Things bought from ebay

Well if you guys were following previous threads in the last few months, you will know that I purchased what I thought was a bargain from the dreaded ebay. It was a job lot of milling cutters & face mills. Plus some rotary burrs, like radius cutters. These items came to a grand total of £234.00. I was pleased with my purchase as I thought they will last me the rest of my miserable life. .

Then the dreaded covid 19 hit us & Argos closed. Might I say with my stash of milling cutters etc on their shelves.

So moving on & the seller contacted me last week to say the items were returned to him by Hermes.

After a few coms , he sent them directly to my address. Today I received the package, to my amazement.

The pictures I bid on was not what I received.

The package contained twice the amount of milling cutters that was in the pictures. I spent most of the day pricing up what I received as I will never use all of them in my existence. Most were swiss tech & the rest were from Merlin tools.???? No idea of the value. Jason B says they will have never seen Switzerland , but I beg to differ. These are all genuine & came from a engineering company who went into liquidation some months ago.

So I spent a while pricing up my delivery. £3246.69 retail.inc VAT.

I know this is not a reflection of there real worth but I am pretty satisfied with my purchase. All the cutters are Carbide. 1 cutter alone was £128.20.

See pictures.

Steve.

Edited By Steviegtr on 03/05/2020 02:18:02

Good score. As you say, a lifetime supply for guys like us. Well done.

Thanks Hopper. will remember you in my will.

Steve.

Posted by Steviegtr: "Jason B says they will have never seen Switzerland , but I beg to differ."

It looks like Swiss+Tech is a brand name used by W.W. Grainger Inc. for a big line of possibly largely China-made products sold most notably by its subsidiary Zoro/Cromwell.

I'm sure some of these tools do get to see Switzerland, but probably only after, not during, their manufacture.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 03/05/2020 05:12:17

Stevie, although Chinese they are good quality Chinese as I said previously. Also did you use the Zoro/Chromwell list price as most commercial and in the know private buyers will be buying at 50-60% less than list but still a good buy.

Now would you also say that these lathes have Swiss blood in them or are they just badges lathes the same as you get from Warco, Chester, toolco, SPG and hundreds more as they have got Swiss in the name?

Edited By JasonB on 03/05/2020 10:30:35

Used to get anything I wanted from Cromwell Tools through work it was a big saving. Now I am retired that route is no longer available.

That parcel of tooling was a good buy.

I agree the tools are unlikely to be Swiss, but suspect the owner isn't Grainger. The brand-name is almost designed to confuse internet searches: 'Swiss Tech' is a clothing maker, and 'Swiss+Tech' may not be the same as 'Swiss-Tech'. The latter is an American manufacturer so called because they use Swiss CNC. Steve's tools may have been made in the USA. Or not!

Unfortunately finding out where stuff is actually made is almost impossible these days. We live in a thoroughly globalised world. Manufacturing is done wherever it makes the most profit. I've given up worrying about it; if a tool does what I want for reasonable cost I'm happy! Looks like Steve has done well; bankrupt stock is an excellent source of good tools.

Dave

I paid £60 for a big selection of mostly imperial hss threaded shank cutters a while ago, many looked unused and brand new. Certainly good bargains can be had when buying job lots on ebay. Most of mine where good brands.

Unfortunately due to the current situation, the marketplace may well be flooded with bankrupt stock in the coming months. I dare say there will be lots of new old stock on ebay soon.

I work for a North Yorkshire engineering company and have so far been lucky in keeping my full time design engineering job and working from home. If it was not for the fact that we are supplying machines to support the "Ventilator Challenge UK" things might be very different.

**LINK**

Assuming I still have a job by then, my retirement is April 2022. Who knows what will happen in the months to come though.

Phil

Its nice to get these surprises

Hmmm. The Zoro / Cromwell pricing is a sore point.

Last I looked Cromwell are nearly double what Zoro charge in some cases, despite being under the same ownership.

David.

I know the prices I found will be totally inflated over what is possible to get elsewhere. It just amazed me at was is sometimes possible on Ebay. Like said above over the next few years there will probably be a lot of bankrupt equipment up for sale.

Steve.

Isn't Zoro the retail / small business arm of Cromwell like Farnell has CPC?The difference is things like customer support, long credit terms, traceability paperwork. Some commercial contracts preclude the use of non top range suppliers and pay accordingly.
When I worked for a Defence contractor we were not allowed to use RadioSpares parts to the extent it was not allowed on site at all in case it contaminated the high spec material all of which had full tracking to the side to the hill the ore was mined. The taxpayer footed the bill of course.

Phil - Lets hope the UK has a bit of a rethink post Coronavirus and decides to use hi tech production at home so we can source more items from this side of the world. Maybe we can also start designing things to last at least 10 years and that the lockdown period will have reduced the demand for 'latest fad'.

Off to buy a litter of baby flying pigs ready for when lockdown is eased!.

That's a great start for any milling machinist. On the other forum I subscribe to, it would rate a "you suck" from the other members.

Some points to remember when using solid carbide cutters. Never touch down on steel with a stationary cutter, you will chip it. Don't drop one, or let it drop on the bed when slackening off the collet, have a wad of paper or cloth to cushion its fall. If one gets accidentally chipped, then it will still cut and can certainly be used for roughing.

Edited By old mart on 03/05/2020 18:31:08

A little bit of background to help with the understand:

Zoro and Cromwell currently come under the Grainger umbrella.

Originally, Swiss+Tech is a brand created by Cromwell Tools to help promote sales mainly in the Asian market - namely China and India. The brand name 'Swiss+Tech' was created to give a marketing perception of a 'better than X' brand. As an example.. in Bill's link, one can see de-burring tools with the 'Swiss+Tech' brand, which are made for them by a well known company in the Middle East. Within China however, due to better marketing by the original Cromwell - now Grainger operations, 'Swiss+Tech' is better known by end users, commanding a better and higher price than the original makers 'identical' product.

The same principal applied to the 'Swiss-Tech' end mills - which are of good quality - made for them by known factories in Asia - outside China (which I can't disclose). Again, the marketing of the brand with end users has been the key to success of 'Swiss+Tech' tooling.

Ketan at ARC.

Edited By Ketan Swali on 04/05/2020 14:29:49

And maybe it's important to remember that the sign of these packages is the sign of the Red Cross, not the flag of Switzerland. So they must be sharp, the ambulance is coming in a hurry if you cut your finger!

Regaeds, Hans

Edited By Versaboss on 04/05/2020 16:02:38

Thanks for the info, Ketan.

I'd looked at the deburring tools on the U.S. Grainger site. The country of origin given was Israel, so I did wonder whether they might be made by Noga. Your mention of a "well known company" makes me more confident I might be right.

One other question your post raises is what "made in China" can actually mean. I'm unsure whether products that are made in Taiwan are ever referred to as "made in China" by people in the trade [who aren't themselves of Chinese origin] or whether they would always be referred to as "made in Taiwan". Naturally, I'm excluding products made in PRC manufacturing facilities for Taiwan-based companies, which would rightly be described as made in China.

Bill,

You were close. Consider this link for the de-burring tools.

In the trade, Made in Taiwan is referred to as Made in Taiwan... but there is some crossover, as some of the items or components are made in China - PRC, but marketed by some Taiwanese companies as made in Taiwan. A little bit like some stuff was made in Eastern block as well as East Germany and sold as ‘Germany’ by some German companies.

Ketan at ARC