My experience buying a ZAY7045V (Warco Super Major clone) directly from China

[thisdesignedthatParticipant @thisdesignedthat]

I know a few people have asked about buying a mill directly from Aliexpress/Alibaba on this forum so I took the dive and did it myself. Full review and run down here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAZZ75p1jlk

Overall I’m very happy with the process and the mill is exactly what I wanted.

Total cost, including shipping to my door, duties etc was £2460

Happy to answer any questions but the video should cover most of it

[jimmy bParticipant @jimmyb]

Thanks for sharing

 

Jimb

[southernchapParticipant @southernchap]

Watched your video yesterday and it was very interesting and well made.

Brave of you to take the punt on this.  I’m still not sure I’d want to lose the local support (Warco have been brilliant on the odd occasion I’ve needed them), but I’ll admit that is a significant saving.

[John MCParticipant @johnmc39344]

Interesting video, not watched all of it, will do that later.   What did catch my eye was the fine adjustment for tramming the head, 26m 24s, that’s my picture! (Your welcome).  Since doing that the design has been improved somewhat on a friends machine.

 

[paul1956Participant @paul1956]

A well made video. Good to hear of positive experiences buying directly from China. Looks a nice machine too.

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

A most useful machine. There is no doubt that a two speed and VFD drive is considerable improvement on the usual gearbox.

Some years ago I owned a similar machine with a two speed belt drive and VFD control. Changing speed with the belt was less convenient but there was significant overlap between the VFD controlled ranges so, in practice, belt changes were rarely needed mid job. Most tasks being either high speed or low speed ones so a single range would usually do. Helped that top speed in low was around 1,300 rpm or thereabouts if memory serves me correctly accommodating most of the cutters normally needed for my work. There were time when the higher top speed of your machine in high range would have been most welcome tho’.

Your quill stop appears to be of the same “screw adjust via fine thread and knob at the bottom” style as mine. I found this a most miserable device in use. Not only did significant adjustment seemed to take vast numbers of turns applied by a less than conveniently placed knob but the crude drilled hole bearing supporting it from the bottom was so floppy that accurate, relatable setting was impossible. There being considerable shift between set position and loaded position when the quill was bought down onto the stop.

Which rather destroyed nay advantage of the fine thread.

I replaced the threaded rod with a solid one, drilled out the slider to match and fitted a wing headed screw to clamp it in place. Much easier to adjust giving a repeatably solid stop. Any loss of accuracy from loosing the thread proved purely theoretical. I did consider copying the Bridgeport system with solid top and bottom mounts for the screw and a calibrated knob giving a vernier effect for accurate setting. The engineering needed to make it work properly seemed excessive for the small gain. Especially as a mill would he needed for some of it. It being somewhat difficult to use a mill to modify its own head!

It’s a shame that the large head needed to accommodate a gearbox on the usual version was retained as I found it obstructive on small jobs. Hard to see whats going on during set up and machining when the head was low. Undesirable amounts of quill extension were often necessary simply to see what was going on. I found a Clarkson or ER collet holder generally better than direct in spindle collets simply because visibility was improved. This method also reduced the head shift necessary when going from drilling to milling.

Using a slimmer Bridgeport like head, whether a direct cone as used on the 2/3 rd (ish) scale “baby Bridgeports” offered by some suppliers or something using castings similar to the business end of the Warco VMC and similar would not only have improved visibility but also been usefully lighter into the bargain.

I found mine was well able to match the practical metal removal rates of the Bridgeport that replaced it. Practical being set by the amount of swarf per minute I was prepared to deal with rather than absolute maximum capacity.

Clive

[PeteParticipant @pete41194]

For that size of mill I think you made a good choice of spending the extra for the powered spindle feed model. While I know really nothing about your particular mill, I’d be a little careful about using that spindle feed and with any larger diameter drills.

The real Bridgeport’s and most of the various clones of them are well known for that powered spindle feed being a seriously weak link. For my own Taiwanese BP clone, I’ve never used it while drilling. In my opinion its probably only meant to be used while single point boring. For that purpose its to me more than well worth having, and one of the main reasons for spending the extra and choosing the mill I did. Although at the time there was a version of the RF 45 sized mills that also had the built in spindle feeds. But it depends of course on just how durable the internal gearing design might be with your mill. I think I’d still want to be a bit cautious.

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