Fifteen or twenty years ago I purchased a Stelram toolholder and some replaceable tips of various tip radius from a supplier at the ME exhibition at Ally Pally.
I am now down to my last two good cutting edges and need some replacement tips but I can't remember the suppliers name (old age galopping on). I remember that they used to issue a stapled catalogue xeroxed onto pink or orange paper.
Anyone know who the supplier might be or of anyone else who may stock Stelram tips? They were made with an angle of 75 degrees instead of the 80 that seems to be standard now.
In the period 1999 - 2003 I was a good customer of theirs (I spent about pounds
8300) and they were a good supplier - very friendly, prompt, altogether nice people to deal with. I was then living in Holland and found their reasonably extensive catalogue a god send. They were then official dealers for Dormer and I bought an extensive range of stub drills and a lot of other tools which were not "Sherline" for which they were the UK agent. About a year ago there was an advert in ME or MEW giving a new address but certainly implying that it was only the "Sherline" part of the business that had been sold not the complete range, I guess that the owner had either retired or died. He was a charming guy who used to attend some of the ME exhibitions, mainly Pickett's Lock. During 2004 I was involved in moving back to the UK after 30 years abroad and converting my double garage into a workshop/garage combination and have not had the need for any Sherline stuff.
The following is the Millhill entry on the "Sherline" site
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is worth visiting as an example of what a suppliers WEB should be! Full details of all their product range, hints and tips from customers, masses of links (unfortunately nearly all for the USA) and a model gallery showing modelers work not only done on Sherline tools but modeling in general including our own Barry Norman.
UNITED KINGDOM (and Europe) Millhill Supplies (Under new management,
10/04!) The Barn, Russells Road, Halstead, Essex CO9 1SP, England Tel: ++44 (0) 1787 472236, Fax: ++44 (0) 1787 477797 E-mail: snipped-for-privacy@millhillsupplies.co.uk Web site:
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NEW WEB ADDRESS
12/04!
The following is a copy of the Millhill WEB page:
The content of this page is currently being updated. Please check back soon! Thank you for your patience. Millhill Supplies The Barn Russells Road Halstead Essex CO9 1SP Tel: 01787 472236 Fax: 01787 477797 E-mail: snipped-for-privacy@millhillsupplies.co.uk
Not very inspiring particularly as it has not been updated for more that a year. I anyone in the group has dealt with Millhill recently I should appreciate any information.
I phoned up the number on the seemingly abandoned website, and bought a set of Dormer drills, which duly arrived in a couple of days. The chap (Kevin) was quite helpfull giving me some prices by email, which I followed up with a phone order.
So they're still doing the Dormer stuff, but don't seem to actively advertise in the model eng. press theses days. I remembered the name from ages ago when they advertised reasonably-priced sets of Dormer drills - which they still sell, if not advertise..
I bought most of my Stellram tools from Millhill, they had a small shop Crowmarsh Gifford half way between Oxford and Reading. Did not realise they had moved.
For the past couple of years have been buying inserts from Precision Tools, one of their reps walked in one day and have used them ever since, Millhill did not keep all the grades and had to order them in for me.
Great! Thanks Lionel. You have jogged my memory and I now remember the picture of the windmill on the old catalogue - one of the things that was thrown out before moving to France.
I telephoned the number on the webpage and Kevin still stocks these 75 degree inserts. There should be an envelope winging its way across the channel to me.
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