I first visited Taichung in Taiwan about 15 years ago with my oldest son Huon, looking for a woodlathe to complement our growing range of woodturning accessories. I had very little understanding on how everything was made there. I can remember visiting the first factory and it was very old and thought to myself am I doing the right thing. Well some things have changed a lot and some factories I visited recently have changed very little, but they all produce great products and it depends who they make the product for, to how fancy the office and factory look.

Some factories are right beside the rice paddocks.

We were trying to track down a particular product and this company has no website, so google is no use. We asked quite a few people and no one knew, then just by chance we visited a factory that made bigger machines and he knew the factory we were looking for. When we arrived the factory was old but they have been making the same product for over 20 years and have customers worldwide and the owner is approx 55 years old and he does not need to change anything because he is very successful. Another factory I first visited 15 years ago has moved out of the original factory and now has a 2 huge factories making many products for the big North American and European customers.

We caught the bus from Taipei City to Taichung approx a two and a half hour trip and arrived right beside The Evergreen Laurel Hotel, I have stayed here many times and it is very centrally located. The hotel has quite a large lobby and it seems that many buyers of woodworking machinery worldwide stay here, I have met people from India, Spain, Germany, England, USA and South America. I had a forward booking for 6 nights at approx A$110 per night which is approx half the advertised rate. The hotel has a great buffet breakfast with a large choice of western and local food.

Saturday night I had dinner with a friend about 3 blocks away at a place called “Smooth”. I had some great western food with a few local taiwan beers. Sunday we visited the local jade market and picked up a few items, later we checked out a camera store and they had all the latest products. I do really like the great range of food available in Taichung and I sampled a great range of local and japanese food, I just love the raw fish and sharkfin soup.

Monday morning we started early and visited a few factories making products for us.

Our tablesaw production run being checked before shipping.

Our 18” Bandsaw production

Our 5hp Cyclone

The spindle sander having its inspection before shipping

Second Generation

Many of the factories now have the second generation taking part in the management and production of the products. Most of the children have attended college or university overseas and they bring a new outlook  with some focusing on sales, machine design and production methods. The bottom line is that they need volume to make everything work properly.

Variable Speed Drives

Around 8 years ago the inverter drives started being fitted to some of the higher end woodlathes, today many machines have this option and on this trip I saw spindle moulders, drill presses and sanders with them attached.

One of our containers being loaded for the trip to Australia

The containers arrive at Currumbin

Future Outlook

The future looks good for the woodworking machinery market in Taiwan as they have a very good supply network of parts manufacturers and they seem to be able to control the quality better then China.