[Babba]

I'm looking to purchase a light duty CNC mill for around £3-£4k and following the research, I'd rather pay the extra for a Tormach than a Syil X3 (unless there's one I've missed ?).

Is there anyone here who has succesfully imported one to the UK and would like to share their experience????

[philbur]

I imported to Norway, which is probably the same difference.

Order the machine, Tormach will give you a quote including the shipping cost. Then find yourself a local freight forwarding agent that handle imports. When Tormach is ready to ship give them the agents details (plus the $$$), my shipping cost was USD 942.The forwarding agent will then handle everything at your end including import and delivery to you door etc. When instructed by the agent you just cough up money for import duty, handling fee, local transport etc.

Piece of cake really.

Regards
Phil

I'm looking to purchase a light duty CNC mill for around £3-£4k and following the research, I'd rather pay the extra for a Tormach than a Syil X3 (unless there's one I've missed ?).

Is there anyone here who has succesfully imported one to the UK and would like to share their experience????

[davebaldwin]

I imported a mill, deluxe stand, rotary table and some tooling last year and John Prentice (he works for Tormach out of the UK) was very helpful recommending a route and agents. I imported as a private individual - if you are VAT registered or a registered company then some of this will be different.

The agent I used was ACC Shipping Ltd., 01474 333387 ([email protected]) who did a very good job. They handled picking up the machine from Tormach (they used West Forwarding in the USA), consolidating it in a container, shipping to the UK and arranging delivery from the port to my home in Weybridge. Alan Rose was my main point of contact although June Rogers did most of the work in the later stages. The initial quote was from delivery via London docks but delivery was actually done via Liverpool docks so the local haulage cost ended up higher than was quoted.

The only thing that went wrong was the instructions for a tailgate lorry with a pallet truck went missing so it took two goes to deliver it to my home. Also I was supposed to get advanced warning of the delivery so I could be their to receive it but this never happened.

You will need your invoice from Tormach to have the import tariff codes against each item as import duty and VAT are payable. Tormach should have these on file as I supplied them for my order.

Insurance is optional but given the value of the goods I choose to have it. UK shipping agents are no longer allowed to sell insurance so I had to arrange this separately. I don't recall offhand who I used but I think it was about £50.

VAT is of course payable. If you are registered then no problem otherwise you need to get H M Customs & Excise to issue a Pseudo TURN (Trader Unique Reference Number). I did all this via ACC so apart from filling in a form ACC supplied this was no big deal. ACC have a deferment system so they will pay the duty and VAT on you behalf so a small admin charge (2% or £35). You should allow 20% to cover VAT and duty.

The machine didn't have a CE certificate - not an issue for home use.

The shipping took a month - I wasn't in any hurry and needed the time to get organised. In fact it all stayed boxed for a further 4 months until I was ready.

The ACC Shipping fee was £619.43. VAT and duty was £1245.28, but the exchange rate will help you here and obviously depends on what you are buying.

All in all using ACC Shipping made this a very painless exercise and they were very helpful in answering my questions and holding my hand through this mysterious process.

Dave.

[Babba]

Thanx Dave, very usefull info.

One question I have to ask . . . having spent the money & used the mill, have you any regrets? Is there something out there, maybe even 2nd hand, that you wish you'd spent the money on????

I have to say, at this moment, I'm thinking the Tormach's benefits are not VFM over the £3k it will cost for a Syil X3 cnc.

[philbur]

VFM?

Phil

I have to say, at this moment, I'm thinking the Tormach's benefits are not VFM over the £3k it will cost for a Syil X3 cnc.

[digits]

VFM?

Phil

Value For Money

[digits]

Thanks for the cost breakdown Dave - I had always suspected that it would be a lot more expensive than $6,800 => ~£3500, but another £2k to get it over and through customs is rather an eye opener!

Still, I can't think of what else you'd get with that much capacity for £5,500 all in...

[davebaldwin]

Badda, I have no regrets in buying the Tormach - the only thing I wish I had done was to delay my purchase and benefited from the improved specification (a general truism, I suppose, but you have to start somewhere!).

As things turned out I was a long time before I was able to install the mill and use it, and even now I have too many other balls up in the air to really do justice to it. So far I have cut a few clock gears using a rotary table and form cutter and then crossed them out. I have also cut some clock escape wheels as a 2D milling operation as well as cutting some holes in cases and routing some wood so my general use has been very light and hardly stresses the mill at all.

I still haven't noticed anything else that compares in price and quality, but I haven't been really looking. I wanted a turn-key solution so I didn't consider adapting a manual mill and the idea of a mill designed for CNC appealed a lot. The documentation and support material on the Tormach web site puts all the other manufactures to shame. The support is first class and even when I found a fault (oil sight on the rotary table was broken) out of warranty - due to unpacking delays - a replacement was sent without any quibbles.

Dave.