Ok, I might sound really dumb, but here goes! Patrick sent the tuner to myself (in UK) by mistake instead of to Rob Schofield in Netherlands who is going to assemble it. So I'll need to send it on.

My question: Do I need a customs label? Will Rob be hit for tax when he gets it? And will *I* be charged vat when it gets sent back, even though its my own tuner?

Can I get past this my marking it as a "gift worth £110?"

Not to take business away from Rob, but...

In the amount of time it takes you to figure out the customs/shipping, and to pack it up and get it to the post office... you could have the thing built...

True, I would have to learn to solder as well though !

We have free trade within the EU. No duty is payable, and VAT is charged at source as appropriate. So, slap on an airmail sticker and some stamps and stick it in a postbox.

You can get international recorded delivery if you want vague traceability.

Rob

You could practice on something like this with a cheap bag of resistors...

Yeah I've seen them before. This tuner might be the incentive I need to learn a new skill.

Get an electronic kit from Maplin, a lot of them are < £10. You'll gain some good soldering and component handling experience plus you get to use whatever you've made afterwards

I saw you are in bonnie Scotland - there's a list of stores here.

Now suddenly I'm worried he's going to actually try to put it together, screw it up, and then come blame us.

Good point. Well, actually, it was you who mentioned it first

Bah. After doing a kit, plus reading pca's soldering instructions in the manual (actually, I did that before doing the kit), I discovered that soldering through-hole ain't that tough. I haven't tried soldering those dust-mote sized thingies, though.

OK, let's go back to plan A: send it to Rob to build it....

Yeah... send it to Rob. It sounds like he needs the work.

Uh, oh. I tried it and screwed up.

Thats exactly what I DON'T want to be saying 24 hours from now!

And yeah... Rob needs beer money. I'll get one of those practice kits though, I should probably learn to solder.