Myford has suffered from the mentality that many fine British manufacturing institutions have; that quality will always be held preferable over cheap, however what they didn't bank on was that the far eastern imports may one day match the quality of their own products- you name it cars, motorbikes, electronics etc etc etc.
Instead of our manufacturers demanding subsidies from the government (as Germany does, as well as paying qualified engineers a wage that compares to high level professionals over here and demands that companies invest in training the next generation) they have had to keep putting their prices up- brought into a starker relief as raw materials prices ramp up as the far eastern manufacturers are buying in such massive bulk that supply to EU becomes ever more costly! So while China throws out cheaper and ever better products, UK produces more expensive machines of the same fantastic quality.
Over the last couple of years Myford has brought in the accountants to sort out their business, and this was evident as the mainstay of the business stopped being the supply of new machines and instead became the re-supply of factory re-con'ed machines, as well as introducing a credit account for potential customers offering the option of paying over a period of months for that dream lathe.
That said, and I am sorry to say it, I bought a Chinese SIEG C3 lathe from Axminster, and have to say that with some attention to the slideways, DRO's and general fettling the lathe is a quality little machine, ok so that would have been abhorant to Myford engineers who prided themselves on the production of .0001 accurate bedways and slideways, but I didn't have to pay for quality, I just had to put a bit of time into the lathe to get it right before attempting to do accurate work on it, the actual construction of the lathe really isn't that bad, newer machines in the last 5-6 years showing more and more European quality in their construction.
I am not at all sorry that I bought the Chinese machine, what I am sorry about is that I simply couldn't afford a Myford...
My next decision is what milling machine to get- I would love to be able to get a Tom Senior Universal, but even well used secoind hand are way more expensive than the equally capacious Chinese models....!
Greg
