OK, so this comes under the heading of things I wanted not needed but will make a very useful addition to the shop.
I decided to get one of the 3D Tasters and because everyone has been saying how expensive they are I decided on one of the Chinese copies. Production Tool in Detroit is the closest supplier that sells them, $259.00 US (Windsor Factory Supply is a reseller for them in Canada and sells them also, special order) or you can get a German made digital version for close to $600.00 US, way to expensive for me.
At the last minute I decided to look into the real thing (Haimer), mostly out of curiosity but was unable to find anyone that sells them, so I e-mail the US office, I couldn’t find one in Canada, and they replied that the nearest distributor was Single Source Technologies in Auburn Hills Michigan. OK, not so bad, they are closer then Detroit from where I live so I called them up to find out what the price was and the sales rep quoted Haimers list price of $350.00 US for the analog 3D Universal Taster but that they usually discounted that. Now that didn’t seem to bad considering the cost of the Chinese version so I decided to bite the bullet and ordered one.
Enter problem #1. They don’t sell retail, OK not a problem they said, I just had to fill out a account application form and it would be OK. The next day, Tuesday, I received an e-mail saying the account was a go and I could place an order which I did, delivery in a couple of days if Haimer has them in stock, SST doesn’t keep them on site. On Friday morning I received another e-mail saying that it was in their office ready for pick up, I didn’t have it shipped to me because of the brokerage fees that Fed Ex and others charge, hopped in the car and took off for Auburn Hills MI.
Now for problem #2. How exactly does one get to Auburn hills, road maps are near useless no direct route by major roads without going along ways around but with determination I was able to get almost all of the way there before getting lost. At this point I did one of the worst thing a guy can do, I stop and asked for directions and to make matters worse it was from a woman. Her directions were good and it turned out that I was only a few miles away from my destination.
After receiving my prize and picking up a few other purchases I headed back for the boarder, which presented problem #3. Since I was coming from Canada they routed the bill through there Canadian office, which I didn’t know they had, paid in Canadian dollars with the Canadian taxes already paid. Good, it saved me the Mi. Sales tax but at the boarder the custom agent zoned out.
This does not compute!
This does not compute!
This does not compute!
Simply put since it was originally coming from Germany I had to pay duty on it which meant that I first had to pay the taxes. At this point I reminded him for the third time that I had already paid the taxes and he couldn’t make me pay them twice (I hoped) so he had no idea on how to handle it. Eventually he waved me through without paying any duty, and forgot to collect the taxes on the other $125.00 worth of stuff I had, I’m assuming he just wanted to get rid of me.
So the final bill came to $318.00 plus tax, a $32.00 discount off the list price, and only $59.00’s more than the Chinese copy. At that price difference it isn’t worth even considering the copy.
I have no expectations that because I have this device that I will now be able to dial in parts to a tenth and perform other miracles but after calibrating it (I also picked up a Bison tool holder from Wholesale Tools to mount it permanently) which only took a few minutes it did prove itself most useful in accurately centering a round part on my mill.
Anyone in the Ontario/Michigan area that is thinking about getting one should call SST, they did work very hard in getting me this little treasure at a good price.
I decided to get one of the 3D Tasters and because everyone has been saying how expensive they are I decided on one of the Chinese copies. Production Tool in Detroit is the closest supplier that sells them, $259.00 US (Windsor Factory Supply is a reseller for them in Canada and sells them also, special order) or you can get a German made digital version for close to $600.00 US, way to expensive for me.
At the last minute I decided to look into the real thing (Haimer), mostly out of curiosity but was unable to find anyone that sells them, so I e-mail the US office, I couldn’t find one in Canada, and they replied that the nearest distributor was Single Source Technologies in Auburn Hills Michigan. OK, not so bad, they are closer then Detroit from where I live so I called them up to find out what the price was and the sales rep quoted Haimers list price of $350.00 US for the analog 3D Universal Taster but that they usually discounted that. Now that didn’t seem to bad considering the cost of the Chinese version so I decided to bite the bullet and ordered one.
Enter problem #1. They don’t sell retail, OK not a problem they said, I just had to fill out a account application form and it would be OK. The next day, Tuesday, I received an e-mail saying the account was a go and I could place an order which I did, delivery in a couple of days if Haimer has them in stock, SST doesn’t keep them on site. On Friday morning I received another e-mail saying that it was in their office ready for pick up, I didn’t have it shipped to me because of the brokerage fees that Fed Ex and others charge, hopped in the car and took off for Auburn Hills MI.
Now for problem #2. How exactly does one get to Auburn hills, road maps are near useless no direct route by major roads without going along ways around but with determination I was able to get almost all of the way there before getting lost. At this point I did one of the worst thing a guy can do, I stop and asked for directions and to make matters worse it was from a woman. Her directions were good and it turned out that I was only a few miles away from my destination.
After receiving my prize and picking up a few other purchases I headed back for the boarder, which presented problem #3. Since I was coming from Canada they routed the bill through there Canadian office, which I didn’t know they had, paid in Canadian dollars with the Canadian taxes already paid. Good, it saved me the Mi. Sales tax but at the boarder the custom agent zoned out.
This does not compute!
This does not compute!
This does not compute!
Simply put since it was originally coming from Germany I had to pay duty on it which meant that I first had to pay the taxes. At this point I reminded him for the third time that I had already paid the taxes and he couldn’t make me pay them twice (I hoped) so he had no idea on how to handle it. Eventually he waved me through without paying any duty, and forgot to collect the taxes on the other $125.00 worth of stuff I had, I’m assuming he just wanted to get rid of me.
So the final bill came to $318.00 plus tax, a $32.00 discount off the list price, and only $59.00’s more than the Chinese copy. At that price difference it isn’t worth even considering the copy.
I have no expectations that because I have this device that I will now be able to dial in parts to a tenth and perform other miracles but after calibrating it (I also picked up a Bison tool holder from Wholesale Tools to mount it permanently) which only took a few minutes it did prove itself most useful in accurately centering a round part on my mill.
Anyone in the Ontario/Michigan area that is thinking about getting one should call SST, they did work very hard in getting me this little treasure at a good price.
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