Japanese finds

[EmGo]

Came across a used one of these, seemed like a good place to put the pdf. I don't know how common they are even in japan but for a 3/4 sized mill they look pretty cool.

 

[sfriedberg]

Came across a used one of these

Ooooh, I like that. A real spindle taper (no R8 in my shop) and a fixed vertical head. Despite the smaller size, it probably takes heavier cuts much better than a Bridgeport.

 

[David_M]

That's neat.

 

[Bakafish]

They made a quill version of that machine (IVQ-780) that I think would be a little more practical, although it is only 60mm of travel. I'd hate to have to use the knee for everything. I tried to find out what happened to them, but failed or acquired companies just disappear without a trace over here. Sad that no one seems to document the history of old Japanese brands. Still quite a few on the used market though, they look solid.

 

[LexD]

There is a lot of good used tooling for sale on various websites in Japan but I have had no luck purchasing anything due to the language barrier. Has anyone else had any luck?

 

[EmGo]

There is a lot of good used tooling for sale on various websites in Japan but I have had no luck purchasing anything due to the language barrier. Has anyone else had any luck?

I used to use yahoo japan quite a bit. Several sellers would ship for you no problem, for others there were services for a fee who did the english-japanese thing and handled currency exchange. In fact I think yahoo had its own approved service for that.

So if it's special enough, you should be able to find a way. Worst case, go to a nearby uniwersity that teaches japanese and have someone help.

Btw, I've never got anything that wasn't even better than described, and packaged well. I'm sure there's crooks but they seem really rare.

 

[LexD]

So if it's special enough, you should be able to find a way. Worst case, go to a nearby uniwersity that teaches japanese and have someone help.

A university that teaches Japanese near me is not going to happen.

 

[Bakafish]

Lack of Japanese isn't really the problem, Google translate is more than effective enough, I've never been rejected for having crappy Japanese and have perfect ratings from the sellers. The issue foreigners face is lack of a domestic address and likely a domestic credit card to set up accounts with. No seller here is going to deal with an overseas transaction at any cost. There are absolutely brokers who will assist with purchases from the biggest marketplaces like Yahoo and handle the freight forwarding and other details, and although you will likely pay quite a premium for them, the deals available over here are often sweet enough to more than cover those costs. But if you are looking for items bigger than a breadbox, you will need to deal with an export company.

As far as bad deals, I can't think of being disappointed once off the top of my head, and more often than not I'm surprised by getting more than was described. These machine goods are almost never cleaned when advertised and sold, and are often in far better condition than they look and are priced at. Quite often they are priced and advertised as a single part of a larger assembly because that's the only part number the seller can see and they don't have much understanding of what is being sold. If you can pull off buying stuff here, props to you. I don't want the competition, but I'm running out of things to buy

 

[LexD]

Lack of Japanese isn't really the problem, Google translate is more than effective enough, I've never been rejected for having crappy Japanese and have perfect ratings from the sellers. The issue foreigners face is lack of a domestic address and likely a domestic credit card to set up accounts with. No seller here is going to deal with an overseas transaction at any cost. There are absolutely brokers who will assist with purchases from the biggest marketplaces like Yahoo and handle the freight forwarding and other details, and although you will likely pay quite a premium for them, the deals available over here are often sweet enough to more than cover those costs. But if you are looking for items bigger than a breadbox, you will need to deal with an export company.

As far as bad deals, I can't think of being disappointed once off the top of my head, and more often than not I'm surprised by getting more than was described. These machine goods are almost never cleaned when advertised and sold, and are often in far better condition than they look and are priced at. Quite often they are priced and advertised as a single part of a larger assembly because that's the only part number the seller can see and they don't have much understanding of what is being sold. If you can pull off buying stuff here, props to you. I don't want the competition, but I'm running out of things to buy

 

[LexD]

I did actually purchase an item on Yahoo but they wanted a direct bank transfer and would not accept a credit card payment so they made up some excuse that the item was unable to be located in their stock.

 

[EmGo]

The issue foreigners face is lack of a domestic address and likely a domestic credit card to set up accounts with. No seller here is going to deal with an overseas transaction at any cost.

Shipping internationally was not a problem for what we bought -- for payment I think we used zhifubao or weixin. Seems to me unionpay works in japan as well ? but not sure of that.

Maybe being in China is an advantage - there's lots of japanese people here and I am sure they move money back and forth frequently, but from the US would be more difficult.

However, where there's a will there's a way ... I could ask the assist how we did this but she can't even remember what she ate for breakfast, so not much hope there

 

[john.k]

Must be possible.....people I worked for,the eldest son moved to Japan ,and set up a buying and export agency for the low houred,often unused tractors and excavators you often see around ....... generically called Grey Market imports .