harbor freight X2 is now $579?

[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]

Originally Posted by DSL PWR 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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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