Chinglish

[wynn]

This is an interesting subject, we don't have to leave our borders to hear strange english being spoken.
eg;

english;
Allen is in the garden.
xhoslish;
Helen, she is in the gadinnn.

english;
The bad bird shit on the sheet on the bed.
xhoslish;
the bed bed sheet on the sheet on the bed.

I would hate to know what my enghosa sounds like to a xhosa speaker!!

Never mind my chinglish to a chinese speaking person, it is a two way street you know!!

[IanF]

I contacted the supplier in China and selected the machine & options.
He raised an invoice for 100% of value including Insurance & Freight.
We spoke to SARS and determined that there is no import duty on the machine.
VAT is payable on collection.
We went to the bank and filled in a document (for the reserve bank)
We have an importer / exporter code for the business. (I think that this is why we are not required to use a shipping agent)
The bank transfered the fund to the supplier's Hong Kong account based on their account No & Swift code.

Now we wait...1 week for assembly in China & 6 weeks via ship.

We will be notified once the machine arrives at the docks.
We then have to go to customs & SARS to get clearance.
We are responsible for the removal of the machine from the docks.
The documentation has to be taken to ABSA to prove that we received the machine - for their reserve bank files.
According to ABSA we have to keep all documentation for the next 5 years.

...
The process is a lot simpler than I envisaged. ABSA & SARS have been very helpful up to this point. It may be a bit more complicated if you do not have an importer / exporter code & if you live inland.

Adrian
Has the machine arrived yet. If so is it working as expected?

[Superscenic]

the machine is with software, but this software mainly function is only for output design (working job) to machine from computer, we can give you the coreldraw or autocad, but they are piratic version, do you need?

Sokay I have my own piratics.

[adrianh]

The machine is arriving on the 8th. My butt is itching to burn things :-)

[Jenfor]

Hi, I am looking into importing a laser cutting and engraving machine. I have looked locally and the prices are really exorbitant, compared to buying directly from China. Can you give me some advice on sourcing a machine? I have heard a few horror stories with regard to purchasing from China. I have looked at a few machines that are advertised on e-bay and have googled the same machines from the supplier. I have read your threads and I am interested in hearing about the condition of the machine that you received. Has the machine lived up to your expectations and if you have had any problems has the supplier been able to assist you with these problems – after sale service. Did you have to set up the lasers etc when the machine arrived and was that easy enough to do? What import charges and taxes did you have to pay – I have access to import/exporter code. Lastly which supplier did you use, I am looking at buying from Thunderlaser.
Your response would be greatly appreciated. regards, Jenny

[adrianh]

Hi Jenny,

I got my machine from Eastern laser Technology Co.,Ltd ( etlaser.com ) The machine arrived disassembled with terrible assembly instructions. Being mechanically inclined I got the machine up and running quite quickly. The most difficult thing with assembling the machine is to align the laser. (Straight forward once you figure it out but it is totally undocumented) They are always available via email or phone but again, it is difficult to communicate due to the Chinglish.

I built up a very good relationship with the supplier and they asked whether I would represent them locally. They contact me now and again to pass information on to their local customers.

We let the Chinese handle their side of the import transaction and our agent handled the local side. It is better to use a single clearing agent for the entire transcaction. We used a company called Berry & Donaldson and they were great. The machine cost R 70,000 on the Chinese side and about R14,000 to clear. The R14,000 included VAT, import duties and clearing fees.

I am very happy with the machine but...If I could do it over again I would buy a 120 Watt machine.

A laser cutter is an absolute brilliant piece of equipment. Once you got the machine running you need to do a lot of R&D yourself to get to know laser power / cut speed / material type / material thickness. I also find that the cut settings vary dramatically with ambient conditions, one day I cut at 60% power and the next at 75%.

The bottom line. If you are technically inclinded and you know your way around mechanics / electronics / software then you will be ok importing a Chinese machine yourself. If you want a machine that works perfectly from the outset with full blown after sales support then you are better off buying from a reputable local supplier.

A couple of points to note before you buy the machine:
1. You must have a good idea of the material types you want to cut (CO2 lasers can't cut metals and YAG lasers don't like light materials such as wood, paper etc)
2. What is the maximum X,Y,Z dimensions you want to cut (Though the laser table may have a 100mm travel, the laser has a fairly shallow cut depth beyond which the beam divergence becomes a problem) My 70W handles up to 6mm MDF and you could do 15mm MDF on a 150W machine.
3. More power does not equal better with a laser tube. The higher powered the laser is the larger the spot size. My 70W gives me a spot size of about 0.3mm but a 150W laser could go up to 0.6mm. A larger spot size is fine if you are cutting and you do your artwork to compensate for the spot size, but it is problematic when you do very fine work or engraving. The ideal is to have a small footprint low power laser for engraving & detail work and a large bed 150W machine for cutting.
4. Although you can use any vector based software to prepare the artwork you do need to know your way around Coreldraw.

I can talk for hours about lasers and what I've learned. I make doll houses, clocks, mirrors, cards, model trains and all sorts of other stuff using the laser. Feel free to PM if you need more info.