[Dave.Kellogg]

Any guesses about how many IH mills and IH clones there are in the world?

[jetflatline]

The IH is a clone of the RF-45. Are there clones of IH mills, or just clones of RF-45s.

[BobWarfield]

There are clones of the RF-45 and clones of the IH. While the IH is an RF-45 derivative, it has a fair number of special features spec'd to give the greater travels and table for example. So it is more of a family member than an exact clone.

Cheers,

BW

[sharpshooter90]

Any guesses about how many IH mills and IH clones there are in the world?

Based on US Customs records, there are less than 50 IH mills. Hard to say on the clones without researching all the companies importing them under different names.

[saabman]

Those 50 mills that keep getting referred to were the Dec 2009 shipment. If I recollect correctly, the CT IH operation took over from Aaron long before that. So I expect there were more mills imported earlier (but I dont know this for a fact)

Chris

[Cruiser]

Basing the count on customs records won't do it. Originally Aaron had the busyness and had a partner who did the importing. Then, Aaron took over his own importing due to demanding some changes in the castings that started the v-3. When Gene took over, it didn't take long till he also demanded changes to counter for a weakness which I pin pointed on forum.
All in All taking count of all the machines sold as IH I'd have to say that they ALL exist !
Except for one which was scrapped by an Irate owner who couldn't cut the mustard and only made issues worse. That one was one of the first put out that had a stepper motor system.
This info was compiled for the most part, and the blanks just filled in and not meant to imply accuracy but mearly a broad picture.
Also, since all these machines come from one chinese facotory, they are not clones ! Just sold under a differant name to differant company's. And the new castings are being sold and the result is called clone, but !

[jetflatline]

Color me confused -- who is selling IH clones and not RF-45 clones?

[Dave.Kellogg]

Hi Cruiser,

What year did Aaron start selling IH mills?

I just got (from Machine Tools Warehouse) the MD-001 clone of the IH (which of course is itself somewhat of a clone of the RF45).

The sense I get is that there must be at least 100 of these mills in existance. But are there 500? 1000?

BTW, does anyone know how to determine the number of members in this forum? Obviously, not all forum members have an IH mill. But it would be interesting to know the audience size.

I'm just curious about the scope of the machine's popularity and deployment.

Thanks!!

Dave

[dneisler]

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[Shev]

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WTF is this?

[dneisler]

Dave K above asked.."
BTW, does anyone know how to determine the number of members in this forum?"

[RustedOut]

I'd been wondering the same thing for the past year or more. It looks to me that the Canadian supplier may be moving more mills than IH is and has been for a while. But his are all manual mills. I'm talking only about the large mill like IH sells. I've not seen anyone else offering the IH like mill, at least not from North America.

Seems like through the past summer they were selling out of mills every two months. Or, to say it another way, they were taking delivery of sold out mills every two months.

Gene told me when I ordered my mill back in '07 that they came 43 in a container (or was it 42). He bought two containers at startup. So anything after the first part of '07 would be in addition to those original 86 mills. If 50 is all that can be accounted for, then that number would be 136 from IH. Some of which could still be in stock at IH. I thought I had read that Tommy was ordering more late last summer.

Assuming the Canadian company is getting the same amount per container and using the two month time frame, 6 months worth of sales puts around 129 mills out there from them. And I looked last week to see if the same "sold out" notice was up there and sure enough it was. So the 6 months now turns into 8 or 9 months at right at 21 mills a month.

This, of course is a lot of speculation, but I've been thinking since September that there are a lot of these mills across the country. Possibly around 300 by now between the USA and Canada buyers. My interest was in how many were being converted to cnc mills, or rather how well outfitted were they. Any guesses there?

Bob

[Shev]

When I visited before I bought my mill Tommy told me he has a master list with every mill IH has ever sold...it includes all mills that Aaron sold too...

[Hak63]

Any guesses about how many IH mills and IH clones there are in the world?

My ih mill delivered in October has a serial number in the low 2000's

[Squirkle 777]

Little hard to estimate numbers as the shipments out of China can run a bit inconsistant.

Tommy did say the next group was delayed another few months but haven't heard anything more since his site & phone has gone down last week.

[sharpshooter90]

My ih mill delivered in October has a serial number in the low 2000's

Serial # doesn't mean anything- they may have started at number 2000. According to US Customs records they have imported 93 mills since 2009.

machine Tools Warehouse about 25
Syil America 45 ( none since 2009)

[tkollen]

I spoke with Machine Tools Warehouse in Canada the other day. They told me that as of April this year they are going to offer a complete CNC-kit for the MD001 mill, similar to IH.

Tom

[yj11]

I would assume the MD001 CNC-kit would work on a IH mill too. This is good for folks, such as me, thinking about converting their mill. Thanks for passing on this information.

[MetalZilla]

The shocking thing is that this post has gotten more than 2K views!?

[gtiworks]

My 2005 IH Mill has a serial number in the mid-1400s . . . so if the serial numbers were continuous, that would mean 500 or more imported since 2005.

Randy G