Derek Russan

There are 5 No 1 blades listed. Search for XAC021 will find them.

There are 5 No 1 blades listed. Search for XAC021 will find them.

Eileens usually stock Di-Limonene, but it is off the website as we are out of stock. Should be resolved within about a week.

It is quite simple when you know the secret. Xacto numbers 21* are for the narrow No 1 Handle, Blades 22* for the wider No 2.

Another week on and still going strong. With at least three more weeks of lockdown, we will keep doing what we are doing. Thank you to all customers who have thanked us for getting their products to them in these difficult times. We will continue our policy of not answering the phone as the lack or interruption means we can ship far more orders, we are managing to respond to most voicemails and emails same day. We are asking all customers to contact via email wherever possible. A reminder we are not taking any orders other than via the website, again to speed up the process. As we anticipated we are currently running about 1 week behind. We are currently in the middle of processing orders from 12th April. If your order is older than that and still showing as Awaiting Picking it will be in a small pile of orders that are waiting for deliveries in the next day or two. If marked shipped, that means we have processed the order. If we process a Courier order after about 2:00pm it will not actually leave us until the next working day. The same applies to Royal Mail orders processed after about 3:30pm. We are seeing a small number of courier deliveries taking an extra day, and Royal Mail seem to be holding up well. If marked "Problem, Stock Availability" you should have received 2 emails, one is automated to show change of status, the other will give more detail as to why and where possible offer options. We have just received some Modelu and some Cambrian kits. We are expecting deliveries within a couple days of flux (which comes as a pleasant surprise), small hand tools, sheet metal, imperial metal rods, metric strips and sections. Cambrian will continue to arrive as production catches up. The only real issue is that the Herring kit (C110) is now out of production indefinitely as there is damage to the tool. We are in the process of adding all the recent releases from Modelu to our website, but time is at a premium as you can imagine. The greatest hold up is Peco, who told us a few days ago, before the lock down was extended, that they were trying to re-open the factory first to replenish stocks. Then resume trade sales in around 2 to 3 weeks. So currently we have no 0 gauge kits in stock and are low on much of the Ratio 00 range. We do still have most of the Wills sheets in stock. If you want to check stock before you order please email, we will try to get back next working day, but please remember someone else may have ordered it in the meantime. We have stocks of most Gibson wheels after a delivery a few days ago, we cleared virtually all back orders but some ran out next day. Demand is however much greater than anticipated and overtaken our planning. We have deliveries due in about a month and more to follow. So now on recovery and admin time over the weekend and back to the works on Monday.

Eileens still ploughing through orders. See post on "Eileens, Corona Virus and Shows" for latest.

Once again, thanks to all our customers for their support and tolerance during this crisis. I have had many customers thanking us for keeping them sane. So now it is time for us to take a couple of days off to try to restore our own sanity. We plan to resume operations on Tuesday. We are presently running about 3 to 4 days behind, but expect this to increase to at least a week over the weekend, we will do our best to catch up during the week. I am sorry if it seems harsh, but no more Mr. nice guy. We have to prioritise getting as much product to as many customers as possible. We will not be answering the phone so it will divert, if it cannot be dealt with by email then please leave a message. We will get back to you but not necessarily quickly. If we email you about an order please reply by email, not phone. For existing orders where we do not have email contact we will be using a different number and will leave that number if necessary to enable you to get back to us. We are keeping the website open for ordering, but please note we will not take any order placed by any other means until we have caught up a bit. This is because such orders slow us down a lot. While we are aware that not all customers have internet access, many simply prefer to make orders by phone. We apologise if we are a bit short on the phone, but will try to be polite, but firm. This can be very slow when customers are making up lists on the fly. Typically, each telephone order stops 3 web orders from being shipped. Not a decision that has been easy to make, but it is essential. We thank you all in advance for your understanding. Stay safe, keep well, keep modelling. Wishing you Happy Easter.

My reply was sent at 15:40 1st April. Within 1 hour of the email coming in.

With an effective wetting agent 9% is more than adequate.

Life is not that simple. All fluxes need a wetting agent, This is what makes the Barrie Stevenson flux so good. I have been contacted about this issue and replied, but not had my questions answered. This is the only occurrence of a problem that I am aware of, in hundreds of bottles sold. It sound much more likely to be the solder, iron temperature etc. If it is unleaded solder I would expect issues.

Another week on and we are still shipping daily, and keeping well. Stock coming in from those suppliers that are still open. Running out of some items from those that are closed or have long lead times. Only a couple of days behind. We are having to put orders with shortages on hold rather than splitting them, which is time consuming and stops other orders going out. We are reserving the stock we do have for such orders. We will readdress this if and when we catch up. You will get a brief email if there is a shortage on your order. If you want us to split it please contact us and we will do our best. The support we have had from customers has been tremendous. Thank you all for your orders and tolerance.

We stock both Dormer branded and Economy drill in these sort of sizes. No recent problems reported but have in the past had some rogues that we have replaced. If drilling plastic the Economy should be fine, with care for Brass. If drilling NS the Dormer are better.

Still going at Eileens, Down to half staff to maintain the spirit of the isolation guidelines. Just Anita and I going to the stores. We have been working long hours and got home about 8:00 last night. Most orders up to mid afternoon were shipped, some left yesterday, some bagged to go to Royal Mail this morning. A few orders with stock issues need sorting and will deal with them Monday, also a couple of couriers that came in too late for the pick up. We need to spend some time trying to re-order stock and other admin actions, so are not physically going in today, The website is still open and the phone will transfer to me, if I cannot answer I will ring you back. Normality (whatever that is) returns on Monday if we are allowed to travel to the stores.

Managed to get home from another manic day at the office just in time for this. Proud of our close, 100% turnout. My daughter even joined us on video link.

There is no simple answer on that, it depends on the composition of the glue. We spent a lot of effort to categorise all goods on our website so the shipping options comply with RM restrictions. Not all Glues are classed as dangerous. The Royal Mail definitions are not really helpful on this. We had a visit from a member of the RM support team last week and they did not know, Just suggested that we ask their tech team about each product. With thousands of products that is not going to happen. What is not so well known is that RM now require that all Blades are sent on an Age Verified service. Again the definition of "Blade" is somewhat vague. Scalpels are obvious, but are Razor Saws, Piercing saw blades etc. We are now fully compliant as we understand it, but I suspect we are in the minority.

Update, we will be a man down from tomorrow for family protection reasons. Some suppliers are now closed including Peco who have an order for us the wrong side of closed doors. Continuing to try to make sanity out of chaos.

At Eileens Emporium we are doing our best to carry on working as normal, within government guidelines, until we are no longer able to do so. We are a small team so have isolation under some degree of control. Following the lockdown announcement we held a video meeting with all staff and everyone has volunteered to continue to keep the mail order going and are not open to visitors. A lot of administration will be done from home keeping the office restricted to dealing with orders, both in and out. We will have to stop if the postal and courier services stop. As stated elsewhere we have significantly reduced our threshold for free postage. While not considered essential, we are very conscious that getting supplies to you can in itself be a great benefit to keep you occupied while at home. We would like to thank all our customers for their on-going support during these incredibly hard times.

Can I join the club please.

That is a very simplistic view. I do not want to generalise, but many smaller traders only trade part time and have full time jobs and very little in the way of business overheads so will not hurt as much as the full time businesses. Also the very small traders tend to offer niche products so in many cases sales will be delayed not lost. We are not big, I employ 3 people and have to pay all my overheads, rent, wages, etc whether the shows run or not. No matter how good the website I will be stunned if any increase mail order can make up for the sheer volume of business lost with all these shows cancelled. I do offer some unique product, but a lot is available from multiple sources so a lot of sales will be lost forever. Added to that a lot of money is already spent which cannot be reclaimed, prepaid Hotels, Van Hire etc. Times will be very hard.

Scalefour site is showing Scalefour North is cancelled.

And now Epsom Show is cancelled too. I am getting to the point of not being able to type fast enough.

We are able to ship solvents and fluxes and indeed everything we sell. "Dangerous" goods have to go by Courier. Large items also have to go by courier, and may be a bit more expensive. Basic courier is only £1.20 more than a Parcel by Royal Mail. This shipping is usually free on spending £100, and now reduced to a £50 minimum for the duration of the crisis.

It is a great shame but a necessary decision. See our situation regards shows:

We have just been informed that Railex, Aylesbury is cancelled.

In the light of shows being cancelled (none that we are attending so far) and noticably reduced attendance at the last two shows etc, Eileens Emporium have decided to reduce their threshold for free shipping. See full statement: