HELP: Importing a Sherline mill in France

Interesting problem. Now that the authorities know about it I think the only thing you can do is get the mill returned to Sherline, and get them to ship one to you which is CE approved and has the requisite stickers.

The other shipments you mention probably slipped through without anyone checking them.

Leon

You cannot assume that the unit is CE just because it has been shipped to other EU nations.

First of all, get Sherline to fax you any and all information regarding CE on the mill. You may find that it is not CE, or just the motor is CE. If you cannot get the required documentation, I would talk to the customs agents and offer to remove the motor and return it to Sherline. Without the motor, the unit may not have to be CE certified and you can take it home. Sherline can then send the motor (if it has a CE sticker) back to you and you haven't broken any rules.

Deep DooDoo dude! Most american products are not specifically CE or TUV qualified unless they are made specifically for the world market by the larger companies and those products are generally made outside the US to begin with. It would be wise for you to have the machine shipped back to Sherline and go looking for something else. The ratings are more stringent than the UL ratings here in the US with double insulation and so forth required. I'll also note that Unimat used to make a lathe of the same size and that is TUV rated as well as CE rated. Hope that the authorities don't prosecute you for your lying.

-- Bob May Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less. Works every time it is tried!

Jim Stewart wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@omsoft.com:

To add to Jims advice my Father and I have the same 5000/5100 cnc mill, he's in the UK, I'm in the US. They're identical apart from the motor and the imperial/metric screws. The UK version has a CE sticker overlapping the US UL sticker.

The UK sherline paperwork has two european distributor/dealers listed;

Fisker Trading APS Smedeengen 13, DK-3630 Jaegerspris, Denmark Phone: 454 750 5152, Fax: 454 750 0500

or the UK dealer

Millhill Supplies

66 The Street, Crownmarsh Gifford, Nr. Wallingford, Oxon OX10 8ES, UK Phone: 014 9183 8653, Fax: 014 9182 5510

I'd send back the sherline and maybe call on eof the above for an inside the EU buy so avoiding the French CE issue.... and the motor would be the right spec too probably.

Hmm. Disassemble, pack separately, and ship under the heading "Machine Parts." Might work.

Jim

================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================

I think the fine is something like 100,000 Euros (US$125,000). It doesn't bother the Chinese, some of whom reportedly just slap those CE stickers on without doing any real testing (self-certification), but those of us within reach of the law might think twice. Many of the parts are probably CE, BTW, I'm pretty sure the speed control OEM module is CE.

The CE requirements, while reasonable and comparable to UL and CSA (going somewhat further in EMC compatibility and safety) are required for EU sales. There might be additional filtering required to prevent outside transients from affecting the speed control or to keep electrical noise from getting out. Also, at least a SAFETY manual in French is required if you want to sell in France (operator's and service manuals are optional). I'm not even sure that just taking the motor off would work, as lathes sold in the UK seem to have clear plastic shields around the chuck- so there may be additional requirements beyond the pure electrical requirements of EMC and LVD.

Good luck with this. If Sherline basically tells you that their product is not certified by them to be compliant, your best bet may be to suck up to the customs people and see if they can figure out some way of calling it a non-functional sample. Be sure to emphasize that it's not for sale under any circumstances. Unfortunately, you're off to a bad start on that. Maybe you'll get someone else more sympathetic, but memories of my brief brushes with your country's officials give me a pessimistic prognosis. 8-(

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

The manual is not written in french either. That must be a big no-no. Outside the USA, call Sherline at (760) 727-5857 or fax (760)

727-7857. You may also e-mail questions to snipped-for-privacy@sherline.com. Or see;

According to what I read, only the safety manual is required to be in the language of the country of sale. Makes sense, the gov't doesn't care if you can use it or not, they just want to make sure it doesn't hurt you. ;-) UL is the same way, they don't really care if the item works or not, so long as it doesn't incinerate or electrocute you.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Thanks to all who replied. It seems that actually, Sherline tools are not CE certified at all. I digged into the CE certification process, and it looks like this is not something easily done without the manufacturer's help. So I doubt that the 2 European dealers have a sound Technical File..., so buying from them would not change anything. Anyway, I will try again next monday....

Michel Gouget

mgouget at computer dot org

Dear all,

I finally managed to get the mill after struggling with the customs for a week. The way I did it was rather "out of band", and I don't suggest anybody to do it. If you want to import a Sherline mill to Europe, I don't recommand to order Sherline direct as long as they are not CE marked, but instead pass through European dealers, so as to avoid customs red tape. Sherline support has been second to none, and they did anything possible to help me, up to proposing a full refund if I was not able to get it. I don't know yet if the product is good or excellent (just unpacked it at the time), but my experience tells me that a company with this kind of customer support usually makes outstanding products.

Thanks for your suggestions

Michel Gouget

mgouget at computer dot org