Boxford machinery auction

**LINK**

Following on from an earlier posting about Boxford's premises having a For Sale sign before Christmas, details of a sale of machine tools popped in to my Inbox this morning.

Can't think that they will be making a lot when those machines have gone, but note the reason as "rationalisation of the business" so not dead yet ?

Nigel B

Looks like they are abandoning manufacturing as they seem to be divesting themselves of their production machinery, the name will probably be kept alive by selling it to someone in the Far East, probably China. Dave W

Maybe they’re switching to just design and sales here with manufacturing in China?

Boxford was exhibiting at last week's Southern Manufacturing Show at Farnborough. They were showing laser cutters and engravers among other things. I asked if they were the Boxford of lathe fame and this was confirmed by the stand personnel. Show guide indicates Dewsbury Road, Elland as trading address.

Moving manufacturing abroad makes sense with Brexit. If car makers are planning to do it after investing billions on UK production lines then moving manufacturing of something relatively simple probably makes even more sense.

Shame for any workers losing jobs.

Oh for gods sake give it a rest, manufacturers have been moving abroad for years!!!!

Tony

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Barrie the same circumstances apply with purchasing trains for our transport system, we end up with the products being made in Germany or Spain, supposedly due to “competitive tendering” having to be applied because of EU rules. Probably won’t happen here after 29th March, not a political statement just reality, I agree that the B——t word should be filtered out of any postings on here, we are all super saturated with it, every news programme on the tv seems to drone on about it, everyone is thoroughly fed up with it.

Dave W

It's a bit like when we voted to join because it sounded good, then surprise! we have to charge our Commonwealth countries large tariffs on their goods so we buy EU instead and shaft the whole Commonwealth.

They can't, schools are still set up for A levels and Uni to feed the service economy brave new world where everyone should have a degree First you need to bring back the need for vocational subjects and given we have a government that is capable of giving a ferry contract to a company without ships don't hold your breath.

True, but we now have Nissan, Toyota, Ford and Jaguar Land Rover all saying they are backing off in the UK directly because of the impact Brexit is having on their business. The problem is that the European Union is by far the biggest market for UK car exports - 57%. Without some other counter-balancing advantage why would a car maker take on higher tariffs and more uncertainty when both can be avoided simply by moving a factory?

The leave side won the Referendum. The time for rhetoric and emotion is long over. Now it's all about delivery. At this stage it is unwise to deny there are real problems and risks. When manufacturers and services start voting with their feet, jobs will be lost unless some advantage is offered to keep them here.

No politics please, what's needed now are clear objectives, honest analysis of issues, practical solutions, and good management.

Dave

Dave, Unfortunately the latter of your requisites, “good management” always seems to be in short supply.

Dave W

Trying to describe UK govt capabilities to French neighbour, the best translation I could come up with was 'Ils ne pourraient pas organiser un concours d'Ivresse dans une brasserie' He understood that and said it was not a uniquely UK problem.
DaveD

I just went to Boxford's website. It has the statement "The only manual lathe you can buy which is still truly made in Britain." Looks as if that will no longer be the case. I also downloaded the brochure. Nice looking and nicely appointed machines. In the U.S. building of smallish (arbitrarily defined by me as having a swing of less than 14 inches, to use the U.S. convention for describing lathe size) has largely already ceased. Not sure when the last 10 inch South Bend was built in the U.S. I have a record of one from 1999. The company was evicted from its South Bend Indiana plant in 2002. Hardinge ceased building their (manual) toolroom lathe a few years ago. Monarch Lathes still shows the 10EE available.

Weiler offers manual lathes as small as 12+ inch swing. Survival of this German line may be due in part to the dynamic Barrie suggests. The Germans do have a reputation of having a particularly robust apprenticeship system. Incidentally Monarch Lathes distributes some of the Weiler lathes in the U.S. I don't know their price here but looking at them on Monarch's website I'm sure they are way beyond the price range for a home shop machinist (with a new 10EE being an order of magnitude more so).

David

Edited By David Lindquist on 21/02/2019 18:00:43

didn't Siemens or similar buy up Bombadier then close it down so we no longer make trains.......???????

......................

ask what happened to the Siemens managment in Athens,

"they went to prison for bribes when they built the underground metro".........