Just back from the show. Seemed VERY quiet compared with last year, with various traders commenting that takings for the day were well down - one major stallholder quoted around 40% compared with the same time period last year. With Meridienne choosing to charge even more this year than for stand space, it will be interesting to see which of the commercial stands decide not to bother next time. What with the Olympia debacle showing signs of melt-down, it looks to me as if Harrogate will soon be the only show worth visiting.
Not a lot that was terribly new apart from John's X3 conversion on the Arc Euro stand. Had a natter with one or two reprobates that haunt these threads, spent too much on bits that I don't really need...so situation normal I guess.
Shhh, don't let Simon Boak hear that or he'll put the prices right up and ruin that too! (if you don't know what I'm referring to try Googling his name...) Greg
There did seem to be quite a large number of reprobates in the show today.
I was slightly disappointed to not find a couple of bits that I was looking for. But given that The Tee site (or whateverthehell its called) is less than the size of one of the Harrogate halls, It's not surprising that there aren't as many traders and their stalls are smaller. Even given the price of stall space, the space seemed to have been sold. One assumes that the price is "what the market will bear". One thing that was new in this exhibition was that, as far as I could tell, there were only two Quorns :-).
I will definitely go next year but, given that it's in my back yard, I'd be a fool not to.
The "bar" is non existent, apart from bottles of Pedigree and Everard's Tiger at the cafe. The food, however, was good solid stuff. Enough snake and kidney pie to keep you going for a week with chips, vegetables and gravy for about a fiver. That is much better than Harrogate. OTOH Harrogate is about 300 yards from Tesco's.
Spent money on some more silver steel, BSW and BSF nuts, some pin punches, re-stocking on Proops brass brushes and a 2.2mm insert parting tool from Jenny. Tried that out tonight on the first piece of bar I could find when I got home. I'm now converted to TC insert parting tools :-)
It would never fit in, it's packed tightly into the Harrogate venue and I reckon the half finished shed he grandly calls the "Northern Events Arena" is less than two thirds the area. If he crops the show down to the size of his venue for the sake of greed he'll kill it within a couple of years. Greg
I was there today, didn't fancy the drive so caught the train. Disappointing that there seemed to be quite a few less stands than a couple of years ago at Donington. A couple of notable absentees, and no tat stalls, which is a mixed blessing. Some of them were interesting to rummage through, there might even be bargains among the overpriced junk! Initially I wondered whether it was worth the journey, eventually decided it probably was. It wasn't overcrowded with punters, so there was a decent chance to see what was on offer. I spoke to a couple of traders who seemed reasonably upbeat about their level of business. I bought a few oddments, some tweezers from Proops, a couple of electrical switches, a few bits from Jenny at JB, etc., the only real money spent was on some 5C collet arbors from Arc Euro. I arrived back at Leamington station on the bus, checked my bags & found the one with the 5C bits was missing :-((. Stopped on the bus, went back to the do trying to think where I might have left it (I had made one more call after ArcEuro). Found my carrier bag sitting on the grass verge by the bus stop, one handle broken! I must have picked it up by one handle & not realised it had failed. Tried to pick it up, the other handle broke. Dead lucky it was all there Message to Ketan if you're reading this, Proops' bags are stronger than yours
Cheers
Tim
Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service
Yesterday was my first visit having been to the one at Alexandra Palace last January. My main comment is that nobody seemed to be giving brochures away, whereas at AP they were visible, and generally for the taking, although a few were charged for. Hidden behind the counter and available if requested, I would guess.
I'm somewhat deaf, but unfortunately had no difficulty hearing(?) the various mechanical organs. Felt quite sorry for those with stands in the same hall. Why can't their volume be varied in a downwards direction? Interesting to note that none of the exhibiting clubs/societies came from anywhere near my neck of the woods. We're better on warehouses and clothes shops, and more clothes shops, than engineering!
Contented myself by getting a 200 x 300 x 50 mm granite surface plate from RDG Tools. Very surprised to find a numbered calibration certificate inside the box. (Wonder if it applies to surface plate or to their very best seeing that the quoted figures are as good as an AA Lab grade.) Somewhat worried that I (now 68) felt quite young amongst the other visitors and constructors/showmen. Will their skills be handed down and will there be an exhibition in 20 years time? Or do engineers age at a high rate?
I went on Saturday. Bit of a haul from down east but quite enjoyed it. Like others have said before I noticed less trade stands than Ally Pally, and the machinery dealers didn't have their larger stuff there.
Lots of models and working traction engines, which although not my thing at all were nevertheless impressive for the work that went into them.
Bought a Stevenson spin indexer from Arc Euro and a couple of Myford chuck backplates from the same. Having taken my mitutoyo calipers with me to check the register on these I was very impressed with the Arc Euro/LA Services part as they were just a thou' over my spindle size, whereas the RDG ones were about 8 thou' larger and far more roughtly machined. A couple of boxes of tips from Jenny and silver solder from Cup alloys and a cheap 12" stainless ruler from Proops rounded out the purchases.
As someone who has roundly cursed Chesters in the past over a true heap of junk they supplied, I was very pleasantly surprised at the apparant build quality of their new DB11 lathe, and the similar BL11 clone on the Engineers toolroom stand. Nice wide bed that is massively cast underneath and both looked very good. They have even remembered to finally put the leadscrew reverse on these things.
After the show went to the pub in Ufton with JS & son Adam, JG, and Mark Rand for an enjoyable couple of hours chat, but unfortunately drinking shandy instead of the rather fine beers on offer.
Got home at midnght, too tired to play with the new toys, but off to the workshop now to have a fiddle.
After moaning all week that I wouldn't make it this year the Gods finally relented and I was given a late (very) pass. Rushed up the M50, M42 and M40 to fall through the door at 2pm. Fell because they still charged me full wack with only two hours to go, no time for sweet talking though. Rushed about like headless chicken with no real expectations and found all my long list of items bar one. "Result" as my kids say (I think it is appropriate here) and I still had 30 minutes to have good look round. Several traders commented on a lower than expected attendance particularly on the weekend, but then I suppose they would.
I noticed a couple of impressive 7 1/4 scale locomotives that I hadn't seen before but I'm not a train man so didn't appreciate the detail. Obviously missed the talks this year but noticed that they had a few slots on "getting started" so hope thay will have sown a few seeds.
So reasonable day and came back with another "stupid" idea in my head, having finally got a Bridgeport and parted with the little RF25 I now think a small bench top mill would complement the "bigun". Didn't have much time to look properly but noticed the Seig X3 (obviously) and the Warco ?15, anybody had a better look at them or anything else?
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