Today's milling

[dudders]

It's a big faff, that's for sure.  Go to this page on .gov and they take you through the process.  

 

By the time you've done all the paperwork, paid for the transport, paid the import duty and the VAT, and ended up with some piece of Chinese crap, you'll wish you'd never started...

 

Sit back and be patient and whatever it is you're after will turn up sometime on ebay or whatever - 2nd-hand good quality will be better than new junk.  

 

Import goods into the UK: step by step - GOV.UK

WWW.GOV.UK

---

How to bring goods into the UK from any country, including how much tax and duty you’ll need to pay and whether you...

 

[dudders]

Ballpark figure depends on how big and expensive it is.  I was quoted £1500 to bring a mill over from the USA.  Import duty was 3.5%, and then VAT on the whole lot - machine price + transport + duty.  Sharing a container will cut the transport price, but that'll mean appointing a freight forwarder to organise things.  Not a bad idea anyway, as he'll do all the paperwork.  But, you have to pay for the service.  Worth it, though, IMO.

[topchippyles]

1 hour ago, trigger_andy said:

Lesley has gone from bragging about dropping £30-50k on a Bandsaw to looking at a Fencepost maker. I dont think he'll be overly bothered about who makes it nor the quality  

Go and play with your new circular saw musch 🤣 Imported 

[Macpherson]

3 hours ago, Johnsond said:

Making a conscious effort to buy British where possible and when not at least to buy decent quality. Not easy when you start trying to do it as the grip the Chinese have on manufacturing is staggering. 

Always done the same, there was a massive buy British campaign when I was young...back then with many things it was still possible to do and get quality with the opposition being ' made in Taiwan or japan ' pre China.... but frankly even then Japan was leaving us for dead.

 

Today, when I need buy anything and look for it to be actually ' made in Britain ' and not just branded as such, based on my old fashioned loyalty / patriotism I'm usually unable to find what I'm looking for.. albeit, sometimes in certain specialist areas we are still on  par with those that lead the world.

 

Many of the tools I use every day have lasted my whole life so far, and many of these were s/h to me and previously had a whole another life with someone else which only increases there value to me....

 

So I'm more disappointed than anything else that GB's world leading engineering heritage has been thrown out by successive mindless and  self destructive political regimes which have stripped the innovative life and spirit out of this country's heritage in favour of easy and dishonest greed, and have long since sold out our children's future..

Edited March 25, 2021 by Macpherson

[topchippyles]

And how many drive UK made cars ? Iphone users all made in china. 60-70% of most of the white goods used in the uk all made in china. Its the world we live in and cost in the driving force. 

Edited March 25, 2021 by topchippyles

[Johnsond]

5 hours ago, topchippyles said:

And how many drive UK made cars ? Iphone users all made in china. 60-70% of most of the white goods used in the uk all made in china. Its the world we live in and cost in the driving force. 

Sadly a lot of that is true Les but where possible you can source better product/eqpt with a bit of time and effort, eg I always use Eley for rimfire ammo . If I can’t get  British I’ll go European or American. Buying from China is only helping  to keep UK manufacturing in the state it’s in now. As has been mentioned successive governments have played a massive short sighted part too. We should be seeing huge buy British campaigns on TV and in the media every day, my own pet hate is the current boom in renewable energy around our coast ie wind farms. The total lack of UK manufacturing input is a national disgrace but it’s hidden by media savvy energy companies having the structures built in China or elsewhere then shipped half way around the world and passed off as green energy. Meanwhile the potential for tens of thousands of skilled engineering and manufacturing jobs disappears.  Those Chinese chainsaws I’ve seen mentioned on here recently 😳 id rather use a bloody axe than one of those. 

[dudders]

Notice how anything on ebay with a Union Jack in the picture is always made in China?  Laughable really, but some people will get taken in by that.

 

Apparently the Chinese can make good stuff, but they know we Brits only want cheap, so cheap is what they send us.  It's our own fault.  Our fault too that labour costs here are so high, other countries will easily undercut us.  We've gone soft, with our foreign holidays, new cars, smart houses, all the latest stuff.  Got to admire the Chinese and others, who are happy to work twice as hard for half as much.  It's not slave labour, it's just a competitive spirit - they want to get on, we want an easy life.  

Edited March 25, 2021 by dudders

[Macpherson]

38 minutes ago, dudders said:

Notice how anything on ebay with a Union Jack in the picture is always made in China?  Laughable really, but some people will get taken in by that.

 

Apparently the Chinese can make good stuff, but they know we Brits only want cheap, so cheap is what they send us.  It's our own fault.  Our fault too that labour costs here are so high, other countries will easily undercut us.  We've gone soft, with our foreign holidays, new cars, smart houses, all the latest stuff.  Got to admire the Chinese and others, who are happy to work twice as hard for half as much.  It's not slave labour, it's just a competitive spirit - they want to get on, we want an easy life.  

 

 You're not wrong there, it's worth remembering that the Chinese were an advanced culture with their metal working, architecture, medicine etc a couple of thousand years ago when we were running around naked covered in blue paint

 

The idea that civilisations are cyclical and go back much much further than we are led to believe is something that's being recognised and increasingly accepted by a small but growing school of thinking who are able to accept a bigger picture than that which we've traditionally been taught....oops, wrong thread...

 

Anyway, just bought a 1/2" AF King Dick spanner, made in Birmingham since 1856 to go with the ' made in China ' bolt on magnetic plate recently acquired for my Alaskan from the good old US of A.... how totally global am I without even leaving my chair ? 😁

[trigger_andy]

11 minutes ago, Macpherson said:

The idea that civilisations are cyclical and go back much much further than we are led to believe is something that's being recognised and increasingly accepted by a small but growing school of thinking who are able to accept a bigger picture than that which we've traditionally been taught....oops, wrong thread...

Did you watch an episode of Ancient Aliens after? 

[Rough Hewn]

Watch out for scams asking you to go to a website etc.
Been waiting for a hat from Sweden.
Got a text message from Royal Mail...
Asked my postie.
They don’t text.
Royal Mail will issue a grey card if you have tax to pay.
Watch out!

And thank you Logosol!