Beating Brexit?

[Larry$]

graham, what made the cost so high? "I already had enough hassle importing $65 worth of electronics from USA. By the time it came through my door, it came to $133.53"

 

[graham-xrf]

graham, what made the cost so high? "I already had enough hassle importing $65 worth of electronics from USA. By the time it came through my door, it came to $133.53"

OK - let's see how it adds up. I hope I got this right, because the charge was paid by my brother-in-law when he collected it.
Also, the exchage rate has shifted slightly since.

Re: SparkFun --> Pretty much snafu.
For SEN-14209 $69.95 + $5.19 shipping and handling = $75.14
I think that gets it as far as USA port.
I have two duty hurdles. The second is if the value of the item is greater than £39. The lesson is - do not import over £39.
I still have £16 to account for, paid by brother-in-law - $21.28
No arrangement to pre-pay customs charge, so apparently +£18.97 => +$24.79 extra.
So, carefully keeping dollars together, total is $99.93



Now discover that to get the postal service to move it from port to depot and delivery was £8 = about $10.64 on today's exchange rate.
The total, using today's dollar conversions, comes to $131.85.

I think I could have avoided the £16 on a smaller value import, but I needed the thing for XRF project, so OK. Any folk in USA who want to follow the build only pay $69.95 + postage.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Checking out Precision Matthews to purchase anything to a UK customer seemed so bad, I shelved it as pointless, and started looking at European makes.

 

[graham-xrf]

In the end, import/export may not turn out to be as bad as I fear. Pretty much everywhere, (including China) is going to take an economic schism. In various ways, (at least looking West) from UK, we see the spectre of food queues, job and home insecurity, a rampant public health hazard, and generally lots of unhappiness and concern. Looking East, folk are also hard hit. It may be comparable to the early 1930's

There will be plenty of motivation to make UK trade easier with USA, and vice-versa. The upsides to a deal with the EU for both sides are so obvious, even to me, that I think, after all the grandstanding and posturing is over, I may still be able to buy machinery without an excessive hit.

In the short term, @MrWhoopee is likely right. Grab it now!
Is the saying "a bird in the hand ..etc" ?

 

[Lo-Fi]

Longer term it'll get sorted one way or another. Lots of talk of UK looking to Indo-Pacific region for trade and alliances, which I find quite heartening. I'll leave the politics out, naturally. Short term it's going to be pretty hard going. Get those orders in!

 

[RJSakowski]

Is import duty paid based upon the time of purchase or arrival at a UK port of entry? Given how close you are to brexit, it may already be too late.

 

[graham-xrf]

Is import duty paid based upon the time of purchase or arrival at a UK port of entry? Given how close you are to brexit, it may already be too late.

The kit is, I think, already in UK. The original manufacturer was Polish.
[Edit: I have checked. The kit is in Poland. However, delivery would be before Christmas]

 

[graham-xrf]

After some specifications checking, I have gone ahead and purchased the little Cormak MT3 Spindle 230V Mill-Drill machine.
It's just about the size I want, relatively compact, and has the stuff one would expect, like table auto-feed, and +/- 90° head tilt.



I now have to go through the list mentioned by @Larry$ namely..

Don't forget all the accessories (vice, boring head & bars, drill chuck, tooling, measuring stuff, parallels, fly cutter, tap follower, arm to mount the dial test indicator to the spindle, set of screw machine drills, toolmakers vice, DRO and all the stuff I've forgotten.)

Maybe getting into the goods and bads of that lot belongs in a thread of it's own, rather than being about getting past some inevitable new tariff arrangements. I don't for even a second believe they can end up "better". If all goes well, maybe the impact will be minimal, but, of course, they could end up a real imports piggy. Definitely what @MrWhoopee mentioned about there being no downsides to going for it now, did influence me.

As with all of these things, measuring kit like DRO would be an "extra", and I suppose an "any brand" one could be retro-fitted. I would have hoped the machine comes with a draw-bar, but no mention of that. I will be exploring all that stuff in the coming hours. This was the largest "little" machine in the range that still used a 230V motor, although this is one of those with servo-controlled variable speed.

For the price ($2166.00 imported +delivered =£1629.00), it took about 2/3 the budget, so there is some left for DRO, and some other necessary kit, for which throw in a necessary correct power socket installation.

Am I among the few, or maybe first, to end up with a "Santa Claus" toy like this, and no place (yet) to have it make chips on Christmas day?

 

[Lo-Fi]

Congrats!! The Cormac stuff looks pretty darn decent.

Am I among the few, or maybe first, to end up with a "Santa Claus" toy like this, and no place (yet) to have it make chips on Christmas day?

Get away with some light Delrin milling on the living room floor? Don't forget the batteries!

 

[Larry$]

I looked up the info on your new mill. The draw bar is probably a 12 mm accessed under the plastic cap. The starter kit they sell for it is Chinese so you can probably get similar items cheaper. A YT channel by "Jon's Workshop" Shows a similar machine he bought in June.
It looks like it has capabilities to do most hobby work. New tools are always a fun adventure.

The kitchen table should work as a temporary bench.

 

[graham-xrf]

I looked up the info on your new mill. The draw bar is probably a 12 mm accessed under the plastic cap. The starter kit they sell for it is Chinese so you can probably get similar items cheaper. A YT channel by "Jon's Workshop" Shows a similar machine he bought in June.
It looks like it has capabilities to do most hobby work. New tools are always a fun adventure.

The kitchen table should work as a temporary bench.

Thanks for the link. I am likely to be asking about all the other stuff in a separate thread.
In my place, there is not the remotest hope that anything like a machine could be put down on a kitchen table that might see food. Even so much as a screwdriver had better be there as a temporary consequence of repairing the table. By nature, I am the sort who would readily use the kitchen table. I would disassemble a motorcycle in the living room. I might spoon the sausage chunks with chilli beans direct out the pot, and so skip having to wash up a plate.

The thing is, I married an English girl, and here, she tells me, that sort of thing just isn't done! Actually, I'm totally sure kitchen tables are put to darn good use across the nation, but in my place, it's a big no-no!