[MichaelHenry]

The latest issue of Digital Machinist has a Charter Oak ad in it and it looks like they are now selling at least a couple of Syil machine tools. Was there an official announcement on this here or in the Syil forum? Their web site seems silent on the issue, too, so maybe the ad jumped the gun a bit.

[tmarks11]

They list the syil x4, x5 mill and the ex250 lathe on their product page. Hopefully CO will make a better go of it than the last two vendors.

SyiL X5 Pro CNC Mill | Charter Oak Automation

[jetflatline]

I don't know from Syil, but the ads in the latest mags are pretty impressive if that's their product line. I'm just finishing the CNC on my (now ancient :-) IH mill and wanting toolchange and other fancy accessories. Not sure I want to invest in a new mill, tho.

[tmarks11]

Go look at the back threads in the Syil forum, try to count the number of people with non-working machines, and draw your own conclusions.

Never seen or used one myself, but it takes more than bondo and pretty paint to make a precision, reliable machine tool.

The biggest problem (historically) seemed to be no support in country, with the only help users received was poor translated english.

There were two vendors who sold the machines for awhile, Syil America (now know as Big Dog Metal Works selling manual machines) in Coos Bay, Or, and Syil Canada, which became Syil North America, promised all sorts of support, and promptly disappeared without a trace.

Syil America still has a website, but I have not heard anything from anyone who has bought a Syil machine from them in several years.

As I said, I hope CO can turn that trend around, since the Syil machines (on paper) seem to be a nice option.

I think the UK Syil dealer did much better for a while, but I think he is now out of the business as well.