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Thread: Industrial Taiwanese Planes: Chen Sheng

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2017
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    Caledon, Ontario Canada
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    Question Industrial Taiwanese Planes: Chen Sheng

    Hi All,

    Im interested in importing a large planer from Chen Sheng. Has anyone ever used one of their machines. It looks like they manufacture for Can Tek. Im just worried about quality as i have never seen any of their mahcines. I have seen the Can Tek Ones before.
    http://www.chen-sheng.com/all.htm
    http://www.cantekamerica.com/machine...surfacers.html

    Any advice would be great

  2. #2
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    Jan 2015
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    New Hampshire, USA
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    The LS-20 and 24 look similar to some models that Grizzly sells (also made in Taiwan). Not sure if that means they come from the same plant or not.

  3. #3
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    May 2017
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    Caledon, Ontario Canada
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    Everything is made in Taiwan now. I saw some 20 inch planers at a local machinery shop. 3 exact same planers, same price just different paint. Laguna, grizzly and powermatic. I think if you are going to buy that, why not jump a fiew hoops and save a lot of money buying direct.

  4. Keep in mind that it's not necessarily that all the machines are "made in the same factory", its more likely that, due to lax intellectual property laws in Asia, the plans/designs have been reverse-engineered very well (or just outright stolen).

    My Baileigh JP-1686 which is made in taiwan or china appears to be an almost identical knockoff of the earlier versions of Felder's AD741 unit. There's enough difference that it's clear they're not "the same unit", but my unit is definitely heavily based on the Felder design, all the way down to the body shape.

    When you look closely at machines you will notice some minor differences. Perhaps the wiring uses different types of connectors/terminals. Sometimes the ribbing on the underside of the castings is different. One unit might have phillips screws and bolts and the other hex socket bolts. Stuff like that. If they really were made in the same factory, those details would all be identical across the board.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
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    Modesto, CA, USA
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    9,876
    Shipping costs can eat up any savings. It may be as cheap to have an empty container shipped over with one item in it as have it shipped by itself. A group buy springs to mind. You may want to delete the motor and switch gear and install American made stuff on this end.
    Bill

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
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    Scottsdale, Arizona
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    You mentioned an industrial Taiwanese plane so if yours is a commercial business, my experience may be of interest. I recently went to Taiwan to look at some industrial machinery. What I saw was first class, and well priced. However the machines were not "UL or CSA approved". Without that approval we would not be able to install or operate the equipment in the factory. The electrical contractor, county inspector, and the insurance company all put up red flags. Apparently this is not necessarily true throughout the US. 6,000 of these units have been sold world wide, and one of them is now installed and operating in the US. I do not know if any are in Canada, or what the regulatory attitude would be in Canada.

    Even for a home shop I wonder if UL and/or CSA approval might be an issue. Certainly the insurance company, and the local fire marshal might be interested.

  7. #7
    http://www.akhurst.com/

    Akhurst sells Cantek machines in Canada, you might want to talk to them.

  8. #8
    Most industrial equipment does NOT come with a UL tag. You have to pay extra to get it. That only matters anyways if it is hardwired. Put a plug on it, bammo, no UL certification required.

    Cantek is a good value I feel. It's not incredible quality, but it's pretty darn good and the price is hard to beat. There's better stuff out there, but you'll pay at least double for a slightly better product.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Frencel View Post
    Everything is made in Taiwan now. I saw some 20 inch planers at a local machinery shop. 3 exact same planers, same price just different paint. Laguna, grizzly and powermatic. I think if you are going to buy that, why not jump a fiew hoops and save a lot of money buying direct.
    Just be sure you can get parts downstream if you need them.
    Please let us know what you think of it once it arrives.
    Fred

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
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    There are some Taiwanese companies that have been in business for a good while now; producing pretty much the same line of equipment, so the machines are of pretty good quality, if only from repetition.
    Case in point- Some 20 years ago, I worked in a shop that had a Jet Industrial (when they had the line) tilting spindle shaper. It was well equipped with 1-1/4" & 3/4 spindles, 7.5 hp motor and a decent fence. The owner was a talented woodworker and machinist and he went through the machine replacing bolts, screws and washers, lapping a few surfaces that were burred and even scraping a slight hump from the table down to .002 accuracy ( you can expect about .012 these days). He purchased an extra 3/4" spindle he turned down to 1/2" to run small cutters when matching old sash and door profiles (his business was stairs, doors and sash).
    He had an SCMI T130 and a Wadkin shaper there also and wanted his "cheep chinee" to perform as well and it did. He said the basic machine was there, it just needed better hardware, fit and tweaking. The machine was a joy to use.
    Fast forward 16 years-
    I was in need of a tilting spindle shaper for a project and low on dough. I looked around at the various machines used and new and found that same machine being private labeled by three companies with the paint color being the only difference. Still the same manufacturer. I bought one and did the tweaking (my table is good) and am very satisfied with the results. Sure, not a Martin, but I'm not a production facility either. It's a pretty decent variety shaper made by a company that's been in business over 25 yrs.

    Look around at the various dealers and look for the same machine from each, they're usually the ones that have been around the longest with the best track record. Then start a bidding war between the dealers for the best price

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Martin Wasner View Post
    Most industrial equipment does NOT come with a UL tag. You have to pay extra to get it. That only matters anyways if it is hardwired. Put a plug on it, bammo, no UL certification required.

    Cantek is a good value I feel. It's not incredible quality, but it's pretty darn good and the price is hard to beat. There's better stuff out there, but you'll pay at least double for a slightly better product.

    I also need to add that when you start getting around 200 amp plugs, it's usually cheaper to just pay for the UL rating.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    May 2016
    Location
    North -Eastern Ontario, Canada
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    271
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Frencel View Post
    Hi All,

    Im interested in importing a large planer from Chen Sheng. Has anyone ever used one of their machines. It looks like they manufacture for Can Tek. Im just worried about quality as i have never seen any of their mahcines. I have seen the Can Tek Ones before.
    http://www.chen-sheng.com/all.htm
    http://www.cantekamerica.com/machine...surfacers.html

    Any advice would be great
    How do you know they manufacture the Cantek machines? None of the planers or shapers look the same as what Cantek sells. I have seen other companies selling machinery that is similar to the Cantek offerings. I remember seeing the website of the Taiwan based company that makes the Cantek edge bander I have, they were exactly the same.

    I would think importing a single machine would be a pita - but never tried, so who knows. I've imported several machines from the USA (both new and old) and even that - setting up the brokerage and transportation - is a pain when you are trying to fit 12 hours days into 8 hrs every day.. lol. I'd rather pay more and get it from a Canadian dealer and then you have some recourse as well.

    If youre looking at Cantek, I have had several pcs of their machinery in our new shop (bought and installed late 2010, to early 2011) including one of the planers. I couldnt be happier with this machine. Excellent in all respects. We have processed many tens of thousands of bf of hardwood in the past 6 years. Used daily, so far no issues and I change the inserts once a year. Bought through Akhurst machinery.

    FYI I have one of their wide belt sanders, 16" jointer, edge bander, dovetail machine and tilting spindle shaper. Good solid stuff IMO. We are not a production shop, but run our stuff often. The planer and jointer get used multiple times daily as we buy all our lumber rough.

    Andrew J. Coholic

  13. #13
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    Oct 2008
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    Scottsdale, Arizona
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    469
    Martin,

    Good point. Paying for the "UL Rating" in our case was quoted at US$60,000 on a US$350,000 purchase... All new everything electrical... One company in our industry was billed US$330,000 to get the "Rating" on a US$1,000,000 purchase.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Rich Enders View Post
    Martin,

    Good point. Paying for the "UL Rating" in our case was quoted at US$60,000 on a US$350,000 purchase... All new everything electrical... One company in our industry was billed US$330,000 to get the "Rating" on a US$1,000,000 purchase.
    Wow, that's a high percentage. The only thing I've ever bought and needed to pay for it was my widebelt. $800 on a bit less than $40k. Which is about 2%.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Courtenay BC Canada
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    2,750
    So if you hardwire, you need UL ?

    In Canada you need CSA or ULC either way ..

    My wide belt is 50 amp PH-3 and on a plug .. I guess you could do that with the planer too ?

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