Axminster Nuneaton

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jedmc571

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Anyone planning on going to the opening in Nuneaton on Monday???

I'm wondering if their may be some cheap goods for sale :wink:
 
Gives the staff a gentle " break in" without the worry of a Weekend stampede.

I only want some blody 75mm castors :lol: but I have a few days off, and fancy something enoyable requiring no thinking 8)
 
Jed - not being tempted by the separate "Festool shop" are you?
 
I'll be there, not sure what I want, but I am sure something will be saying "BUY ME"

Is there a secret sign.One trouser leg rolled up??

See you there.
 
EdSutton":6d41c1m9 said:
CHJ":6d41c1m9 said:
Will be calling in on Monday with my Festool invite in hand.

What does that mean Chas? Is there some special offer?

Ed

Ive got a letter from festool which can be exchanged for a cordless drill tool holder or a ct mini car.

anyone want it pm me.

cheers

Jon
 
EdSutton":3i59wvf1 said:
...
What does that mean Chas? Is there some special offer?

Ed
I doubt that they will have any reductions low enough to match my current piggy bank Ed, I got fes. invite on the basis of past dealings I presume, free small promotional gift is all that I have seen mentioned.

Nuneaton is more or less on my return route home on monday so better half is twisting my arm to call in new store :whistle:
 
Karl":1tn80rtg said:
Jed - not being tempted by the separate "Festool shop" are you?

:lol:

They say "if Festool make it, we stock it" I'm waiting for them to make a "Festool Wife" :wink: definately having one of them, and when she starts blurting on...............in the Systainer with you love =D>

Only kidding ( ducks ) I want to have a look at their PT, and maybe a drill press, and not forgetting my 75mm castors, might push the boat out and buy one of them little BMI tape measures, they look trick 8)

I'll be wearing a smart Lord Anthony Snorkel parka ( with fur round the hood ) brown sandals and have a centre parting if anyone#s looking for me :oops:
 
Not at all planned, but I have a meeting just a few miles away at 9:30 Monday morning and then nothing pressing to rush back to! Hmm. what could I do.

Also I note that AXi have strategically placed this new shop on my way to Whitmores. It was expensive enough going to Whitmores but I doubt I will just drive by.
 
I've just returned. I would have been a lot quicker but Axminster's payment system is clearly having teething problems. Had to queue for a quite a while and each customer seemed to take ages to deal with. When my turn came, it took four attempts for the credit card machine to accept payment. No doubt this aspect of the store will improve with time.

The shop seemed reasonably well stocked and catered for practically all aspects of woodworking, although I didn't buy much; just some resin, a new cutting mat and some acrylic lacquer. Of course I looked at the three scroll saws on display, but sadly they were not set up to give working demonstrations. None of the tools were, although Festool did have a show going on outside the store. After all I have heard about Axminster I expected the store to be larger than it is.

Would I go there again? It is one of three woodwork suppliers in the area that I would consider. If I didn't fancy travelling too far, I would probably go to Paskins which is down the road in Kidderminster and carries a range of tools which is only slightly behind Axminster. By travelling further, I could go to Good Timber near Northampton and pick up some wood as well as tools. The new Nuneaton branch is a valuable resource for Midland woodworkers but I doubt I will be a regular visitor.
 
Well, you know how you go into some London nightclubs and there's a back room where the lights are turned very low? It was the woodworking equivalent of that. Of course, the lights were full on, spotlighting the entire Fesdrool range. It was very busy with lots of men ogling the merchandise and their wives trying to distract them. Drinks were available at the entrance and some people came away with free gifts - the guy ahead of me at the checkout had a Corgi-type Mini that was adorned in Fesdrool livery. I noticed he hadn't bought a tool, though.
 
I spent a happy hour there this morning and managed to get out only £35 worse off.

As previously mentioned, the checkout system was not quite right as their initial attempt came to £3500 for 2 bottles of Titebond and a router bit!!
 
Came away with just a few small items such as green grit grinding wheels, tool bit spares etc.
Came very close to succumbing to a new Metal turning lathe, and a small mill played with triggered an urgent need to follow up a line of enquiry that I have neglected recently.

Had a good chat with Festool manager Ole Held and a couple of the staff flown in for the days event. Certainly an advantage to have all the range available for viewing as opposed to just available to order. Realism still puts most of the items out of my hobby tinkering range though, will have to be satisfied with the odd small item that finds its way into the xmas and birthday collection etc.

The Boss took a serious liking to some of the Makita Gardening machines so near future may well see less aggro against a Nuneaton diversion.

The extra sale room floor space was a bonus over Devon branch, would like to see "power on demonstrations" catered for but I guess Health and Safety just about puts the block on that in a public showroom.
 
If I'm honest it was a bit of a disappointment. I used to frequent Sid's Shed so I was expecting the store to be a lot bigger, otherwise they would have just used the olf Brimarc unit in Warwick.

The only offers I could see were on Rigger's Gloves and small spirit levels. I thought they might have knocked a few quid off any orders placed today or had in-store offers.

All that aside, the 2 things I was looking for were a carpenter's hand screw and a 10" table saw. They'd run out of hand screws and the saw was a lot larger than in my head (and didn't have the money off it's had recently).

I'll give it a few weeks to settle in and try again. I'm sure having to save all my money for a trip to New Zealand had no influence on my enjoyment :p
 
I drove up from Chester this morning, the wife came with me :roll:

I was like a big kid all the way there, when I saw it off the road I had a dry mouth, outside was a working demo ( if reqd ) of al the Festools, and when I got in the door, it was like the advert for Disneyland, when the parents say "Were not even in yet" as the kids are dumbfounded.

And that was it..........I had it in my head that it would be packed with machinery, their was a fair bit off stuff out, but it just seemed like an awfull lot of space in between displays ?

What really shocked me were the physical sizes of some of my wanted list, Sjobergs Benches at the front door looked like they belong in a wendy house, I always imagined them to be huge, the Axi Planer/Thicknesser AW106PT was much smaller than I thought, and the Axi thicknesser CT 330 was massive., I had a lok at the Dewalt 733 ( I like this ) and a drill press ND 71, and the cheapest bandsaw.
The castings on some of it wasn't great, but nothing a touch up with a file wouldn't cure, all the Jet stuff was out, and I wasn't impressed with the TS 200 saw.

I've only ever seen them in the catalogue, so it was a good lesson learned. It was nice to see it in the flesh, and I have a better idea of what will fit in ay home, but it just seemed to lack any excitement, Ii was expecting to have goodies thrown at me and some opening day discounts, which brings me to my next point.

I overheard a sales guy say "spend over £100 and get £10 off" only after I was 3 miles into the journey home, I realised we hadn't got it ? my wife ( bless her ) bought me a Veritas LA Block plane, which incidentally is down to £99 I got 2 other items as well, payed for it myself and didn't even think about the £10 off :x did anyone else know about the discount ?

I got a chance to see my potential purchases ( January sales ) but left a little unhapy that it wasn't a bit more fun.

I would suggest uttilising the space better, their's loads of room for more stuff, and as suggested a try before you buy area for the more popular items. ( but it was day one, and that may be the plan anyway )

If you like Festool though ( and I do :wink: ) it's the dogs nuts, still lots going out on display, but it's all there.

I don't see me going again, my dealer in Chester ( Grahams Machinery )has pretty much what I need, and with discounts and freebies, so I'm staying local, if Axminster move a bit more Northerly, I'll give it another go.

Cheers

Jed

Ps That veritas block plane..................... :D :D :D :D
 
I did go yesterday, and thought the store was ok. One of the thing I wanted was a set of button jaws for my lathe. I found the space on the shelf where they should have been but it was empty. I looked a the queue at the till, and was debating wether to enquire, when my brain engaged and I remembered an e-mail I had received saying that they were on offer.

I left empty handed and came home, where I found sure enough they were on offer at a £14 discount.

I ordered on line at 4.00 pm yesterday, and Fedex got me out of bed this morning to take delivery, what a great service. I suspect that had I asked at the store I would have also got the discount, but overall, I agree with the sentiments here, there were no offers on which I had expected, but the store is large, and screwfix is next door!!!
 

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