Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

Just wondering if there are any stockists in the UK... any UK buddies had any luck finding?

From what I can tell Trick Laser is a small company run by a guy called Brian who just does SeeMeCNC and the Max Metal stuff so I believe its unlikely. The stuff he makes looks great and wouldn't want to screw him out of sales just the shipping cost compared to the US makes me want to cry... Damn Yankes don't know how good you've got it!

The amount of parts stuff I want and that I've already shipped from the USA, should have just gone on holiday their and had it delivered to my hotel!

Brian will ship internationally, just send him an email. The shipping calculator on his website just does screwy things with international rates, so he turned it off so that it doesn't scare people.

Damn ruined my excuse for a holiday there!

But yes thank you I will drop him an email about it

In the early 1980s I was building a bunch of model working steam engines and the designs required cast iron and gunmetal castings that were made in the UK...

It was actually cheaper for me to buy a British Airways package 7 day holiday (at the time it was $400 for the flight 6 nights in a bed and breakfast sort of hotel and a small rental car) and go to the place that made the castings buy them and bring them home with me, than to pay the slow sea rate shipping and handling charge and the USA import duty back then.

Also the places that made and sold these things back than did not take credit cards or non uk checks so to buy you had to go to a large bank and get an international £ denominated draft for the total amount including S&H ... the whole process could take a few months of back and forth letters to get set up and including the surface shipping it could be another 3 months from the time they got your money.

Then you had the crap shoot of what the shipment would be classed as by USA customs... I had one shipment that was properly called model engineering materials and only a 13% duty and another one classed as another sort of engineering material that was assessed at 47% and even though i paid it and appealed (if you did not pay the assessment the stuff would be sent back and you were on the hook for the return shipping) due to a set of BA taps and dies in the tiny sizes models of that sort needed. but the appeal was denied....
it was so much easier to travel with what I wanted (even if it did make my luggage rather heavy) as the customs folk were always generous when I explained what I was doing with them if I was over my free allowance they never charged me.

When I see how cheap it is to get stuff from China (and how expensive it is to get stuff from Canada) i can only shake my head in wonder.

Windshadow wrote:In the early 1980s I was building a bunch of model working steam engines and the designs required cast iron and gunmetal castings that were made in the UK...

It was actually cheaper for me to buy a British Airways package 7 day holiday (at the time it was $400 for the flight 6 nights in a bed and breakfast sort of hotel and a small rental car) and go to the place that made the castings buy them and bring them home with me, than to pay the slow sea rate shipping and handling charge and the USA import duty back then.

Also the places that made and sold these things back than did not take credit cards or non uk checks so to buy you had to go to a large bank and get an international £ denominated draft for the total amount including S&H ... the whole process could take a few months of back and forth letters to get set up and including the surface shipping it could be another 3 months from the time they got your money.

Then you had the crap shoot of what the shipment would be classed as by USA customs... I had one shipment that was properly called model engineering materials and only a 13% duty and another one classed as another sort of engineering material that was assessed at 47% and even though i paid it and appealed (if you did not pay the assessment the stuff would be sent back and you were on the hook for the return shipping) due to a set of BA taps and dies in the tiny sizes models of that sort needed. but the appeal was denied....
it was so much easier to travel with what I wanted (even if it did make my luggage rather heavy) as the customs folk were always generous when I explained what I was doing with them if I was over my free allowance they never charged me.

When I see how cheap it is to get stuff from China (and how expensive it is to get stuff from Canada) i can only shake my head in wonder.

Heh, I flew from Ohio back to Alaska with a full set of plate armour and two broadswords in a hockey gear bag once. Was a checked bag because of the swords, but one of our connecting flights was a little prop jobby with just a tarp between the cabin and the luggage area in the back. Was watching the ramp rats throwing bags into the back until they came to mine, could hear the groan over the engines! Pretty sure the dude still hasn't found his balls. Don't think he was expecting the bag to be that heavy. It was only around 100 pounds. I'd hate to see what they charge for that much weight now. I know I'd have to split it up.