A plea for prices!

Just had a read through MEW 222, which arrived this morning. Especially liked One Man and His Lathe, looking forward to more of those.

Just one minor query for Neil - is there some reason almost nobody mentions the price of things?

So the spray gun is "a fairly expensive brush when compared to imported copies" and a better box would have been nicer "at this price range". And the price is? Nowhere to be found. To save other readers googling, it's about £110ish.

Then there's Neil's own review of the Dremel - lovely to see someone actually using one after all the advertorial puff pieces of the past - but how much does it cost? No mention. The answer, after a bit more Google, turns out to be £100-£110ish.

On to the book reviews - no prices. Why not? Are these £6 books or £30 books? Wouldn't it be useful to say?

I'm probably not alone in not having an unlimited budget for 'stuff', so prices are useful information... if the spray gun had been say £30 then it's a far more 'easily possible' purchase than if it costs £110. But no way of knowing which from the review.

To pre-empt those who say 'but prices change' the date is on the front of the mag and obviously prices have to be seen in the context of their time.

Clearly you don't want articles to sound like ads for things but putting in the price does not do that IMO - it's just useful info for readers. And saying, in an independent way, whether an item is value for money compared to the alternatives, would be a much better way of sounding non-ad-like.

Just a minor quibble really - and I'm curious as to the reasoning behind omitting prices. Enjoyed the issue overall!

Edited By Bikepete on 20/10/2014 20:11:24

Can't speak for the Dremel or Books but when I sent in the article to Neil I left it to him if he wanted to put the supplier and price in as a reference. As they supplied the brush I was not sure of the arrangement and thought that they may want to run an advert in the mag at the same time.

Maybe it was just a space issue as I also suggested this ref which is the Iwata site I mention in the text.

J

Edited By JasonB on 20/10/2014 20:25:20

Thanks J - interesting links. There's a beautifully produced catalogue to download from Iwata here and the supplier link is useful too - they have it at £130 rather than the £110ish that my Google search threw up, but they look like a much safer bet as specialist suppliers.

I think the usual thing is to publish the RRP - can't see why any manufacturer wouldn't be happy for this to be added to reviews. They wouldn't necessarily like details of a supplier selling at below the RRP, I suspect.

Edited By Bikepete on 20/10/2014 21:11:38

Hi Pete.

It's my oops I'm afraid, None of these things came to me with a price tag, and I'm afraid it slipped off my radar.

If you want a chance of a free dremel the competition is here:

http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/dremelmicro

The prize arrived today. I must be honest, I would probably not have considered buying of these, being happy with a 'wired' tool, but I find the 'just pick it up and use it' aspect very handy. Despite the warning about the cut off wheels and cutting metal, I successfully cut some 1/4" HSS in to pieces with it.

Neil

Bikepete beat me to it.

I looked for the new title of MEW , ''Zen and the art of Model Engineering'' , but not to be found.

Seriously , I accept that "a better deal" may be out there but an approximate price guide is part of a review.

Again although the general costs of many things in articles may be difficult, as the reserve store or junk box may be the source of much material, some items will have been purchased within living memory . So I guess for example the cost of the Hacksaw castings in the current issue is known and might be useful in deciding if to embarque on construction.

By contrast the cost of a surplus motor bought 25 years ago, even if known, is nor particularly relevant although the type/sort/source of the motor might be.

John

If reviewing a new product, just quote the current RRP, else don't bother. As we all know, RRP is merely indicative, so users can look for the current prices. One assumes that they have sufficient Internet savvy to look for the current price.

DEnnis

OK nowadays we can all look prices up on the net but I remembering being frustrated when I first started getting ME that there was no indication of the price of the Myford I drooled over, nor any benchmark to judge the ones that I found so rarely in E&M on a Thursday. The adverts that do now show prices also form an interesting historical record that the net will not provide.

It is intriguing to know from the advert that my bench clamped hand drill was 17/6 in 1903.

They say that if you need to ask how much a Rolls Royce costs, you can't afford one

Message received, future reviews will have prices.

Neil

.

So ... is the prize a New one ?

Or the one that's been "Editorially-checked" ?

MichaelG.

I like to make as much tooling for my machines as I can mainly because I enjoy it but also cost, I find it hard to understand the the justification for the vastly inflated prices for the most basic stuff but I agree that no prices shown is a nuisance, although as I am a senior citizen I try not to look too hard

Mick H

About 3 years ago, I bought a "Multitool" from Aldi for £30. I used it when laying new oak floors in the downstairs rooms and found it really useful. Recently, I gave my neighbour a demonstration of its versatility and he was impressed. Went over to his workshop last week to find he had bought a Ryobi battery version of this tool. He was a bit shy about the price but from what I could gather about £100 for the tool and a further £100 for the battery. My reaction was one of disbelief mainly because of the battery price but since looking at the Screwfix catalogue it appears some batteries do cost a lot of money.

Anyway, I guess it is the old saying, you pays your money and takes your choice

A price for the castings for the Reday power hacksaw in the same issue would also have been helpful, as the Engineers Emporium website was not.

Further to this, the contact details after the article did not include any web addresses. "Surely in this day and age"?

Finally, concern is repeatedly expressed about telling novices how things are done. I know this article was only about modifying the castings, not building the whole machine, but with the novice in view it would have been helpful to indicate what items from the scrap box were used. The base appears to be a length of RSJ. Novices don't have a scrap box.

And before people say "it's obvious", not to a novice it's not.

Phil

Edited By Robbo on 27/10/2014 10:08:28