Manufacturer Supplied Replacement Parts-Delta DP350 [OT Rant-Sort Of]

[Greg G]

What with all the MBA bashing, I thought I'd throw in my two cents.

I'm tired of 'manufacturers' (i.e.- re-branders & 'acquirers' of other companies technologies) selling machines at one price, only to attempt to make even more profit on overpriced replacement parts that are designed-in/well-known failures.

Case in point. Delta DP350 drill press - Chinese POS I should have run from, but I got hooked by the 'demo' half price deal. Minor amount of usage, but it has already had Reeves pulley failure and several electrical failures in the 8 hours of so of use it has seen.

This time? Chinese power switch failure caused by an improperly crimped supply lead overheating and melting the switch internals. Result - melted switch and a useless machine.

Check with Delta - they want $16.35 for a Chinese Kedu* switch that costs $2.05. Backordered and out of stock - E.T.A. - 4 months! You've got to be kidding me! Talk about a slow boat from China...

• = Zhejiang Kedu Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd (was: Yueqing Puqi Electrical Plastic Factory)

Explain to me how a replacement power switch for a $200 drill press can be bought OEM from the original vendor for $2.05, and yet the alleged 'manufacturer' wants $16.35 for the EXACT same part.

switch down.

I am considering ordering a crate of these fracking things from China and selling them one by one for $5.00 each on eBay. Quantity prices are less than $1.85 ea.

Or maybe I'll just go pick up a quality, American made Philmore 30-866 lighted rocker switch - it snaps right in and has a genuine UL listing. Cost? $3.95.

Damned MBA's/Bean Counters...

This explains why GPE is selling his leftover stock on eBay - I guess a 10 year run is better than nothing... China Rulez!

Greg G.

[Leon]

I hear you Greg but controlling inventory having been my specialty when I was in the automotive business, quantity purchasing brings the cost down. A $2 part that sells once every 2 or 3 years is wasting space on the shelf if the mark up, "gross profit" is not up to par with parts that are taking up the same space and turning 3 to 6 times a year. Unfortunately being out of stock does not bring the price down. Parts prices are predetermined by the actual cost, the room they occupy and how many times they will sell during a year. If the sell price is too low it may not warrant being stocked at all if it is a slow mover. Then factor in the fact that it may suddenly start having a high failure rate and you can not find one at any price.

I would say, if you can, by pass the faulty switch and install a good quality one at a much cheaper cost some where else on the stand or machine.

[Greg G]

I was in the electronics business since... well... since 5U4's were mounted in the tops of power transformers of B&W Philco's and Zenith's contained Cobra tone arms - but I was a mere child at the time. ;-)

I guess I just got tired of reading about trolls, kooks, caners, phishing, beating your children, not beating your children, which saw to buy, how many people died today in Iraq, how rude or useless the Orange/Blue/Green Borg was today, and other such stuff.

Stupid post, in retrospect, but I guess my point was that it seems more like price gouging than anything. Various electronics parts worth 12 cents are stocked by many distributors by the tens of thousands and the markup certainly isn't anything like the 700% markup on this item. We're not talking about local auto dealers, we're talking the manufacturer - the Big Kahuna. And don't get the idea that this stuff is stored in some high rent district, climate controlled warehouse. As an example, Magnavox, when they were an American company, assembled televisions in converted chicken brood houses in Jefferson City, Tennessee. Not exactly what most people would have envisioned.

Ours shops have always adhered to basic inventory management rules. But as a manufacturer and primary supplier of replacement parts, I don't personally believe that a 2" x 12" x 6" box containing 25 switches, sitting on a shelf with 1200 _other_ boxes, warrants that kind of overhead or markup.

And I'd bet you a turnip that I'm not the only one to have had this switch fail, it's probably a pretty fast turnover - which is why it's out of stock. This is, after all, a two year old, current production, widely marketed product.

You probably got bored by that point. ;-)

Later,

Greg G.

[Larry Jaques]

On Wed, 23 Nov 2005 01:42:58 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Greg G. quickly quoth:

Vacuum tubes y'say, Gramps? Got it.

Join us on the anti-Delta bandwagon.

Yeah, the other arm of Searz is doing that very thing. I got nailed $32 for a freezer motor, a simple, open-coiled thing with a small plastic fan. It was for a 20+ y/o Coldspot a decade ago. When I heard the price, I just about soiled the floor. I greased it twice and got by for another year each time, then it went out completely. I was forced to pay their price. First they took a pound of my skin and a gallon of my blood with their tools as they broke, then they took all my greenbacks. Is it a wonder that I abhor Crapsman and Searz?

So you're saying that a new Delta switch is supposed to go out after only 1 or 2 years' normal use? Get thee behind me, Delta!

Cheap hack, you say? I suppose that befits a Searz or Delta.

He may well have, or he overlooked it.

How many hours of research did you have to go through to find that replacement, Greg?

Besides, Delta paints their crap gray. I hate gray. They can keep 'em. Griz Green is the color for me.

-------------------------------------------------------------------- I sent in my $5, so *

why haven't I been 'saved'? * Graphic Design - Humorous T-shirts

[Greg G]

Well.. hmm.... I guess I _could be_ a Gramps, but I prefer not to look at it that way. Not sure of when the 'old fart' misnomer kicks in, but I don't think I'm there yet. Still listen to alternative rock music (as well as much else), and watch John Stewart and Star Trek. So I suppose that makes me a Gramps with bad taste and a Peter Pan complex. But I am over 35 but less than 50.

Yeah, Yeah. Does seem like I pick on them a lot. But like a misbehaving child, one needs a swat on the behind occasionally to get their attention.

I wrote Sears off in the early 80's. But I still have several boxes full of their old tools. Haven't been in a Searz store in nigh over

20 years. Credit driven re-branders don't interest me...

Yeah, it's the way things seem to be done these days. FWIW, none of their Taiwanese tools have given any trouble - only the Chinese tools.

Not into cheap hacks... Even on a Searz, H.F, or Grizzly.

You _really_ don't want to know, but I'll spend 3 hours to avoid padding the coffers of an overt pirate. I have stacks of OEM electronics catalogs by my desk, so it was a fairly simple matter to cross one over - once the specs/dimensions were obtained.

Same crap, different color.

Greg G.

[mike from American Sycamore]

What is that old saying....about arguing with a fool?

[Greg G]

Hmm... Would that be the top posting fool from Lead Poisoning Land* who spams Usenet, the fool American consumers who are suckered into buying poorly engineered Chinese crap, or the fool MBA that decides to charge $16.35 for a $2.05 switch in order to boost profits for a failing corporation?

Decisions, decisions... Having been in the service industry, representing numerous mfg's for several decades - I pick all three!

• LPL - the concentration of exhaust emissions along 'Transit Alley' over the past five decades has caused a buildup of toxic lead in the environment, and a considerable drop in average SAT scores in areas neighboring I-65 and I-70. Although lead (an engine lubricant) has long since been removed from fuel, the lead - and the low scores - persists in the environment. Hey, look what it did for the Romans...

Greg G.