SERT Gone?

I hadn't been to the shop for a while, but popped down on Saturday to look for a small Jacobs chuck on a 2MT shank, to find that the Sert Precision shop in Farnham, near Slough is no more. It seems to have become a coffee shop. That's going to be quite a big loss for me - my workshop has got a fair few second hand bits and pieces from that source.

Jim.

Reply to
Jim Guthrie
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Yep, he closed a while ago (a year?) after selling off all stock, I believe to look after his wife full-time. A real shame, as it was a fantastic source for second-hand tools; must have spent hours there searching through bins of engineering oddments. I doubt there are any shops like that left.

Guy

Reply to
Guy Griffin

Does that make it a dead Sert then?

Regards, Tony

Reply to
Tony Jeffree

Hardly surprising he's gone, poor bugger got fed up waiting for the Herbert's who popped in every 5 years to spend about 3 quid and waste his time for an hour.

. Regards,

John Stevenson L Stevenson [ Engineers ]

Reply to
John Stevenson

I spent a good bit more than three quid on several visits over three years. I only found out about him about three years ago. :-).

But the proprietor seemed to welcome long chats with any person who came into the shop and it was sometimes difficult to get out without being impolite :-)

Jim.

Reply to
Jim Guthrie

That explains why I've been unable to find the mysterious shop in Farnham about which I had heard good things on several occasions.

Alan

Reply to
Alan Bain

Coincidentally I went into a m/c tool supply type shop today. It is

BIG, old shop. I've been in before and it is an incredible place. Ther are drawers upon drawers of brand new and used drills, millers, taps dies, reamers, bits of machine tools, verniers, hand tools etc etc etc I saw an old twist drill on a shelf that was about 6" diameter by abou

2' long. There are literally thousands upon thousands of boxed too insets in dozens of drawers. There is absolutely no order to the place and anyone could walk around putting things in their pockets and the gu would never know.

The guy sits behind a counter near the door, and whatever you ask for he seems to insist on suggesting something from his immediate vicinit (invariably of crappy Chinese origin) even though you can find SKF Presto or Dormer alternatives by just looking in random drawers.

I went in today to ask for a set of Dormer slot drills. He produced manky box of 6 unbranded tools and said £70 please! I asked if I coul by 6 individual Dormer branded drills from around the shop and he sai 'yes, but it will be far more expensive that way'. Cromwell tools u the road do a set of 7 decent quality slot drills for £26. Brand new The same with twist drills - I was looking for Dormer, 6-10mm in 0. increments. He said that was a very odd range, and tried to sell me craptastic set of 1-10mm in 0.5 increments. I left empty handed (fo the third visit in a row).

A few facts:

1) I have never bought anything from him.

2) I have never seen anyone else in his shop.

3) His prices are as stupid as Myford prices.

4) Trust me - he cannot POSSIBLY know what he has in stock, and ha confirmed this on three occasions by denying he has stuff which I hav found for myself in random drawers.

5) When I do find it, he prices himself out of any possible deal.

6) I would estimate that at least 75% of his stock (the gigantic use drill for example) is totally useless to anyone and will NEVER sell.

7) It is obvious that he buys job lots of stuff from businesse probably like his own that have gone out of business. The stuff wil have cost peanuts as a job lot.

8) I am wondering if me wearing a 'Boeing' work shirt and Jacke influences his pricing structure.

It's a popular misconception that supporting local businesses is bette for everyone because you get good advice and the convenience of having local supplier. Well, I am certainly not paying massively over the odd for the 'convenience' of having an overpriced, disorganised shambles o a shop tell me that I have to pay for quality, especally when I can ge decent stuff at a fraction of the cost locally from Cromwells up th road (still local don't forget) or via the internet.

There are other used tool shops up here and invariably it is a simila story wherever I have been. I sometimes get the feeling that if the think they can make some cash, they try to screw you to make up for th hopeless turnover they must have. Sorry guys, but I ain't having it! Ge in to the 21st century, price things realistically and see how it goes then start complaining if nobody buys anything!

Cheers,

Garth

-- DR_

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DR_G

He sold the contents of the shop over 4 weeks. I used to pop in mos

fridays on the way from work in Slough to home in Banbury.

He sold the shop off over about 5 - 6 weeks.

As some have said a sad loss, he ran the shop as a hobby as some hav noted.

some interesing facts he told me over the years.

He set up Mountfield the lawnmower and garden machinery people afte the war.

He designed some lawnmowers for racing that his daughters raced.

He was a Director of Arsenell in the days of Charlie George.

He did quite a few long distance car rallies to Moscow etc

He had a host of good yarns if you had time to listen.

Along with John Stevenson he noticed the improvement in the engineerin tools from China, He took great delight in showing how a Chinese ma base of the same size had more holding power than an eclipse one.

Steve Larne

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