Hobby stores are starting to emerge in Malaysia

I was casually browsing the internet looking for some diy material to build a cnc enclosure for a cnc machine that I have left half baked on the back burner and stumbled upon an interesting post on Lowyat.net posted on 1st June 2016: 

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/3963660/all

I have no affiliation with the person but it seems he has setup a new online shop by the name www.Hobby-Hardware.com

They even have a store registered at Lelong.my if you feel safer.

You can refer to the information in the lowyat link posted above for some prices he has to offer for a quick comparison.

I am more excited about the fact that they are offering a reasonable price for aluminium extruded profiles, linear hardened shafts etc, and even various 3d printing consumables such as filaments, nozzles e.t.c on their website.

They offer cutting extrusions at custom length and also shipping within Malaysia and COD at specific locations in Klang Valley.

I assume that finally people are starting to realize that there is a small hobbyist group in Malaysia that is interested in building their own 3d printers and cnc machines.

Hopefully in the near future we will have more of such shops where hobbyists can source their project raw materials.

I hope this info will be beneficial to someone who is looking for raw material to build or maintain their own custom 3d printers or cnc machines.

Visit to METALTECH @ PWTC

METALTECH 2016 took place at Putra World Trade Center (PWTC) from 25-28th May.

Although the fair is more geared towards commercial visitors, I decided to pay a visit.

I visited their website at http://www.metaltech.com.my and noticed that they offered a simple online registration. Upon visiting the registration counter I presented them my online registration email and they requested my business card. In a couple of minutes i had my visitor badge and was on my way to explore the 6 fully packed halls.

There were all sorts of vendors selling CAD/CAM softwares, 3d printers, CNC machining centers, lots of tools, bits, inserts, welding equipment e.t.c. Most of the pricing was commercially focused and beyond the reach of us hobby machinists and DIY folks.

I did pass by a few vendors selling small bench size lathes and mills (mainly from China & Taiwan), vises, sine plates, angle plates, rotary tables, vee blocks, indexing tools, lots of popular brand measurment tools such as calipers, height guages, indicator gauges e.t.c. 

There were also several vendors selling  power tools, metal bending machines, bandsaws, arbor presses, hydraulic presses, e.t.c.

There were also several companies selling CNC parts such as stepper motors, spindles, vfds, stepper drivers, ballscrews, bearings e.t.c. I was not very impressed with the prices as I can find attractive prices online via AliExpress.

So, you must be wondering if I bought anything? Well, the only thing i found worth buying was a 1 pint (0.473 litre) bottle of Tap Magic ProTap cutting fluid. The picture below is just for a reference but I got a similar bottle for RM 25 which to me is very reasonable compared to online prices and the hassle of importing fluids from USA. I actually regret misplacing the vendors business card in the pile of brochures I had collected during the fair. But hopefully a can of this stuff will last me a very long time.

All in all it was a good experience knowing the technology that exists in the commercial manufacturing world.

Allthough MetalTech was not an open public fair and you needed to be part of a commercial venture just to get in but enterance is free and remember "where there is a will, there is a way".

I would recommend DIY hobbyists to visit the next MetalTech which takes place every year (once a year). You may definitely find it useful if you are more focused towards sourcing your hobby ewuipment locally to benefit from customer service and support.