Leamington -Exhibition

I was at the exhibition site yesterday helping to set up the Cheltenham SME stand and will be there all day next Tuesday.

First impressions are that there is more space than Donnington (even though some of it is in marquees).

Apologies for the misspelling the web URL in another thread - it should have been

Reply to
Mike H
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All being well I'm sticking my nose in on Sunday. Anyone else going and fancy a meet ?

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

Visit the new Model Engineering adverts page at:-

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Reply to
John Stevenson

Was there today. Some impressions:

- Stand space seems to be similar to Donnington, but notable omission is the boat pool (if you are into that kind of thing!)

- Didn't seem to be as well attended as Donningon last year

- Not much new there - same old stuff being re-cycled on the exhibition & society stands, and same old stuff being sold on the trade stands for that matter

- Arc is selling 6" digi calipers for £8.99 & he seems to have approx

5 metric tonnes of them (a slight exaggeration, but certainly several boxes).

- The temporary structure/tent actually provides a very pleasant environment - light & airy due to the plastic covering material being translucent plus big transparent panels in the roof. The floor in that part of the exhibition is a bit odd though - rather uneven & "springy", giving the impression that you're on a rather lively boat as you walk around the place.

- NO BAR!!!

- Food arrangments significantly better than Donnington - excellent bacon butties to be had.

- Parking arrangments MUCH better than either Donnington or Harrogate IMHO - mind you, that may be partly because I was there at sparrow fart this morning.

- Getting off the M6 at J2 sucked. Getting back up the M6 sucked.

Almost certainly won't get back there during the rest of the show.

Regards, Tony

Reply to
Tony Jeffree

I'm amazed at some of the second hand bits some of the vendors have. One vendor from down south who should be nameless has been touting the same worn out second hand ju..parts for the last 10 shows I have been to. I picked a collet chuck up at Pickering, turned it over and saw £70. I can get a new German one from WNT for £29.99 And they have dragged this stuff to the last God knows how many shows. If they gave it away tomorrow they would show a profit.

I picked three pairs up on Wednesday from his place. At these prices you can't go wrong. Some of my older ones are starting to show their age and the windows are badly scarred. These will do to leave on the metal rack and use the newer ones on the machines.

No problem when driving IF they have decent coffee. The stuff at Donington was terrible, more of a cross between paint stripper and Marmite and at £1.80 a slice it was expensive.

Just Friday.

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

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Reply to
John Stevenson

There seem to be a lot of these about at the moment, Aldi had them recently (7.99 I think) and I've seen them at various places around

9.99. I've also seen them at a few places for 19.99 or 29.99 as well. As the old saying goes "caveat emptor".

Regards

Kevin

PS hope to get down to the show on Monday or Tuesday

Reply to
Kevin Steele

At £8.99 there's not much that the "emptor" has to "caveat" ;-)

Regards, Tony

Reply to
Tony Jeffree

No, but there is if your one of the unfortunate sods who paid 19.99 or more for the same thing. An interesting thought is that if these are hitting retail customers for this price they must be making them for a quid each, and that includes a nice wooden box to keep it in!

Regards

Kevin

Reply to
Kevin Steele

Shan't manage it this year, too many other commitments - mainly the family taxi service - and the longer drive than Donnington doesn't help. Maybe the money it'll save me can be put to good use elsewhere, ebay perhaps

BTW I'm on the lookout for some big vernier calipers, 48" or more, cheap or to borrow for a couple of weeks. Nothing special needed, nor super-accurate. Missed some on ebay a couple of weeks ago, I got called away when intending to put in a late bid, they went cheaply enough :-(

Cheers Tim

Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service

Reply to
Tim Leech

Actually, plastic box in this case, but yes, they are clearly making them for approx F-all.

The cost of shipping them over here is probably higher than they are sold for in China.

Regards, Tony

Reply to
Tony Jeffree

I came across this program a while back:

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Places bids automatically. Works very well.

Regards, Tony

Reply to
Tony Jeffree

So far it's worked for me but there are probably differences. I have took the new sliders off these new £8.99 calipers and fitted them to old 8" calipers and they have worked. That's an even better saving.

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

Visit the new Model Engineering adverts page at:-

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Reply to
John Stevenson

In message , Tony Jeffree writes

[snip]

'Boatees' seem to have a show of their own 11th.. 13th Nov.

Reply to
Mike H

Thanks Tony, I'll give it a try.

I did try one of these a few years ago, can't remember why I didn't follow it through. Probably when I still had a dial-up connection.

Cheers Tim

Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service

Reply to
Tim Leech

How was it for you John?

Regards, Tony

Reply to
Tony Jeffree

Bacon buttie was a bit well done.

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

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Reply to
John Stevenson

Shouldn't have been a problem really John, plenty of brown sauce usually softens it. I am planning to go tomorrow so was hoping for one of your "full" reports of where to look for the best bargains - but then again I suppose you have cleaned them out already. No bar seems a bit harsh though.

Best regards Keith

Reply to
jontom_1uk

I did have a good look round and though that it was well set out. Trade stands seemed a little less attended compared to last Donington which is what we have to compare this with. Definitely not as much room as Donington, stalls are smaller, possibly reflecting the higher prices? JB Cutting tools have just a small one unit stall compared to their usual 3 or 4. Myfords are missing, they never stood Donington opting for an open house week as they were only 6 miles away but now they are 1-1/2 hours away.

Club stands are plenty although still down on Donno. The SMEE workshop is also smaller and tucked away in the corner and it looks as if Giles Parkes and his gearcutting is the main thing on show. No Ivan Law this year. Not certain but I have also been told that the model press in the shape of ME and MEW are not attending.

Bargains? that's a bit hard for me after attending the last few shows as there isn't much new at each show. Tony pointed out Arc Euro's 6" digital caliper offer of £8.99 but I noticed they had 8" ones for £14.99 so I got a couple of those as well.

Chester had sets of transfer punches on show. For anyone who hasn't used these after you do you will wonder how you ever managed before. I have a set of Imperial and metric but I noticed that they now do letter, number and a massive set from 1/2" to 1" Probably of not a lot of use to the ME but of plenty of use to hairy arsed bodgers like myself.

The bar isn't that much of a problem as the smaller cafe in the top tent has tins and bottled beer in the cooler.

Overall views? OK, but for what is there I thought it was high priced. I don't do the Southern shows any more so can't comment on these but at the moment it loks as if Harrogate is tops around here with Lemington second and Pickering third but that may alster next year as Pickering gets more publicity and the building will be finished.

Total buys for the day? Two 8" calipers, two sets of add on arms for them from Arc Euro to do grooves and recess's etc. The book on dividing in the Workshop series and a bacon buttie.

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

Visit the new Model Engineering adverts page at:-

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Reply to
John Stevenson

John

Thanks, I'll "turn down" my expectations a bit - still looks like a worthwhile trip despite the 2 1/2hr drive. At least it looks like you didn't make much of a dent in that wallet of yours despite the cost of getting in. I have been to a couple of large scale shows there and was a bit concerned about the space available. The one thing I enjoy about Harrogate (despite a 4hr, each way, journey)is that there is enough room to see things even if the crowd is fairly large.

I hadn't seen the accessory packs for the digital calipers before but thanks to your comments I will be able to measure my caliper jaws before I go. Otherwise I would have agonized for hours wondering if they would fit before not buying them and then regretting it when I got home and found they would! They look as if they could be quite usefull, Thanks.

I must admit that I don't spend too much time at the "pre-owned" stalls these days as I've bought plenty of dubious stuff in the past. I had thought that the fact that I usually go on the last days meant I always missed the real bargains on these stalls - perhaps not?

Anyway thanks again for the pointers John, I hope the bacon is a little less well done on Tuesdays!

Best regards

Keith

Reply to
jontom_1uk

Lets hope the other items last longer than the buttie ;-)

Regards, Tony

Reply to
Tony Jeffree

I went down earlier today. It seemed more cramped than donnington to me, but about the same number of stands I think. Agree with what Tony said about "same old stuff". Parking was OK, but then I've never had any problem parking at Donnington (was I just lucky every year?). Bit of a crap location (but I'm a bit biased there as donnington was 10 minutes down the road for me), not terribly accessable from the motorway network compared to donnington. I'm not so sure I'll bother next year -might make the effort and get up to Harrogate, or Pickering as I can tie that in with family visits (parents live in Pickering).

Regards

Kevin

Reply to
Kevin Steele

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