THMStore
Information directed toward the “The Hobbyist Machine Store”
The store now maintains its own Blog.
Proxxon Returns
Last November (2011) I shut down the Proxxon line from The Hobbyist Machine Store. This was probably poor timing being just before Christmas. However, the constant inquiry about the PD400 lathe for almost a year with zero sales was not something that was productive.
I have decided to list Proxxon products again at the store but not the PD400 lathe. Nothing at all wrong with Proxxon products. I like them and use them myself. I have some small inventory but I have decided not to stock the large items. I’ll let the wholesaler do that.
I am offering free shipping on Proxxon until June 1, 2012. After that I will see if I can continue the offer.
Gear Cleaning
I import steel gears for the mini-mill and the mini-lathe. I have sold over 200 sets of gears to people all over the world. Most buyers are machinist, used to working with wire brushes and getting dirty hands cleaning gears covered with grease or a little surface rust. Most carbon steel will rust. However, I show nice shiny gears in the photo’s. My Bad. The real gears have to be cleaned because there is some “gook” used to preserve them from rust while shipping across the salty brine. (Ocean to you land lubbers.)
Most gears are well “gooked” but a few, especially the change gears are only “oiled” a bit light. There is a coating but looks like almost none and as shown here, have definitely gathered some surface rust. The first picture is a worst case gear I could find (65 tooth change gear ). It is the largest in the group and the only one showing rust. It really does look nasty but looks are deceiving.
I think some salty air got into the last shipment. Only one side had this rust and all the other gears clustered in one group on a long bolt with this one had no rust. It is cosmetic and does not make the gear defective.
A spray with WD40, about a 5 minute soak and two to three minutes with the brush shown and the gear is photo perfect. Perhaps too much work for some people with arthritic hands. It is hard for me. A rotary wire brush would do it faster and easier.
I could clean and inspect all the gears, shine them up like shown in the store photos, re-coat with that heavy LPS3 grease for maintaining protection in storage and sell them for about 50% more… Continue reading
Looking Ahead 2012
I offer a little machine shop rambling today. It’s getting close to the end of another year so I have been taking stock of what I have accomplished this year and what I need to be thinking about for the next year.
One big item is my operation of the “The Hobbyist Machine Store” website store. I already have written that I dropped one of the “me too” product lines. The store is too small to be a good income producing venture. I would have to say it financially compares to being slightly better than leaving my money investment in a low producing CD or savings account. However, the investment of time is nowhere near justified by that financial return. It certainly does not produce what I term a living income.
I began the THMS business because I wanted to establish a reputation for the store and myself. The next big driver for starting this small business was and still is my access to the mini-mill and lathe steel replacement gears. That product will definitely continue for the foreseeable future as long as the supply is available.
Future products will be single source or self manufactured. I will move away from only hobbyist machine tools. I am working on some saleable product ideas I can personally produce with small machine tools. I.E, products manufactured within a small machine shop. The store will be the outlet for those products rather than offering the machine tools themselves.
One consideration rejected was to bring back the model locomotive wheels I produced by CNC machining. Unfortunately rejected because it is an extremely narrow market niche. I have decided I am not going to invest effort (mass produce) extremely specialized, speculative products. I made the wheels for myself so it was not… Continue reading
Proxxon Removed From THMStore
I shut down the Proxxon product line in my eCommerce site, The Hobbyist Machine Store, (THMS). It is just the best business decision I can make under the circumstances
Nothing wrong with the product. The PD400 lathe and all the other Proxxon products are just wonderful machines. The biggest problem is it is what I call a “Me Too” product line. I am not the only store offering the product. The only thing I have to offer is a reduced price from MSRP and actually try to meet or beat the “street price” of other vendors.It’s a premium product and perhaps the economy has stopped the sales.
Any marketing I would do is a benefit to all my competitors who may offer a slightly lower price. That is how the Internet works. Decide what you want and search for the lowest price. All marketing effort and cost must therefore be carried by the distributor. There is not enough profit for a small dealer after discounting the price, to contribute to any dealer funded marketing plan or budget on his own.
This is no surprise to me and I don’t feel badly about how the business works. I knew this going in and even talk about not wanting to offer “Me Too” products in the store site. So this never was a sound business decision. Since the THMS doesn’t (yet) put groceries on the table, I wanted to see if the US hobby market was ready for a quality lathe – the PD400, and see if I could make sufficient profit selling them. The other Proxxon products came in just because they are good products.
I haven’t completed a PD400 order since early in the year but have quoted more than half a dozen. Either the purchase was not made… Continue reading
MBS115/E Micro-Bandsaw Update
MBS115/E Micro-Bandsaw
I received a question about the Proxxon Micro-Bandsaw MBS 115/E I have in my workshop and used to offer in the store. This is an update after using it for a few years so I thought I should share my reply with everyone (anyone who reads this blog) 🙂
” I like my saw. I use it a lot with the bi-metal cutting blade. I have cut many rather thick (1″) parts (in brass) and cutting 1/8 inch brass or aluminum plate is easy. These parts are for the A3 switcher I am slowly working on.
However, it is a small, light saw that can’t be pushed hard to speed up a cut, as it will stall (no harm so far). The belt rides on a smooth pulley on the blade wheel. The belt cogs only engage the motor pulley, so on the smooth blade wheel the belt cogs reduce surface grip. The motor is also a 1/8 HP, so I assume the belt drive design helps protect the motor. (Proxxon could have put cogs on the the blade wheel but didn’t.)
So I rate it for thin metal and bar stock and detail cutting in the first writeup. I don’t want potential purchasers imagining this saw is a replacement for the cutoff bandsaw and buy one for the wrong use. (Given time with slow feed it could be used but not recommended.)
Original report link: http://thehobbyistmachineshop.com/shop26.html
Low mass saws with aluminum wheels do not have much inertial rotating mass. (stored energy) Same goes with all small aluminum lathes or mills like the Taig and Sherline. These tools can do great work if the user understands the inherent limitations of low mass. Old heavy iron machinist have a terrible time downsizing to mini and micro tool performance and… Continue reading