Anyone going to WESTEC?

yes, I plan to go, I don't know what day - probably spend 4 hours or so rushing through it to get an idea of what's going on (and maybe find some hints on how to make those old car hood hinges) - also ENCO is there and in the past they've offered free shipping for anything bought at the show - a couple of years ago I bought a surface plate on sale - that was a great bargain, particularly with free shipping.

Hate to say it but we walked the show in a little over an hour! Bridgeport wasn't even there. No Chinese legation even. Sad days..

there were several chinese suppliers, an Indian supplier or two, so if you wanted cheap stuff there was some. Aloris was there, HAAS, SPI, Mitutoyo, all the usual suspects. A nice selection of 3-D printers (they are getting almost affordable), a very cool $2500 setup that can scan/form a point cloud and then mill a small object (price includes a scanner and a small mill), Flow was showing their HP cutting technology - no longer cutting out motorcycles, several really nice EDM machines, a great demo of ceramic inserts and ultra high SFM. But Enco and MSC were absent, as was H Hip, and a few of the other low end suppliers. Several companies offering Laser Radar measuring systems (very cool), and so on. Westec isn't the best place to get bargains, though Travers was handing out 15% discount coupons and US tool had some heavy discounts too - Westec is where you go to figure out what you want and what you want but will never have. Oh, and there was a way cool, and affordable USB microscope by Big C technology - very cool.

and I don't ever remember seeing Bridgeport there even in prior years, though it might have been.

--RE Stereolith machines:

has a kit to build your own for maybe $800.-. It can produce something about the size of a coffee cup. Also there's reprap.org's open-source machine that can reproduce about half of its own components.

--Enco was there but I always give 'em a miss. Spent some time talking to the Travers Tool guys who were mooey helpful and open to suggestions.

I was there Wed, from about 11am-4pm...saw a few folks Ive done business with, chatted with some friends, backtracked to some displays that had caught my attention the 1st time around...had lunch...

Ive been going to Westec since 1995..this was the smallest show Ive ever seen.

Some nice stuff, with damned few people who actually plan on buying any of it.

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner