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Made in Taiwan vs Made in China

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Intensemonerider

Member
I spoke with Precision Mathew’s the other day and the gentleman said there is a substantial quantity difference between Made in China milling machines and Made in Taiwan. Taiwan being better across the board. I would like to hear from both crowds. This forum is awesome and I really like hearing your experiences and thoughts.
 
The Chinese manufacturers have a reputation of making what the customer is prepared to pay for. If you want the absolutely lowest price, they can do that, but it will also be the lowest quality. If you are willing to pay for a good product, then it is going to cost about the same as anyone else that is providing a decent product. China has a huge manufacturing base, they need quality kit because good equipment is going to have a lower lifecycle cost - and they will go anywhere in the world to get it (buying and relocating entire factories). They also get lots of manufacturing practice (practice makes perfect).

Just because a machine is from a certain country does not automatically make it good or bad. Either check it out and decide for yourself, or pay for someone else (like a reputable dealer) to make that assessment for you. PM has a good reputation and has developed relationships with Asian suppliers for certain classes of machinery. Some customers insist on the lowest cost, so he can deliver on that. Some customers want a bit of a step up in quality, but still not crazy high, so he can deliver on that too.
 
IMHO and from what I observed I think the PM statement is accurate. Of course there is some good to great kit coming from China but it seems like it's the exception rather than the rule. Too often there seems to be no floor to how low the quality can go, as long as it looks like the thing your purchasing (who cares if it actually functions as it should) then that's good enough.
 
Tiawan would be my first choice. Loads of good equipment has come from Tiawan for years and years. Don't discount Mexico thou, they will be coming on strong after GI Joe moves from the White Building.

China will sizzle out in the coming years.
Global carbon footprint will snuff them out of manufacturing on the cheap...
 
I also think PM is spot on, and he is the guy covering the warranty work and fielding customer complaints so he is in the best position to know. It is also my experience. My Taiwan tools have been great, and the few from China have generally been crap to fair.
 
I've had China made products that are spot on amazing, better quality than I've seem here.

PM, Grizzly, BB, King and others source from the same suppliers. As mentioned by others it depends how brand specs it.

Want to test this down load Grizzly's, PM, BB and Kings near identical products look at the parts layout, same. Difference comes into play for the option spec'd by each as to what they charge.

Car manufacturers do the same. So do appliance manufacturers, irony is some parts for one are cheaper than the other but the identical part.
 
I’ve had enough experience with both countries as well as Germany and Italy in machine purchases. I’ve had issues with EVERY country and price level. What’s most important is getting the machine that suits u best followed up by the best dealer. Country is irrelevant if you don’t have good local support. Thus the term buy local, not that the machine is local but that the guy who is gonna look you in the eye is.
 
China is pretty big, I don't think there is just only one supplier. The internet allows you to track down the factories. I know my recent purchased welder there were at least two factories producing them. HuGong electric and Shanghai electric, both in the same city,but different addresses. One gets labeled Magnum, the other ESAB.
 
Regarding "Made in Taiwan" vs. "Made in China," I think it’s all about the product and brand. In general, products made in Taiwan tend to have a reputation for being high quality, especially in tech and electronics.
 
You can purchase many different levels of quality in China. This goes from clothing, electronics to metal working machines . Want it cheaper, you can get it. Want better quality you can have that too. However, you can't have both.

The problem I see is that the middle man wants more profit. A very fine balance of quality and cost. I've purchased items from the same North American seller more then once because I was happy with the first item to find the second order is a different quality. Now that might be a problem with the seller's purchaser not doing a quality check on each incoming shipment or the seller wanting to turn a bigger profit.

Does Taiwan have the wide range of price and quality in identical products? This might explain a consistent product. I've only had experience in the Chinese markets.
 
As has been mentioned China is more than capable of turning out precision equipment but they are known for catering to the cheap Western world requests.

That said I have one of those Taiwan machines and can attest to the quality of the Mill! Everything is tight, the lead screws are beefy and the ways are butter smooth.
 
I could see the difference in the quality between my Chinese BB lathe and Bridgeport supermax Taiwanese clone. Cast iron is better from Taiwanese companies. They both will have lower quality bearings, but treated right machines will last, cleaned and lubricant used and changed, not overloaded heavy stress cuts.
 
IMO the quality difference is night and day on so many machines and tools.

Tool distributors who purchase from china are usually after the commodity tool and machine buyer who thinks purchase price is paramount.

Those who source Taiwanese goods target a market where a machine must be a level of precision several times higher than the commodity goods right out of the box.

Chinese manufacturing is capable of better, but China will deliver goods at whatever price point the importer wants to pay. This is why the same basic machine varies in quality between the vendors in whatever nation the products are retailed in.

ps PM needs to open an outlet in Canada
 
Chinese manufacturers (some) are very able to make very high quality products, and some do. Things are made to what the reseller wants quality wise and material wise, what has been ordered and is willing to “pay”. It is really no different anywhere else, what has to be done, what does it get made from, how often does the product get checked when being made and after it got made, how well it works.
If you want a 1/2 inch bolt, 3 inch long, with 10 threads per inch, made from old beer cans, quality check on the first one, next check at 500,000, last check at the 1 million mark, so be it. That will xx cost, anything more then that will cost more xx’s.
I think PM has a reputation for the product they sell, it may still be coming from one of the “usual” factories, but material, size of components, quality of components, finish of components, and important quality inspection is likely done more often, and all costs more, which means if you buy from them you pay more because it cost PM more to get those units.
We hear about “ I brought xyz from mnop, it worked great after I took it all a part, removed burrs, high spots, cleaned it, took the grit out of the oil baths, put real oil in, real grease where needed, changed a few bearings, put a another motor on with a vfd. On and on. Yes, got a “good” one. Not really, just put how many hours in doing “quality control”,“quality work” and” some quality parts” and some quality MONEY . NOW, it’s a good/better one!
If you are willing to buy cheaper, there maybe fewer buttons, the sleeves maybe a bit shorter, the collar a bit tighter, the material nearly see through, that’s what you will get.
The market will make what is demanded, or will pay, and put up with. If no one will buy it, it will not be on/in the market long, but generly there are enough someone’s to buy amongst 8 billion people, somewhere.
Am I a PM user? No. Do I buy only high end products, pay big prices, not unless that’s the only thing to be had. Does everything come from/ is made in China? No, but seems nearly. A rant, maybe, but not really. We get what is made, decided by company’s that want to make more money, the “cheapest” way possible. While we want the cheapest price and are willing to make do with “some” short comings.
The old saw “ money talks”.
This is only my take on things!!
There were a few posts while I was doing this, along the same lines.
 
China can make good quality if they are given a decent price point to work with, North Americans are the problem. Everyone it seems to wants to pay as little as possible, which is understandable, but it leads to Amazonification of all products.
I only want to purchase a tool once, I don't mind paying more as long get 20-30 years out of it.
 
China is worth more than 50% of world ship building and is set to make more than 50% of worlds cars by 2030. They can make things quality wise as good as anywhere else or better - at lower price. They make a Tesla at half price - and probably better quality as well (!) - certainly more luxury - no kidding its BYD Han. This is why to protect its market US placed 100% duty on Chinese vehicles. If they were junk no one would have bought them even at lower price... and thus no need for panic level tariffs. After cars its aircraft BTW.

This Chinese quality for us in NA is not available due to most things made in China we buy competing on price alone. I.e. cheap consumer goods and lower tire machinery.

Then again, project farm on youtube run few episodes where China owned US in tooling... mid range tooling from China with strange brands outperformed US made tools.... so we may be seeing some quality competition coming over from China - very slowly - still most is on price.
 
skippyelwell said:
China can make good quality if they are given a decent price point to work with, North Americans are the problem. Everyone it seems to wants to pay as little as possible, which is understandable, but it leads to Amazonification of all products.
I only want to purchase a tool once, I don't mind paying more as long get 20-30 years out of it.
Click to expand...
commodification of everything... and then drive the price to rock bottom. Human life itself has little value as a commodity now

I'll note, some of the worst offenders I've seen buy houses based solely on price per square foot, and expect to pay the least. I've seen them come into a sales office of luxury homebuilder and demand the builder match the price per square foot of the cheapest entry level home builder.
 
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