[HomerSimpson]

Love CNCZone and have been following the forum for a couple years now. Built a 5'x5' CNC router last year. I wanted a laser engraving machine now but have decided to buy, rather than build. After reading the posts at cnczone and here:

Sawmill Creek Woodworkers Community
Chinese Laser Support Forums • Index page
OPLaser support forum • Index page

I narrowed my selection to the 600x900mm models at G.Weike and Shenhui Laser:

laser engraving machine?laser cutting machine?cutting plotter at G.WeiKe (Lucy Lee: [email protected])
SHANDONG SHENHUI LASER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY R&D (Blanca Yan: [email protected])

Both have been very responsive, professional, and helpful. In the end I chose the G.Weike laser because:

1) It was about $500 cheaper.
2) There are many cases of people successfully importing their machines, and few, if any negative stories.
3) There are at least 2 US based distributors of their machines in the US, while I couldn't find any for Shenhui, although there may be some.
4) There's been some negative publicity recently on the forums about Shenhui.

This is the machine I went with (LG900N): Jinan G.Weike Science & Technology Co.,Ltd
which seems to be in the middle of the product range. There are alot of negative posts about the smaller chinese machines being crap. I briefly considered the larger machine (LG1200), but decided against it for space reasons. I upgraded to the 80W RECI tube but also got a spare 80W and a 60W/power supply combo to get finer resolution for engraving. Got the rotary tool, all 3 tables, all lense options (38.1, 50, 63.5, 100, and 190mm), 3 sets each of the 20mm and 25mm mirrors, the CW5000 chiller, auto up/down table, and auto-focus.

My machine is being built this week and will ship out to Portland, Oregon next week ($270 shipping + $20 insurance). I will pick it up directly at the port. I found out that for anything over $2500, you have to hire a customs broker, which I did from:

Allports

Importing fees will end up being around $550, which include:

Duty (2.4%)
merchandising processing fee (0.35%)
harbor maintenance fee (0.125%)
single entry bond ($50 min or $5/$1000 of invoice)
Single entry ISF bond ($75 per bill of lading)
Entry Fee ($135)
ISF Entry ($25)
Additional commercial invoice ($15/ea)
Additional tariff lines ($7.50/line)
Overnight courier fees, if needed ($25)
Load out at CFS ($30 to $65, depending on carrier)

Two key things you will need are the FDA accession number which will be on a letter from the FDA to the manufacturer with the model number of your machine listed on it. The second is that your broker has to file security paperwork (is this the 10 + 2 ISF?) no less than 24 hours before the ship containing your machine departs from the originating port.

I've found that I can't wait for Lucy's emails each day giving me progress on my machine. Is that wrong, even if my wife knows about her ;-) Honestly Lucy, I love you for your machines!

I've attached some pix of my machine being built as well as some samples they made for me on acrylic. She's going to take video of my machine when it is packed so I'll post that as well. Finally, I'll take pictures and post a write-up of my experiences when the machine arrives in the hopes that it will make your experience that much easier.
Stan

[Melody-gweike]

Hi, Stan,

Glad to see you chose us at last. Thank you for propagate for us in different forums. We have 100% confidence in comparing with Shenhui.

But it seemed your importing duty Duty (2.4%) was not neccessory. There is a free charge HS code of US Customs our machine can be grouped under.

It is found by one of my cusomer. And now all my customers have been imported for a long time with 0 duty.

And Canadian customers also have 0 duty.

Besides, your photo laser engraving really looks very great!

Melody
[email protected]
skype: melody.gweike

[Exsecratio]

Good choice Stan

I have a lot of respect for G.Weike and have found their support to be probably the best in the industry (for non industrial lasers)
All the GW girls are helpful and approachable even when minor problems crop up.

Too many other far eastern companies are great until you have paid, then don't want to help..

best wishes

Dave

OPLaser support forum • Index page

[G.Weike-Abby]

Glad to see praises to our company and machines.

We will do our best to so better in the future.

Abby
G.Weike Laser Factory
[email protected]
Skype:abbylilu

[stekke_stim]

Looking forward to follow this thread. I want to buy the LG900 From Melody. Still waiting for some paperwork from the bank.

[HomerSimpson]

My machine is done and being sent to the port where it will ship out on May 31st. That was quick! Everything looks great. Nice work G.Weike! A few more pictures are attached. The packing video is too large too attach.

[Shenhuilasercnc]

Just want to say hello to every body.

"I've attached some pix of my machine being built as well as some samples they made for me on acrylic."

What's these words meaning,My friend?
That means you told everyone here that the samples are made by G.Weike and Lucy

Anyway I hope you can respect fact. Actully , the samples on arylic were engraved by Shenhui laser machine , Miss BLANCA YAN And her technician MR.Yarde Feng.


Thanks

Love CNCZone and have been following the forum for a couple years now. Built a 5'x5' CNC router last year. I wanted a laser engraving machine now but have decided to buy, rather than build. After reading the posts at cnczone and here:

Sawmill Creek Woodworkers Community
Chinese Laser Support Forums • Index page
OPLaser support forum • Index page

I narrowed my selection to the 600x900mm models at G.Weike and Shenhui Laser:

laser engraving machine?laser cutting machine?cutting plotter at G.WeiKe (Lucy Lee: [email protected])
SHANDONG SHENHUI LASER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY R&D (Blanca Yan: [email protected])

Both have been very responsive, professional, and helpful. In the end I chose the G.Weike laser because:

1) It was about $500 cheaper.
2) There are many cases of people successfully importing their machines, and few, if any negative stories.
3) There are at least 2 US based distributors of their machines in the US, while I couldn't find any for Shenhui, although there may be some.
4) There's been some negative publicity recently on the forums about Shenhui.

This is the machine I went with (LG900N): Jinan G.Weike Science & Technology Co.,Ltd
which seems to be in the middle of the product range. There are alot of negative posts about the smaller chinese machines being crap. I briefly considered the larger machine (LG1200), but decided against it for space reasons. I upgraded to the 80W RECI tube but also got a spare 80W and a 60W/power supply combo to get finer resolution for engraving. Got the rotary tool, all 3 tables, all lense options (38.1, 50, 63.5, 100, and 190mm), 3 sets each of the 20mm and 25mm mirrors, the CW5000 chiller, auto up/down table, and auto-focus.

My machine is being built this week and will ship out to Portland, Oregon next week ($270 shipping + $20 insurance). I will pick it up directly at the port. I found out that for anything over $2500, you have to hire a customs broker, which I did from:

Allports

Importing fees will end up being around $550, which include:

Duty (2.4%)
merchandising processing fee (0.35%)
harbor maintenance fee (0.125%)
single entry bond ($50 min or $5/$1000 of invoice)
Single entry ISF bond ($75 per bill of lading)
Entry Fee ($135)
ISF Entry ($25)
Additional commercial invoice ($15/ea)
Additional tariff lines ($7.50/line)
Overnight courier fees, if needed ($25)
Load out at CFS ($30 to $65, depending on carrier)

Two key things you will need are the FDA accession number which will be on a letter from the FDA to the manufacturer with the model number of your machine listed on it. The second is that your broker has to file security paperwork (is this the 10 + 2 ISF?) no less than 24 hours before the ship containing your machine departs from the originating port.

I've found that I can't wait for Lucy's emails each day giving me progress on my machine. Is that wrong, even if my wife knows about her ;-) Honestly Lucy, I love you for your machines!

I've attached some pix of my machine being built as well as some samples they made for me on acrylic. She's going to take video of my machine when it is packed so I'll post that as well. Finally, I'll take pictures and post a write-up of my experiences when the machine arrives in the hopes that it will make your experience that much easier.
Stan

[HomerSimpson]

My sincerest apologies Blanca. You are correct. I have received so many e-mails from you and Lucy over the past few weeks that I got the pictures mixed up. Here I have attached the a sample from G.Weike. It is of a more difficult painting to engrave with a laser. Thanks for correcting my error.

[Shenhuilasercnc]

Hi Stan,

Anyone hope to own labor be respected Whether good or bad.

Thank you again for correct.

My sincerest apologies Blanca. You are correct. I have received so many e-mails from you and Lucy over the past few weeks that I got the pictures mixed up. Here I have attached the a sample from G.Weike. It is of a more difficult painting to engrave with a laser. Thanks for correcting my error.

[HomerSimpson]

I'm still waiting for my machine. Here's my timeline so far:

9 May: Sent requests for quote to G.Weike & Shenhui.
16 May: After several e-mail exchanges I chose my machine and committed to purchase it from G.Weike.
17 May: Sent payment to G.Weike. They started manufacturing it.
31 May: Machine shipped from Qingdao via Panda Logistics, then goes to another Chinese port before heading to LA.
16 June: Ship arrives in LA, gets unloaded, x-rayed, examined by contraband machine sniffing dogs, etc. I had been sent original invoices stamped by G.Weike that I had to sign and send to FCC Logisitics in LA. Various logisitics fees paid to FCC for $225 by my broker. FCC says ETA in Portland is 24 June.
22 June: FCC claims product is sent via rail to Portland. I find out from my broker that it is sent by truck via a company called Imperial. This and other interactions give me little confidence in FCC.
25 June: I had been told I would ultimately pick up the machine at SummitNW near the Port of Portland so I called them. They don't know when it will arrive. I call Imperial and they don't know either.
2 July: I'm eventually told it will arrive at Summit at 10am. It arrives at noon.
3 July: I go to Summit at 8:30 and they say it is available. I have to go to customs and get a form stamped. I go to customs and they say I have to go to my broker. My broker tells me that I have to wait for the form to be hand delivered to customs, where they put it in a box waiting for my broker. He has to do something to it as does customs, all using manual processes using actual paper. The form still doesn't arrive by the end of the day. I pay my broker $750 for duties, FCC fees, etc. My broker tells me that because I manually tried to intervene to speed things up, Summit and/or the customs guys probably put my form at the bottom of the stack.
4 July: Independence Day here so everything is closed. Still waiting.

Sound confusing? It is. Everyone and their brother has had their hands on this thing, and taken their fee to boot. The whole import process seems to be very ineficient. I'll send an update with pix when I get the machine, hopefully this week, and hopefully everything works!

[atv2]

$750?!? That's a lot of money. Is that how much the fees are typically? The duties shouldn't be more than 2.4%, so even on a $4000 machine, that should be under $100. What do brokers charge? $150-200 to fill out the paperwork?

Now I am curious, what is everyone paying for customs/brokerage fees?

[HomerSimpson]

Here's the breakdown:

FCC Logisitics:
$65 HANDLING CHARGE
$9 CLEAN TRUCK FEE
$6 CHASSIS
$60 W/H SECURITY DOC
$37.50 STRIPPING
$18 PIER PASS
$30 X-RAY EXAM CHARGE

Other fees:
$213.32 Duty (3.5% of total, including all spares, using import code 8456.10 which is for a laser engraving machine, non-metal cutting)
$135 Entry Fee
$25 Import Security Filing 10 + 2
$75 ISF Single Entry Bond
$50 Single Transaction Bond
$25 Courier Fees and Services

Like I said, lots of fees and I have no iea what most of them are for, but I've read on here of people paying more than this, although that may have been in other countries or for larger machines. Keep in mind that if the invoice total is less than $2500, you don't need a broker, and I'm guessing alot of these fees are not applicable.

[atv2]

Thanks for breaking that down, I had no idea there are that many fees! I am not sure if you can get around most of those fees if the invoice is less than $2500--from what I can find online, all shipments that have SED (Shipper's Export Declaration) will probably be subjects to special handling?

[HomerSimpson]

There are 2 other fees I forgot. I had to pay a $40 charge for an international bank transfer. I sent the money 50% at a time so the total was $80. I also ha to pay $79 to SummitNW when I picked up my machine directly on last Thursday (July 5th). So, I got my machine and have attached some pix. I unpacked it and with help, loaded it off my trailer. The machine overall is well built. There were a few minor problems:

1) There is far too much grease on the Z axis lead screws. You should not put on so much that it gets on the pulley teeth and belts.
2) There were metal shavings in the base of the machine. There was also alot of grease wiped on the walls and corners of the basepan, which isnot necessary given that the panels are painted.
3) The labels on the RECI tube for the water inlet and outlet were backward.
4) The inlet nipple broke off when I applied only a slight amount of pressure to attach the silicone water tube. There was still enough glass protrusion that I was able to epoxy it on.
5) The manual is absolutely terrible. Not only is the English quite poor, but the pictures and video were several years old and different enough from my machine to not allow me to fully debug and set it up without asking questions.
6) The manual suggests using very clean water in the refrigeration unit that cycles water through the laser tube, yet the tube came with alot of dirt and crud inside of it, presumably from the G.Weike factory, which is stuck to the glass and can't be removed.
7) The manual says to run a ground line DIRECTLY into the dirt (see attached picture from the manual). I went back and forth with Lucy on this but she insists this is required to bleed off static electricity. I maintain that grounding the supply to the machine frame, which is grounded to the ground prong of the mains plug will be adequate.
8) The 48V power supply was set to 220V input. I switched it to 110V.
9) I could not get the laser to fire. I checked the hall effect sensor on the main lid. It was fine. I took the magnet off the top lid and attached it to the sensor to permanently close it. Still no laser. I eventually had a skype session with Lucy today and her engineer. Eventually they had me unplug the 5 wires on the lower left of the laser power supply and press the test button. When I did this, the laser fired for the first time. They said to plug the wires back into the same spots. At this point, the laser did not fire so I checked the lid sensor and bypassed it, at which point the laser fired. I'm not really sure what the problem was but it is all working now.

I will now have to align everything. Overall, I'm still very pleased with my machine and the assistance I've received from G.Weike.

[atv2]

Do you know where these wires go?

It's cute that they left the protective plastic on the power supply

Congrats on the new machine, hope you get it all running soon.

What do you think happened with the tube? Do you think it was cracked on it's way to you?

[HomerSimpson]

The yellow one meets up with another yellow one and both go in the 4th in from the top and the blue goes in the 5th. The nipple on the tube could have been manufactured with a fracture or it could have weakened when tested at g.weike or in shipping. All i know is i barely touched it when it broke. No big deal as it was an easy fix.

[Hurricane21]

I have been reading through your post on CNC Zone about your GWeike Laser. In your post, you stated that the power supply was switched from 220 to 110. You need to switch this back. You will blow your power supply because you are only providing half the power needed to the power supply to run that laser tube. Do not be fooled that that is the power to the wall. That switch needs to stay at 220.

We sell 50 of these GWeike Lasers per month and I just wanted you to know this information before it happens and you wonder why.

We have an install manual that is better than the original - download at https://www.yousendit.com/download/QlVo ... SHp2WnRVag

Try flushing the tube by filling it - then place the air compressor hose on the water inlet and blow the water out the other side. The reason for distilled water (not clean) is twofold:
1. Minerals in water heat up and cause splits in the laser light causing reduced power.
2. Non-distilled water can also have algae in the tube and becomes slimy after about a week and can grow inside the tube.

Hope this helps
Hurricane Lasers

[HomerSimpson]

Hey Hurricane,
Thank you vey much for that information! I will switch it back. Thanks for the link to your improved manual, although I can't get it to work. Can you repost it or send it to me directly? Thanks again for the help to me and the community!

[HomerSimpson]

Hurricane has provided their own manual for setting up the G.Weike Lasers that is much better than the original. I found them linked from this page:

Service & Support - Resources
https://www.yousendit.com/download/Q...T01PSHp2WnRVag
https://www.yousendit.com/download/Q...WkJUME4zZU5Vag

Here is the feedback I received from G.Weike last night:

"for the 48v power,engineer said both 110v and 220v all be ok,if your home voltage is very low,you can switch to 110v,if your home voltage can reach 110,120v ,you can remain at 220v,but please turn machine off then change."

The sticker on the side of the supply clearly says to switch it based on the power input requirements. Either way, I am able to fire the laser but I haven't determined if one is producing more power or not. I'm confused by Hurricane's comment because I thought the 48V supply was for the steppers as the laser has a separate power supply, so how could the inputs on the 48V supply affect laser output, unless they are wired in series, which seems odd?

[gfacer]

yeah, I read the comment by Hurricane and thought it was weird...the laser power supply has no switch, it's either 110v or 220v.

My laser (shenhui, not g weike) was supposed to be 110v and came set up for 220v, but either position worked fine it seemed (this is on the motion control side, not the laser power supply came properly supplied at 110v). But, I was sure, once I noticed, that the proper setting was 110v.

Perhaps Hurricane meant that you best not be hooking up a laser meant for 220v with 110v? The switch in that case might be on an external voltage converter.