Chronos closing down.

[HollowpointParticipant @hollowpoint]

It keeps getting stranger. The first order I made has just turned up. Even though I received an email from Chronos telling me that the payment was unsuccessful and that I should re-order.

I re-ordered the items so I’m probably gonna get doubles of everything now! 🤦🏼‍♂️

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, I managed to send an email to them late last night, by not using the last full stop after UK which was shown on their banner, and have received a good reply from Mark this morning. So I reckon Google didn’t like that last full stop.

Regards Nick.

[Ex contributor]

On Ex contributor Said:

The order I placed Monday has just been delivered.

No despatch notification from Chronos, but I did get Royal Mail e-mails giving the expected delivery time.

Unfortunately the delivery doesn’t match the order acknowledgement – there is a collet missing. The total on the invoice enclosed is less than the order acknowledgement, though, so I will have to check the CC statement to see if the missing collet was refunded.  I guess that their system had indicated stock when the shelf said otherwise, but a note indicating the shortfall would have been courteous.

 

Pretty much exactly the same, though I paid by Paypal and had notice of a refund by them for the errant collet (M6.5).
I didn’t get any order acknowledgement either; first and only communication from Chronos was when the jiffy bag arrived.

Order arrived promptly, and received notice of delivery from Royal Mail OK.

Bill

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

I have just received about £10 pounds worth of the c.£50 order I made.  The balance is carbide tips and small endmills but no mention of that on the invoice/packing list.  Perhaps they will turn up later?!

Rod

[Nicholas Farr]

On Nicholas Farr Said:

Hi, I managed to send an email to them late last night, by not using the last full stop after UK which was shown on their banner, and have received a good reply from Mark this morning. So I reckon Google didn’t like that last full stop.

Regards Nick.

In which case Google have got a serious configuration error in their email servers. A fully qualified domain name (chronos.ltd.uk.) is correct dns syntax.

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Google AI would disagree with you:-

• “No, an email domain name cannot have a full stop (period) at the end. Standard internet rules state that domain names must end with a letter or a number, not a punctuation mark.”

John

[Dave WoottonParticipant @davewootton]

My order turned up this afternoon, by DPD and to the right house so things are looking up. so it does seem as if Chronos are working through a large list and those waiting for an order will get it.

There are a couple of items missing from my original order, which was a long list of metal stock, but the paperwork that came with it shows the correct total price for what I received, which is obviously less than I paid on my card, presumably there will be a refund. Not too worried as it’s not much and am pleased with what I got for the money.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, all I can say is that the email address as shown on their banner got rejected every time, but the first time I left the last full stop off, my email to them went straight through. And today I’ve had an email from the Parcel Force, telling me that my parcel from Chronos will be delivered on Monday coming, whether Google is wright or wrong.

Regards Nick.

[Journeyman]

On Journeyman Said:

Google AI would disagree with you:-

• “No, an email domain name cannot have a full stop (period) at the end. Standard internet rules state that domain names must end with a letter or a number, not a punctuation mark.”

John

Which just shows that AI can hallucinate. The rightmost dot, if present, defines the root of the dns hierarchy. It may be omitted, but that implies a relative domain name, not an absolute one. It’s not an ‘Internet thing’ it’s a part of the domain name system definitions (dns).  as defined in rfc 1035.

See also:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fully_qualified_domain_name

I could add (by way of a logical fallacy), that I’ve been running dns servers and email servers continuously since 1995. 😀

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Chronos’s web site now announces that it’s closed. So I guess that’s it.

They do still have a mention of their email address on the page.

[Neville ChaseParticipant @nevillechase52412]

Looks like there’s still stuff on their eBay store.

[Neville Chase]

On Neville Chase Said:

Looks like there’s still stuff on their eBay store.

Quote from above:  “This Shop has no inventory available in your location”

Rod

[Roderick Jenkins]

On Roderick Jenkins Said:

On Neville Chase Said:

Looks like there’s still stuff on their eBay store.

Quote from above:  “This Shop has no inventory available in your location”

Rod

Does anything show up at this link for you?

https://www.ebay.com.au/str/chronosengineeringsupplies?_trksid=p4429486.m3561.l161211

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Clicking your antipodean link from here in the UK … I get exactly the message that Rod reported.

MichaelG.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, my order was delivered this morning, but one item was not included, however, the invoice shows that I’ve not been charged for it.

Hi Neville Chase, it shows what Roderick Jenkins has said above your link.

Regards Nick.

[southernchapParticipant @southernchap]

I’ve now had my Chronos delivery.  It was missing a couple of items that do add up to the £20-odd that I received a refund for; all’s good.

So for me, that’s that, and another sad end to a useful source of tooling.  So, we have Warco, RDG, Amadeal, and Chester left for one-stop-shops, aimed at the hobbyist.

We do have MSC Direct, Cromwell, and Cutwell, but they’re a bit pricier (but their stuff is aimed at commercial enterprises so tends to be a little better quality, though not always).

Finally, we have people like APT and Tracy Tools, and the small model engineering specific businesses, who sell tooling that they consider fits well with their core products.

If there’s something that you need that’s not UK specific, but that you can’t source over here, it’s worth remembering that some US sellers do ship globally.  For example: Little Machine Shop (AKA LMS), Accusize (mostly via Amazon.co.uk), All Industrial, and Shars.  Depending on how much you need whatever it is, the cost of shipping may be acceptable or not.  I’ve bought from LMS on a couple of occasions and they’ve always been very helpful (and I believe the speeds and feeds calculator, that’s free to use on their site, has been adjusted to take account of hobbyists smaller, less rigid machines that we hobbyists often use).

—————————

As for the email address, I have never, ever seen a valid email address that ends in a period.

If one searches for a regular expression to validate an email address, the most commonly found is this:

^[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}$

I suspect the above might be a tiny bit permissive on the margins, with a few very-much-edge cases slipping through but it’s certainly the bog-standard email valuation regex.

Note the end anchor, with nary a period in sight just before it.

I suspect the person who wrote the page with the Chronos email address on it, added the final period to be grammatically correct in English, and forgot that people cut and paste.

If I’m sending an email with an email address in it, or showing an email address in a document, I will either add a space after the address and before any English punctuation, or omit the punctuation completely.  Saves a lot of confusion.

[Michael Gilligan]

On Michael Gilligan Said:

Clicking your antipodean link from here in the UK … I get exactly the message that Rod reported.

MichaelG.

That makes me wonder if those from Australia, are still ordering from them on eBay.

 

[Journeyman]

On Journeyman Said:

Google AI would disagree with you:-

• “No, an email domain name cannot have a full stop (period) at the end. Standard internet rules state that domain names must end with a letter or a number, not a punctuation mark.”

John

Correct DNS syntax but not correct SMTP syntax? Section 4.1.2 (“Command Argument Syntax”) of RFC 5321

So the AI answer is a little inprecise in its explanation but the first bit is good advice.

[Keith PetleyParticipant @keithpetley53472]

Section 2 (Names) of RFC9499 covers this and makes surprisingly easy reading for an RFC.

https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9499.html

Keith

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Yes rfc5322 references rfc1034 and rfc1035, but then incorrectly describes the ‘dot-atom’ syntax for domain names as defined in those rfcs. There was only 20 years between those rfcs and that was only 18 years ago. B***y youf of today. 😉

rfc9499 does get it right:-

Composition of names:A name in the global DNS has one or more labels. The length of each label is between 0 and 63 octets inclusive. In a fully qualified domain name, the last label in the ordered list is 0 octets long; it is the only label whose length may be 0 octets, and it is called the “root” or “root label”.

e.g. chronos.ltd.uk.

 

It would appear that Microsoft did interpret things correctly (to my point of view!!!), but I don’t know if they still do.

 

I suspect that Chronos’s demise wasn’t related to any of this pedantry.

 

 

 

 

[Geoff RogersParticipant @geoffrogers81118]

I have found Rotagrip online to be most useful for quality items, such as lathe chucks

[Geoff Rogers]

On Geoff Rogers Said:

I have found Rotagrip online to be most useful for quality items, such as lathe chucks

I’ve met the boss of Rotagrip a couple of times.  Genuinely friendly and helpful guy. I’ve spoken to one of his staff, who persuaded me to buy a cheaper product than I was intending to, given my likely usage.  That speaks to the decency of the company.

Mind you, I’ve yet to manage to justify to myself the cost of buying a Bison chuck from them.  I’ve managed to find some Burnerd, and Pratt Burnerd chucks in decent nick second hand on eBay that have done me.

Be nice to have a new Bison chuck though.

[Trevor Drabble 1Participant @trevordrabble1]

Earlier this evening at around 8.40pm I emailed Rotagrip with queries regarding a good quality precision drill chuck and received an almost immediate reply ! I contend that such superb service warrants supporting in the best way possible, and so an order was placed before 9pm .

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Keep a look out for New Old Stock Bison Chucks, that is how I got mine for about the cost of a far eastern one.

I have found my Far Eastern drill chucks have runout within the spec of Superprecision name brand chucks.

[Trevor Drabble 1Participant @trevordrabble1]

In my experience I have found that in many areas the major difference between branded products and their cheaper competitors is one of quality control and consistency in that with a branded product the odds of getting a poor product are much reduced , and this is one reason they are still in business.

[Author]

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