HL laser from ebay thoughts. RDC6445 Canada

Hi Chris, I too am in your shoes almost exactly. I’m in Canada and looking at the same seller, the blue 100W machine.

I inquired in April and said they would have a machine available in May at the Canada location. Very shortly I received another message saying it was now spoken for and would have to wait until late June For the new ones to arrive in Canada.

I’m not too worried about that business practice, either they ship a few at a time, and with China sea shipping it’s around 30-45 days, the timing makes sense. On the other hand, they may say it’s available but perhaps the reality is they ship only once order is confirmed. Just my thoughts there.

I have done some checking on AliExpress and based on these specs, I agree that this machine appears to have some of the better options Listed with auto level probe, RECI tubes, RuIDa controller, (without foreign language on buttons), a real chiller (5000 model), etc, I’d be happy with those features.

Price wise, the eBay offering and HL website price (Currently around 5k CAD) is steep. However after placing an offer on eBay the seller contacted me outside of eBay (definitely against eBay terms, but I get why, saving on fees)- and said they can give a discount if purchased with PayPal but outside of eBay. Still awaiting a confirmation of their final best price.

Paying with PayPal should still give buyer protection, BUT here’s my concern. The fine print on PayPal says “industrial machinery- for manufacturing-NOT covered.” Now in my case and sounds like yours as well, it’s a hobby machine at best, but I wonder how PayPal sees this?

That said, reading that others here have successfully received their laser from HL, gives me a bit more confidence.

But still feeling cautious.

Anyhow- personally, I like this machines specs, appearance, and also like that the seller will handle all of the importing and shipping to my door. I tried getting estimates on using a importer service (if I went the AliExpress route) and I was getting around $1000 in import and service fees. Add this to the cheaper machines, and this one actually still seems to be a better deal, less headache, etc.

Now, to take that small chance or not?

Good luck
Jason

It is unlikely to have a machine of that size sent for only $1,000. That won’t even cover tariff. More realistically, I would estimate for a single / personal shipment of the average size, weight, and value of a 900 x 600 or similar machine that the added tariffs, fees, insurance, and port to door service (that you will most likely need to arrange with a local towing company) could easily and safely be estimated to $2,000 - $2,500.

It is expensive to ship a single machine rather than filling a 40’ container with them and selling them stateside like this seller seems to be doing.

Please, someone fact check me here if I am out if my mind and have just been throwing money away in to the ocean. @Sasquatch? Am I crazy?

Importing your own machine… be prepared.

Ok thanks for the words of caution.

I do know that in Canada there are no tariffs on laser machines based on the HS code: 8456.10.00, I am not sure if there are any in US. Of course there would still be taxes (5% in my region), and all the dock fees and shipments fees.

The quotes I received were based on 1.3 cbm and 150kg machine weight. This was for less than container load, on a shared container.

I used FreightOS, and it provided a detailed cost breakdown. But now I’m not confident on the quote, so my next step will be to contact a local freight forwarder.

Thanks again for your insight to actual experience costs!

Edit: although I cannot disclose exact costs due to agreement of quotation, import through a local based freight forwarder and customs clearance agent comes to around $1200CAD incl. taxes on a $3000CAD machine from AliExpress, delivered to my door. There are no tariffs on these machines in Canada, and maybe that makes a difference from what others are experiencing?

I bought a 100w reci W2 from this vendor in Dec. 2018 and everything went smoothly. It was stocked in New Jersey and came in about 6 days after ordering with shipping to Virginia. I added the residential and lift gate service and they delivered into my shop and the freight driver hanged around for me to open it and check for physical damage. I found no damage.

It is the same physical enclosure and bed size (and cutting height).

Mine did not come with the knife bed or the catch bin or the newer RDC controller, but everything else looks the same. Mine came with the 5000 and not the 5200 chiller.
It was about $600 less than this so it would be a good price for me at 130watts.
I have had zero issues with it to date.

Good luck.

Only in US … Justin Trudeau loves China

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Tariffs are non existent and one could import to their hearts content. The biggest challenge is damage but with proper insurance that risk is diminished as well.

I have noticed that there are a few sellers on eBay that ship Chinese lasers from Europe in order to avoid tariffs so that they can offer the same thing for a lower price.

The cost of our laser even with all the headaches was worth the hassle . We saved a Ton of $ pulse we got a custom machine built to our specifications.

Cheers

Sasquatch

Do you mind sharing what you got and how did you install it as of optics upgrade

Thanks

I bought this set off of Amazon, foolishly assuming it would be a bolt-on replacement for my machine.

First off, the parts themselves are excellent. Thick aluminum, well machined and anodized, the fit and finish are both excellent. Sadly, I had to cut pieces off of all three of them to make them work.

I had to cut a little bit off of the bottom of mirror 2 mount to fit where it had to be:

And I ended up cutting most of the plate off of the laser head bracket and making my own mount for it. (Not the best route in hindsight)

On mirror 1 I completely removed the mounting stem as I have very little clearance for it. I don’t have any pics of that setup but I made an aluminum block riser to set it on to give it the proper height and bolted it onto it.

All of that is changing now though. I’ve got the entire motion system and the mirror mounts pulled out of the machine now. It’s an empty cabinet with a tube in the back. I had problems keeping the mirrors aligned, and the motion system on this laser is a very odd combination of excellent (profiled linear rail on the X axis), the good-enough (round rail on the left side of the Y axis) and the not-nearly-good-enough (plastic roller in a loose groove on the right side of the Y axis. I’m replacing that right-side setup with a second round rail, changing the Y axis to dual drive and replacing the motors with more powerful lower-inductance steppers.

None of that is really necessary on this machine mind you, I just got tired of having to realign my mirrors and since I couldn’t be 100% certain of the cause I figured I’d just take the whole system out and rebuild it. Since I’m starting over, I bought a new set of mirror mounts and head. They appear to be identical to the first set I bought, but offered by Cloudray rather than Garosa. I chose these for availability reasons.

Bottom line to your question really, I just cut and drilled and mounted until they were all in the right places. :slight_smile:

Thank you for the detailed answer. For year and a half my mirror alignment stays good and didn’t need any adjustments but I hate the way the head is mounted. Out of the box they use thin angled still plate that gives a lot of flex and drives me crazy.

I was hoping for plug and play option for the head since all other options need new brackets or to elevate the mirrors and the tube. I have less than zero metal working abilities and have to find someone to machine a head bracket for me

I purchased the HL 1060 red 100/130 watt in the 100watt version with Ruida RDC6445G controller and RECI W2 laser tube from Australian stock. It was more expensive than from China, but no hastles and costs with importing. I bought the 100watt mainly because RECI specifies the 100watt W2 tube as lasting 50% longer than the 130watt W6 tube, and I don’t need more than about 50watts for my planned usage. Only potential hicckup was that the Rotary Axis was sent separately from the main Laser Cutter machine. I had only just contacted the eBay vendor because Rotary Axis was not delivered with the rest of the machine, and the Rotary Axis arrived with a separate courier about an hour later! Response to set-up questions from Angela at HL has been fast and exceptional, which to be honest I was not expecting. Purchased from a mob called outdoorx on eBay. Uses standard parts which are cheap and easy to obtain and replace if it becomes necessary.