01The five questions
Ask all five. A trader can answer one or two convincingly; the pattern of answers is what tells you what you are dealing with.
| Question | Why it works | Our answer |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Where is the edge machined? | A trader cannot describe a process they subcontract | In house, after cutting; measured at the edge |
| 2. What tolerance can you inspect? | Anyone can claim a number, few can measure one | ±0.05 mm at the edge, recorded at stated temperature |
| 3. Who signs the inspection sheet? | A name is a person who can be asked again | The person who read your drawing |
| 4. How is it packed, in what? | Edge damage is the most common claim | Edges protected, faces interleaved, grain marked |
| 5. What happens if it is wrong? | Terms are where traders go quiet | See order terms and warranty — both written down |
The question that reveals the most is actually the first. Machining an edge to ±0.05 mm requires the plate in the same building as the machine; a business that buys finished parts cannot describe where that happens, and their tolerance is whatever the invoice said.
02Trader, fabricator, mill — three different businesses
The words get used interchangeably, and they describe three very different capabilities.
| Business | Buys | Can change | Cannot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mill | Slab and coil | Alloy, thickness, flatness | Cut your part to your drawing |
| Fabricator | Plate | Dimensions, edges, welded details, finish, packing | The alloy the mill rolled |
| Trader | Finished parts | Price, paperwork, consolidation | Anything dimensional after the fact |
All three are legitimate. The problem is only when a trader is asked a fabricator's question and answers anyway — because the answer will be plausible and unverifiable. The fabricator buys plate by grade and thickness from a mill; a trader buys a finished countertop by description. Those are two different purchase orders, and only one of them has a mill certificate attached to a heat number you can trace.
03Lead time, honestly
Our quoted lead time is 15 days from a confirmed drawing. That number means something specific: the clock starts when the drawing is confirmed, not when the enquiry arrives, and it excludes transit.
- Drawing confirmation is the variable you control. A complete drawing on day one is a 15-day order; a drawing that arrives in three instalments is not.
- Transit is separate and depends on the route. Ask for it as a line item, not folded into “lead time”.
- Welded fabrication is quoted per drawing because dressing a weld is hand work and the time is in the finish, not the weld.
A supplier who can tell you which day the plate is cut and which day it is packed has a schedule. A supplier who says “about two weeks” has a hope.
04Buying from China without the usual surprises
Three things decide whether a China order goes smoothly, and none of them is price.
- Units and datum on the drawing. Every dimension argument we have ever had traces back to one of these two being assumed rather than written.
- Inspection before packing, not after arrival. Get the inspection sheet with the photos before the container closes. After it arrives, a dimensional problem is a negotiation; before it ships, it is a fix.
- Who is the shipper of record. Decide this early, because it determines who can chase the container.
On duties, tariffs and import compliance we will tell you what the documentation says and what we can supply; we will not give you a customs opinion, because getting that wrong is expensive for you and we are not the authority on your border.
05Who you are dealing with
Bogeqi is a stainless plate fabricator in Foshan, Guangdong. We cut countertops, worktops, benches and bar tops from 5–10 mm plate, to drawings, for cabinet makers, commercial kitchens and laboratories. The person who answers your first email reads your drawing — that is the whole organisational chart that matters to a buyer.
What we are not: a mill, a stone shop, a cabinet maker, or a trading company that forwards drawings. If your job needs one of those, we will say so, because a wrong supplier costs more than a lost enquiry.