The thing you need to understand with the cheaper (home shop) Asian equipment suppliers is that you are the QC inspector. Assume nothing has been checked and you will be on the right track. You will need to thoroughly inspect any new equipment and make sure your supplier will work with you if you find any problems. I bought my mill from Grizzly when they closed their Muncy, PA store as I was able to get a good deal with a discount and no shipping costs. PM Research in Pittsburgh would be another almost local option for me but I don't plan on buying anything else in the near future.
While I did some customizing to it, my mill (Taiwan) has always worked fine and been within specifications on tolerances and produced plenty of good parts over the years. Any issues I had was usually from the monkey turning the knobs. I've also helped people online diagnose problems with the exact same mill. To their credit, when presented with a clear and sane description of the problem Grizzly quickly sent replacement parts and that fellow was able to fix his mill and was happy in the end. He just had to do a little work.
Matt at PM isn't stupid and isn't afraid to offer influencers free or really good deals on shop equipment as the advertising is golden. Quinn got her current PM mill for free, which was freely announced but I'm sure she bought her PM lathe and first PM mill because she was unknown at the time.
Watch the beginning of this:
Yes , I'm aware Quinn got her PM 728VT sent free to her, along with the Preist column lift and tons of other stuff as well as getting a little kick back from Amazon & who knows who else, I've actually watched that video before. Quinn still seems to be fairly impartial and matter of fact in her reviews. I like her style and knowledge and the way she relays information, yes I've seen her do things that a rookie would do IE crash her lathe carriage & bend the gear shaft.she has over 215k subscribers so I'm sure she's making a fulltime living from her YouTube proceeds, if you look up her bio, she's a very intelligent and qualified & accomplished electronic gaming tech whiz.
I just realized I've had a Grizzly 15" planer and 18" bandsaw for over 30 yrs, yes there is some things (sheet metal work) that is chinzy....but they have always worked. I am still a bigger fan of American tooling, but you can't find it new much anymore(for any price)
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