rhncue said:
Mine never had a power feed at any time. it was built before they were installed. These things are known for controller problems but there is a fellow who rebuilds the electronics for 30 or 35.00. my electrics are still working after 25 yrs. but at times the variable speed hunts a little. I've been looking for another one so as to have a power feed and a compound on it. Just been waiting for H/F to pass out another 15 or 20% off coupon.
Dick
That sound like a reasonable price. If Mine goes out, I may need that contact info
As you know most are manufactured pretty simular, most by the same place, and then distributed by different retailers. I had seen alot of them on ebay with controller issues when I was trying to decide on getting mine, so I realize that's a concern, as It was for me at the time. I'm not sure how I got lucky so far. I still have the box It came in, and checked the date, got mine in early 2001, so It's been alittle bit of time, but everything still works. The only problem I really had so far was during shipping.
Now I bought one of their pancake compressors back then too, and have had nothing but problems with It. Right out the gate the preasure regulator was junk. Then on the phone I got the run around, until they finally put Me through to some tech guy. I assured him That no amount of ajusting was going to help It, still he kept me on the phone for near an hour messing around, having me double try everything I had done already, then finally says yep It's bad. They send me a new one, It works, but sometimes kept running past the set PSI, until I got scared, and shut It down manually. I messed with it for a while, forget what I did, but got It working like a charm. I kept the peacock valve open during storage so moisture didn't build up, but then after a few months of nonuse one time, I busted It out, and the freaking compressor sounded like It was dragging for some reason. I checked the oil level, and It was fine, so I don't know what the problem was, and got so uptight, that I just stored It away. maybe i'll mess around with again one day, but My brother bought one of the little twin cyl/tank models from the local autoparts store, and lets me keep it at my house since he rarely uses it, and It's works like a charm everytime I fire It up. I do sometimes have to pop the relief valve off to start It back up, but usually that's only when I'm using My framing nailer, and so I can keep enough preasure built up to sink the nails all the way after I fire a bunch of therm off and PSI starts to get low. still it's more dependable then the one I bought, and i think He paid less, not to mention no shipping cost since he bought His locally.
I guess My point, You take your chances with the import stuff. It's cheaper, and sometimes well worth the price, but is hit and miss as far a quality from one unit to the other. Sometimes You get lucky, receive a well built unit, and get one heck of a deal out of It, then other times Your reminded why you normally prefer more expensive higher quality tools.
I guess the little lathe I just got lucky on. BTW in case It's of any use, on the box i noticed that UPS had the shipping weight marked at around 95 pounds.
Greg
