ... think so?" Then she said I needed to talk to Tommy. She said she would have him call me back in an hour.

After reading of the problems some have had with receiving products I had a seriously low confidence level about IH, It went lower during that phone call. Five days later and a couple more attempts to speak to them and my confidence level is nil.

I had no expectation of warranty support if I did buy one of their mills, I expect they will be out of business soon.

.

Another guy posted on the Tormach or Syil site a while back a bunch of information from the customs records. According to that, IH had only made one small order of machines about this time last year. That, combined with all the posts here about un returned calls and non shipped items would lead me to believe this is a company in the wind-down stage. If I were a buyer, the only way I would place an order would be with cash at their warehouse door once the machine was loaded on my truck.

[Hack]

Didn't this company change hands not to long ago? Perhaps a year and a half or so? What was the reason it changed hands then? With all the positive fanfare this company was given in the past, it seems a shame to start seeing negative posts. I always thought it was a pretty good niche market with decent sales.

Shoot, maybe I should have bought it.

[bigspike]

... If I were a buyer, the only way I would place an order would be with cash at their warehouse door once the machine was loaded on my truck.

Exactly why I was asking about sales tax. If I felt I could depend on them shipping the mill at $400 to my city I would already have paid for the mill. Since it would cost me something like $700 in gas to pick it up myself, the additional sales tax of another $200 really makes you rethink a purchase.

An extra $500+ and 3 days travel sucks. Especially when grizzly delivers for a total cost of $2224. Are the larger travels of the IH mill at $2400 plus $700 gas plus $200 tax plus $200 motels & food, which equals about $3500 delivered ... ... ... I guess I answered my own question. LOL

I cannot find any other sources for the larger IH clone besides Machine Tool Warehouse, so Grizzly got my money. Pulled the trigger just minutes ago and bought two of them!

I'm a little dizzy now, so I need to go lie down. :wee:

[doorknob]

Which Grizzly model did you get?

The "G0484 9" x 32" Gear-Head Mill / Drill with Stand"?

[bigspike]

Which Grizzly model did you get?

The "G0484 9" x 32" Gear-Head Mill / Drill with Stand"?

Yes, Now I need to get busy and clean the garage

[pobanion]

Hi BigSpike..

Does anyone know of anyone in the US selling a clone of this mill? I really wanted the larger travels. MTW is out of stock and taking orders for the Aug shipment which means October or Nov delivery? And of course they are in Canada so there is the whole importing issue. I just don't want to wait till Christmas to cut some chips.

We are taking orders for a late August shipment so anything ordered should be shipped out to the customer by early September.

Crossing the border is not that bad. There is a 4.2% US Gov duty and a brokerage fee on top of the shipping, but overall the total cost is not that bad.


Regards,
MTW

[doorknob]

Hi BigSpike..



We are taking orders for a late August shipment so anything ordered should be shipped out to the customer by early September.

Crossing the border is not that bad. There is a 4.2% US Gov duty and a brokerage fee on top of the shipping, but overall the total cost is not that bad.


Regards,
MTW

Is an X-axis power feed available with that unit?

I'm certainly interested, although I may not be ready to pull the trigger before sometime this fall...

[pobanion]

Yes there is.... They are in the clearance section for $199 CDN...

https://www.machinetoolswarehouse.co...cat=307&page=1

Regards,
MTW

[nlbrewe]

I got my IH 12Z manual mill with power feed and DRO on Monday, July 6. I ordered and paid for it on January 16, 2010. I did send several e-mails to Tommy and he replied to each after several days. Mill crate says it was one of 43 entering in Los Angeles, but no date. Model is ZAY7045HF. Just finished building a stand, so the next stop is getting the mill into the basement.

[RAC]

Is an X-axis power feed available with that unit?

I'm certainly interested, although I may not be ready to pull the trigger before sometime this fall...

Pat at MTW is an excellent guy to deal with, I bought my IH clone from Pat several months ago, and it was a very enjoyable transaction.

[ViperTX]

Personally, I haven't seen any response from a company that cares about its customers. I know that Gene recently passed away and I'm sure that Tommy and his crew are working frantically to keep the business alive. However, without any response from Tommy or whomever owns IH...it just may be time for us all to "pull the plug" and tally our loses and bid IH adieu.

Paul

[tlfamm]

Poster BigSpike purchased two of : "G0484 9" x 32" Gear-Head Mill / Drill with Stand"

Over the weekend, I purchased same. The IH mill would have been a serious candidate, but not given the circumstances related in this thread, and elsewhere in the forum.

Lost sales, unfulfilled customers, etc, etc - very sad, and the outcome doesn't look promising for IH ...

-----------------------------------------------

[bigspike]

I called Grizzly before purchasing to see if they were planning to bring in the IH clones, but they could not say. The customer service rep did not know and they don't start on their new catalog until the fall so I went ahead and ordered the G0484's. Hard to beat the price, reputation, ease of contacting, responsive service and they already shipped my order.

NLBREWE says he got his mill after waiting almost 7 months. I'm sorry but even I could install a DRO and power feed quicker than that and I have no experience.

I still have not received an answer to my email or phone call. I am glad I moved on.

[tlfamm]

Uh-Oh: UPS Freight called: the mill is being delivered tomorrow morning - am I ready? Hell no, I'm not ready ...



I'm 450 miles from the Muncy, Pa. warehouse: order placed Saturday, mill being delivered Wednesday.

I should have gone with IH - I would have had months to prepare.

[RustedOut]

Boy, the differences between that Grizzly and the IH are pretty big, especially factoring into the small price difference between the two. I gave up on getting a complete kit from IH, but I think I would have tried real hard to do a deal for a manual mill from Tommy before spending my money on the Grizzly. Not knocking you guy's decision, just saying, for the money, the IH mill stands a head above that mill.

So, maybe there's a good reason the Canada tool warehouse had run out of IH clone stock and IH is behind. I've heard that Tommy can be quick answering a text message to him. And the Canada guy said a day or so ago he had them available, or would soon.

Bob

[sharpshooter90]

I got my IH 12Z manual mill with power feed and DRO on Monday, July 6. I ordered and paid for it on January 16, 2010. I did send several e-mails to Tommy and he replied to each after several days. Mill crate says it was one of 43 entering in Los Angeles, but no date. Model is ZAY7045HF. Just finished building a stand, so the next stop is getting the mill into the basement.

According to US Customs records, IH had only 1 shipment of machines in 2009 and 2010- that was 43 machines that arrived in LA on Sept. 9, 2009. 43 units in 22 months does not translate into much volume. Its pretty hard to imagine a company surviving on such small sales, especially if they still have some of those 43 in stock.

[Runner4404spd]

43 machines translates into $80,000 for the manual mills or about 430,000 as cncs. thats alot of money for one guy to try and generate by himself. not to mention, i built one of these cnc mills and really after following all the little procedures and then some i would be hard pressed to believe that one guy can build much more than 2-3 of the full turnkey units per month. the disassembly alone takes a while and then all the mods that have to be done by hand.