[isaac338]

anyone know the deal about this? last week it was $499.. no mention of a sale or anything.

is it possible to use any sort of coupons on the HF online store?

edit: and as a further question: to convert an MT3 X2 mill to an R8 taper, is the ONLY part needed the spindle? (ie LMS #1407, http://www.littlemachineshop.com/pro...ProductID=1407)

doing the math here, it's only about $10 more to buy the MT3 spindle locally and convert it to R8 with the LMS spindle, assuming that's the only part you need.

thanks for the advice, excuse the drunken ramblings..

[twocik]

No they usually up the prices when the machine sells well. When I bought my X1 it was $279.00 about two years ago. A friend of mine bought the same machine two years before that at 240.00 if I remember correctly. Now it's $319.00 a pop.

[DSL PWR]

Wouldn't the fact that the US dollar is dropping like a stone have something to do with it?

[isaac338]

Wouldn't the fact that the US dollar is dropping like a stone have something to do with it?

that's a good point..

if someone can answer the spindle question definitively i think i may go pick up a new mill tomorrow

[JustSomeGuy]

Check the instructions for the spindle repair kit at
http://www.littlemachineshop.com/Ins...ndle%20Kit.pdf
The kit itself is at http://www.littlemachineshop.com/pro...ory=1687114045

[apache405]

another factor in the price increase is that in the last 5 years the price of copper has more than tripled. couple that with the sinking dollar, and rising demand for fuel worldwide (increases shipping costs, production costs, retail space cost, etc..) and that might explain why the cost is rising like that.

[cyclestart]

Looks like the chinese imports are becoming more expensive? Makes sense. Grizzly is holding their price so far. Possibly only until they have to restock?

When buying from LMS go with mail delivery. The 2 shipments I've received from LMS both arrived with no extra fees, not even the taxes. $80 and $160 dollars respectively. Customs is either becoming lazy or overwhelmed? Hope you have the same luck!

[redgreener]

Isaac, I assume that you are wanting to purchase an X2 mill with an R8 spindle. If so, unless they have altered the design since last year the HF machine comes with an R8 already installed. I believe Grizzly's machine comes with the MT 3 spindle.
And yes, the sinking(stinking?) dollar is unfortunately the cause of across-the-board price increases for a number of items. And, I don't expect that trend to reverse itself anytime soon.

[isaac338]

Isaac, I assume that you are wanting to purchase an X2 mill with an R8 spindle. If so, unless they have altered the design since last year the HF machine comes with an R8 already installed. I believe Grizzly's machine comes with the MT 3 spindle.
And yes, the sinking(stinking?) dollar is unfortunately the cause of across-the-board price increases for a number of items. And, I don't expect that trend to reverse itself anytime soon.

Yeah, I know the HF machine has an R8 spindle. The problem is getting one - I'm in Canada and it's quite a trial to obtain HF tools up here. A distributer about five minutes from my house sells the X2, but only with MT3.

With the recent price change, it's not that much cheaper to drive stateside and get the HF X2.

For anyone else interested in the Busy Bee mill, I emailed LMS to ask about the spindle question. According to Chris Wood, they sell an R8 conversion kit, part 1625 (https://www.littlemachineshop.com/pr...1625&category=) for $49.95. In stock next week.

Off to get a new mill ..

Thanks for the replies.

[redgreener]

I figured a border crossing was around to complicate things. You may even be able to sell your MT 3 spindle on ebay and recover part of your conversion cost.

[sansbury]

another factor in the price increase is that in the last 5 years the price of copper has more than tripled. couple that with the sinking dollar, and rising demand for fuel worldwide (increases shipping costs, production costs, retail space cost, etc..) and that might explain why the cost is rising like that.

Yup, I've been waiting to see this... Iron has gone up a fair amount too, and IIRC China has to import most of it as either ore or scrap. Considering how much iron these tools contain that's probably not a small thing either.

I'm amazed you can ship 150 pounds of anything from somewhere outside Shanghai to your doorstep for $600 let alone a (relatively) low-volume manufactured product like this.

Given that all this is happening before we've started to see real wage inflation in China, it kind of makes me wonder how far we are from the high-water mark in manufacturing moving offshore. I've already seen this with programming in India. I used to outsource but the costs went up so fast that for my small team size it made sense to bring the work back here where people were more expensive but the efficiency was far higher.

[isaac338]

I figured a border crossing was around to complicate things. You may even be able to sell your MT 3 spindle on ebay and recover part of your conversion cost.

That's a good point. I balked some more today - realized that you need to either fabricate or buy a spindle installation kit to get the bearings on and off. I'm sure I could rig something up but I'd hate to damage the new spindle with my hamfisted ways. The installation kit is $50 + ship, which starts to drive the price difference once again..

You watch, though, one of these days I'll post that I bought a mill, finally

[redgreener]

I removed and replaced the spindle on my HF 44859 8x12 lathe, and just used some home brew washers and threaded rod. Along with the proper size chunk of PVC, this worked fine. I have never had the mill apart, but I would assume some similar home brew stuff would give similar results.

[Mike Nash]

Speaking of the 8x12 lathe and prices. I finally special ordered one Friday ($549.99) at the store with a 15% off coupon since it looked like they were never going on sale online again. I looked Sunday and saw the online price has just gone up to $579.99. Boy am I glad I got in under the wire! Plus even the 9% sales tax, was $20 less than shipping.

[redgreener]

Yea, I got mine a couple of years ago when they were still $499 shipped. This is a lot of machine for the money, in my opinion. I looked at both the 9x20 and the 7x12 before settling on the 8x12. I have modified mine quite a bit--I added a variable speed DC motor, made and installed a .950 thru-bored spindle with a 2 1/4x8 threaded nose, and added a QCTP. These mods turned a good machine into a great machine, and it is a good match in the shop for the X2 mill.

[Jaime128]

The in store price is $489 if you walk in plus tax. So It was still over $500. Not cheap. Took a whole week to deliver, and I'm only about two and a half hours from the headquarters. My lathe coming from the east coast, will be here tomorrow, a day after, which I expected that one to be. Go figure. On-line, it's $579 which I called and asked about and they had no answer for me. Oh yeah, this doesn't include shipping either. Same store, two different prices, what's wrong with this picture. Fry's does the same crap sometimes which is why I don't go there as much anymore. Other online stores beat them both in store and online. Makes no sense. Go to toolsnow.com, it's a $100 bucks cheaper and probably closer to you if you're in canada. Seems to be the same machine anyway. And yes, there's that kit conversion from R8 to MT or vice versa, so buy what's closer and just change it if you want. Although Hossman suggested I leave my mill and lathe alone. Just letting you know.

[isaac338]

The in store price is $489 if you walk in plus tax. So It was still over $500. Not cheap. Took a whole week to deliver, and I'm only about two and a half hours from the headquarters. My lathe coming from the east coast, will be here tomorrow, a day after, which I expected that one to be. Go figure. On-line, it's $579 which I called and asked about and they had no answer for me. Same store, two different prices, what's wrong with this picture. Fry's does the same crap sometimes which is why I don't go there as much anymore. Other online stores beat them both in store and online. Makes no sense. Go to toolsnow.com, it's a $100 bucks cheaper and probably closer to you if you're in canada. Seems to be the same machine anyway. And yes, there's that kit conversion from R8 to MT or vice versa, so buy what's closer and just change it if you want. Although Hossman suggested I leave my mill and lathe alone. Just letting you know.

I think I'm just going to go buy the damn thing tomorrow, and set it up, and get a better look at the spindle assembly. It sure would suck to attempt a swap before making a single chip and end up with huge spindle runout or something like that. I might just end up living with MT3..

I called toolsnow; the chick was pretty apprehensive about shipping it near the border, especially since I didn't have a depot address on hand, and the shipping was almost $200. And last night I considered paying for a place to stay + drinking/food money, since I'd probably drive down with some buddies and make a trip out of it, and it got expensive fast

[Jaime128]

I haven't called or checked with toolsnow, I just looked at the website they have. It was sloow to load which is why I missed the pricing until way after I ordered mine from HF, but that doesn't sound good if they treat you like that. If you can buy it close to you, that may also be the best thing to do. The mill is fairly small, but the box it comes in is fairly large. I had to use the mini van to get that thing home. Then we both had to put it up on the workbench. It's small, but not light either. I weight about thirty more lbs than that, so now I know I'm not that feather weight either. Wouldn't fit in a small car unless you cut the steel cables holding it and take it out of the box. Keep it upright all the time or you will end up with something hitting the ground. Also, it is bolted to the bottom of the box, so that it doesn't move. We couldn't figure out why the damn thing wasn't moving out when we put it on its side to take it out until we looked under the box of course.

[Vern48]

Ok, I might ramble on to much. If in Canada check out both Busy Bee and Princess Auto.
One has recently had a mill on for about $800 Cdn. Also, I think, one might come with an R8 spindle.
Yes the Canadian dollar has come up. About 5 years ago I got my nepew in
Vancouver to go to Grizzly in the States for me. They don,t ship to Cehnehdeh.
About $1000 Cdn each, all in to my door 1000 miles away, for a mini lathe
and mill. Now I can buy them in town for less.
Watch for the included accessories.
I changed out the bearings in my mill when I went to belt drive.
About 15 bucks for 10k RPM upgrade. A learning experience.
I also upgraded my lathe to angular contact bearings, the best thing
I've done to it. About 75 bucks for bearings. And I knew how to do it.
Chris at LMS is easy to deal with if you need a different spindle. Inexpensive.

Cheers Hope this helps, Vern.

[JustSomeGuy]

I think I'm just going to go buy the damn thing tomorrow, and set it up, and get a better look at the spindle assembly.

I used to have people at work asking me what kind of computer to get and whether they should wait for the next model or the next price drop. I always used to answer, get the best you can justify right now and don't look back. If you constantly wait for the best deal, you will never make the purchase.
I paid $799 for my X2 at Princess Auto at the beginning of this month but I'm ok with that. It came with the ER collet and chuck set but best of all, I been able to have fun learning how to make metal chips...
The hard part is getting past the initial purchase but after that, it's all fun and games (well, at least until someone loses an eye...).

Cheers