02-18-2022, 10:22 PM
Sorry Willie, nothing to report on the clutch, as I have been busy with work inside the house.
However, I did have a win on something else related to this lathe. The five-position rotary switch used to select fwd/rev fast/slow was damaged by the previous owner. He clearly lost the selector knob and decided to grind the splines off the shaft in an attempt to fit a standard knob with a little set screw. Well, you can imagine the result. I took the switch to a local company who makes them and they were not interested in helping in any way. Reached out to a company in Sydney who quoted me on a replacement switch, which was more than I paid for the lathe. I asked if they could sell me the spline shaft and a suitable selector knob. They are unable to sell components that require the switch to be disassembled (I can understand that). However, they offered to do the work for free if I paid the postage. Done!
Two weeks later and I get a call. The switch is much older than they expected and their parts are incompatible. They reached out to other companies in Europe and again, to old. At this point the dollar signs are rolling over in my mind.
The guy was very apologetic and offered me a new switch for about 25% of the original quote. It arrived a couple of days ago and my old switch is in their museum. He didn't have to do this and could have easily said "sorry, I cannot help you".
However, I did have a win on something else related to this lathe. The five-position rotary switch used to select fwd/rev fast/slow was damaged by the previous owner. He clearly lost the selector knob and decided to grind the splines off the shaft in an attempt to fit a standard knob with a little set screw. Well, you can imagine the result. I took the switch to a local company who makes them and they were not interested in helping in any way. Reached out to a company in Sydney who quoted me on a replacement switch, which was more than I paid for the lathe. I asked if they could sell me the spline shaft and a suitable selector knob. They are unable to sell components that require the switch to be disassembled (I can understand that). However, they offered to do the work for free if I paid the postage. Done!
Two weeks later and I get a call. The switch is much older than they expected and their parts are incompatible. They reached out to other companies in Europe and again, to old. At this point the dollar signs are rolling over in my mind.
The guy was very apologetic and offered me a new switch for about 25% of the original quote. It arrived a couple of days ago and my old switch is in their museum. He didn't have to do this and could have easily said "sorry, I cannot help you".
Hunting American dentists since 2015.