Eileen's Emporium Newsletter May 2015

[derekrussan]

We are very active this month on the Show front, having just returned from ALSRM Reading and now loading the van for Expo EM. Railex Aylesbury is only a week away and Cleckheaton is on the following weekend. Then we only have the Scalefour AGM and Perth before we can go on holiday. We now have more permanent staff to cover the holidays than we have had in previous years. As per usual, we will not be closing at all, we do not expect our service to be affected by the holidays, but are conscious that there may be some small delays.

NEW PRODUCTS

We have expanded the range of Antex soldering irons to include the 30W model at £12 and the top of the range TCS 690D digital soldering station at £200 .

BA SCREWS

We have just received some new deliveries of Nuts and Bolts and there is a continuing trend of significant price rises. In some cases products are simply not available. An example is 14BA screws. We are unable to obtain 14BA Countersunk Steel in any length, and in Cheesehead the longest we can get is 1/4".

We will continue to try to maintain our range, but it seems this will become increasingly difficult.

STOCK LEVELS

This week we received out awaited delivery of Eclipse blades and all are now in stock.

1.5mm X 1.0mm and 1.5mm x 0.5mm Brass Tubes are now in stock and our concerns about the diameter have proven unfounded and they telescope well with the next size up.

While we keep large stocks of the High Speed Drills (Dormer Branded - A100 type), the lead time on them can be long. Our supplier does not hold in stock the range of sizes that we offer. They only order from Dormer once a month and for some reason our e-mail to them went missing and it looks like we have lost a month. We are currently out of stock of about 3 sizes of the less popular larger drills. This could rise a bit over the next month. Most of the popular sizes up to and including 1.0mm have healthy stock levels.

Items currently causing problems are 140mm and 160mm Maun Parallel pliers.

After a great success last month with Taps we are currently awaiting delivery of 10BA taper taps from Apex, delivery date as yet unknown.

We are low on stock of 10thou Nickel sheet which should be rectified in a week or two.

SPECIAL OFFER

Our special offer this time is 10% off straight wire, see full details below.

One of the staple diets of all modellers is straight wire. We offer this in Brass, Nickel Silver and Phosphor Bronze.

The Phosphor Bronze wire is available in 250mm lengths in 0.35mm and 0.5mm diameters. These wires are ideal for loco pickups as they are springy and make a good contact material.

The Brass and Nickel wires are available in 0.31mm, 0.4mm 0.45mm, 0.5mm, 0.6mm, 0.7mm, 0.8mm, 0.9mm and 1.0mm in packs of 10 wires 250mm long (some older stock is 12" long and will be shipped until new stock comes in. They are all also available in bulk packs of 100 offering better value for money. Both Brass and Nickel are easy enough to bend and very easy to solder. Both are hard drawn so will remain straight unless stressed. The Nickel Silver wire is a bit stiffer and that may be a benefit in some applications. Also, the Nickel Silver is marginally better at holding on to paint. Both can be blackened with Birchwood Casey products. The Brass Black, as it's name implies, is good for Brass, while Super Blue works on both materials it is not quite as effective as Brass Black on Brass.

The Brass and Nickel wires are also available in longer lengths, namely 500mm (18" on some older stock) and 1m (1 yard on older stock). The 500mm lengths cost far more for us to post and the 1m lengths have to go courier and are expensive to pack safely. We do not routinely take these to shows, but are very happy to do so by pre-ordering.

Some larger diameters are available, in both Nickel Silver and Brass, but in different pack quantities from the smaller sizes. There is always the perennial argument over where round metal stops being wire and becomes rod. We have drawn the line at 2mm diameter, above this being rod.

The offer this month is for 10% off all the wires mentioned above, part numbers starting BSW, NSW and PSW.

This offer is for web orders only and includes those for show collection. Please enter "MAYWIRE" in the comments box on checkout. Please do not use the discount code box as this does not work. This applies to all orders placed before the end of June 2015. The discount will not show on our web system, but will be taken from the payment and show on the formal invoice shipped with the goods.








Full details of all our other products are on our website.


Derek, Anita and Matt



Forthcoming Exhibitions:

Do not forget you can beat the queues at shows by pre-ordering through the website. There is a checkout option for this. You can choose to pay through the website or on collection. Please state in the 'Comments' box which show you wish to collect the order from.

Please allow at least 1 week for pre-orders, 2 weeks for Guildex - Telford, Scale Model World, Scaleforum, Railex, Expo EM, York and Warley.

A full list of shows is on our website http://www.eileensemporium.com



16/17 May Expo EM Bracknell, http://www.emgs.org

23/24 May Railex Aylesbury, http://www.rdmrc.org.uk/

30 May Cleckheaton GOG, http://www.gauge0guild.com/

20 June Scalefour Society AGM, Derby (Members only) http://www.scalefour.org/about/about.html

27/28 June Perth http://www.perthmrc.com

8/9 August Railwells http://www.railwells.com/railway_show

A limited subset of products is also available from the C&L agency stand run by Phil Reid. Pre-orders can be accepted for these shows given 2 weeks notice. These shows include:

30/31 May DEMU Burton (C&L agency)

13/14 June Chatham (C&L agency)