K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get an replacement.

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K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get an replacement.

Tord-2
Hi Elecrafters!
Must tell you!
Broken AF Knobs.And bad service to get a replacement.
Still same shit? very very bad "quality"? its happend again, broken in pieces.

Purchased a new factory built K3  03/18/2009.A week after I get it AF button  went to pieces.
Ordered new and had to wait eight weeks for a new one. Now it is broken again,
in three pieces and how long should I wait to get a replacement this time?
three months?
Also unable to find Allen wrench 0.050" here!
This is really bad. really bad!
Sorry to say.....My experience of Elecraft service is really bad. But its true.
73/ SM3ALR Tord
 K3/100 #2926.
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Re: K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get an replacement.

Julian, G4ILO

Tord wrote
Hi Elecrafters!
Must tell you!
Broken AF Knobs.And bad service to get a replacement.
I'm sorry to hear that. After nearly 2 years the knobs on K3 #222 are still fine. I assembled it myself so I tightened the screws only just enough to hold them and no more. But with all these reports one starts to wonder whether it is only a matter of time before I too experience a failure.

I wonder how many people would be prepared to pay extra for a "luxury" set of metal knobs that would avoid this issue once and for all? Perhaps something like the knobs on the IC-7700. I think I'd go for it.
Julian, G4ILO. K2 #392  K3 #222 KX3 #110
* G4ILO's Shack - http://www.g4ilo.com
* KComm - http://www.g4ilo.com/kcomm.html
* KTune - http://www.g4ilo.com/ktune.html
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Re: K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get an replacement.

M0XDF
In reply to this post by Tord-2
Knobs here are ok, as with Julian, I too built my K3 and was careful  
about the fitting.
0.050 Allen key came with knobs in kit, so Elecraft should be able to  
supply one to you.

There are over 3000 K3s out there now and relatively very few have  
reported a problem with the knobs. I believe Elecraft reported an  
issue with the knobs on this reflector some weeks ago and said this  
had been addressed. Perhaps you unfortunately had knobs from a bad  
batch - twice!

Delivery from Elecraft to UK for small parts has typically been 2 - 3  
weeks here. Very surprised it's taken longer for you.

Sorry your experience has not been of the highest quality, I  
personally have found their service to be excellent, a number of my  
club friends have also found this, which is one of the reasons I  
purchased my K3.

Mode components in the UK (http://www.modecomponents.co.uk/Kits.htm)  
are now selling small Elecraft kits into Europe. Perhaps they could  
carry a few spares and therefore delivery might be faster.

73 de M0XDF, K3 #174
--
There are three truths: my truth, your truth, and the truth.
-Chinese proverb

On 3 Dec 2009, at 09:55, Tord wrote:

> Broken AF Knobs.And bad service to get a replacement.
> Still same shit? very very bad "quality"? its happend again, broken  
> in pieces.
> Purchased a new factory built K3  03/18/2009.A week after I get it  
> AF button  went to pieces.
> Ordered new and had to wait eight weeks for a new one. Now it is  
> broken again,
> in three pieces and how long should I wait to get a replacement this  
> time?
> three months?
> Also unable to find Allen wrench 0.050" here!
> This is really bad. really bad!
> Sorry to say.....My experience of Elecraft service is really bad.  
> But its true.

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Re: K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get anreplacement.

Philippe Trottet
Dears,
Even for me,  my K3 has been ordered on 27, Oct. 09 and be on my hands in Dubai on 10, Nov 2009.

Very sorry to learn such a problem.
May be elecraft will  provide an full knobs set in the order list for replacment in the future... who can be helpful in case of breaking one of them during transport for field day or dxpedition ?

Bst 73's
Philippe A65BI
K3#3616

>>> "David Ferrington, M0XDF" <[hidden email]> 03-12-2009 14:42 >>>
Knobs here are ok, as with Julian, I too built my K3 and was careful  
about the fitting.
0.050 Allen key came with knobs in kit, so Elecraft should be able to  
supply one to you.

There are over 3000 K3s out there now and relatively very few have  
reported a problem with the knobs. I believe Elecraft reported an  
issue with the knobs on this reflector some weeks ago and said this  
had been addressed. Perhaps you unfortunately had knobs from a bad  
batch - twice!

Delivery from Elecraft to UK for small parts has typically been 2 - 3  
weeks here. Very surprised it's taken longer for you.

Sorry your experience has not been of the highest quality, I  
personally have found their service to be excellent, a number of my  
club friends have also found this, which is one of the reasons I  
purchased my K3.

Mode components in the UK (http://www.modecomponents.co.uk/Kits.htm)  
are now selling small Elecraft kits into Europe. Perhaps they could  
carry a few spares and therefore delivery might be faster.

73 de M0XDF, K3 #174
--
There are three truths: my truth, your truth, and the truth.
-Chinese proverb

On 3 Dec 2009, at 09:55, Tord wrote:

> Broken AF Knobs.And bad service to get a replacement.
> Still same shit? very very bad "quality"? its happend again, broken  
> in pieces.
> Purchased a new factory built K3  03/18/2009.A week after I get it  
> AF button  went to pieces.
> Ordered new and had to wait eight weeks for a new one. Now it is  
> broken again,
> in three pieces and how long should I wait to get a replacement this  
> time?
> three months?
> Also unable to find Allen wrench 0.050" here!
> This is really bad. really bad!
> Sorry to say.....My experience of Elecraft service is really bad.  
> But its true.

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Re: K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get an replacement.

chen dave
In reply to this post by Tord-2
       About 2 or 3 months ago, my friend BD7IP met the same problem during
the normal operate(factory built). So I send email to elecraft to get the
spare part for him and other K3 user in China, including me of course, after
2 weeks it arrived for free. They kindly send me 6 or 8 knobs. Good enough
service!
       About 1month ago, mine K3 (#130x) 's AF knob also broken during the
normal use. I replace one with spare part, but it broken again after 2 days.
Thanks god I have another one, this time I assembled it  very careful. It
works well so far.

all the best!

David BA4RF/ZS6


On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 5:55 PM, Tord <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Hi Elecrafters!
> Must tell you!
> Broken AF Knobs.And bad service to get a replacement.
> Still same shit? very very bad "quality"? its happend again, broken in
> pieces.
>
> Purchased a new factory built K3  03/18/2009.A week after I get it AF
> button  went to pieces.
> Ordered new and had to wait eight weeks for a new one. Now it is broken
> again,
> in three pieces and how long should I wait to get a replacement this time?
> three months?
> Also unable to find Allen wrench 0.050" here!
> This is really bad. really bad!
> Sorry to say.....My experience of Elecraft service is really bad. But its
> true.
> 73/ SM3ALR Tord
>  K3/100 #2926.
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>



--

--------------------------------
All the best!

David,ba4rf
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Re: K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get an replacement.

Bob Naumann W5OV
In reply to this post by Tord-2

Perhaps you should contact Elecraft directly instead of on the public forum?

If you are unable to find the allen wrench, how did you install the
replacement knob?



-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Tord
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 3:56 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [Elecraft] K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get an replacement.

Hi Elecrafters!
Must tell you!
Broken AF Knobs.And bad service to get a replacement.
Still same shit? very very bad "quality"? its happend again, broken in
pieces.

Purchased a new factory built K3  03/18/2009.A week after I get it AF button
went to pieces.
Ordered new and had to wait eight weeks for a new one. Now it is broken
again,
in three pieces and how long should I wait to get a replacement this time?
three months?
Also unable to find Allen wrench 0.050" here!
This is really bad. really bad!
Sorry to say.....My experience of Elecraft service is really bad. But its
true.
73/ SM3ALR Tord
 K3/100 #2926.
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Re: K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get an replacement.

Tord-2
In reply to this post by Tord-2
Hi Bob!
Well, a friend helped me to install it!

Yes, contacted Elrcraft yesterday about this "problem" so maybe expect new
replacements in time?

Perhaps you should contact Elecraft directly instead of on the public forum?

If you are unable to find the allen wrench, how did you install the
replacement knob?



-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Tord
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 3:56 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [Elecraft] K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get an replacement.

Hi Elecrafters!
Must tell you!
Broken AF Knobs.And bad service to get a replacement.
Still same shit? very very bad "quality"? its happend again, broken in
pieces.

Purchased a new factory built K3  03/18/2009.A week after I get it AF button
went to pieces.
Ordered new and had to wait eight weeks for a new one. Now it is broken
again,
in three pieces and how long should I wait to get a replacement this time?
three months?
Also unable to find Allen wrench 0.050" here!
This is really bad. really bad!
Sorry to say.....My experience of Elecraft service is really bad. But its
true.
73/ SM3ALR Tord
 K3/100 #2926.
______________________________________________________________
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Re: K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get an replacement.

Tord-2
In reply to this post by Tord-2
Hello Ken Kopp K0PP

Excuse me for this vulgar and profane word, understand  now!
73/Tord
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Re: K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get an replacement.

Tord-2
In reply to this post by Tord-2
Hi Elecrafters!

I want to say THANKS to ALL of you involved in this discussion.
So let us end this for now.
The solution is on the way as you can read in this reflector.

73/ Tord SM3ALR

I like my K3, best rig ever owned by me since 40 years in hamradio.
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Re: K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get an replacement.

Eric Swartz - WA6HHQ
Administrator
In reply to this post by Tord-2
Hi Tord,

I personally apologize for your problems with the K3 concentric AF/RF
knobs, or any delays from us sending them to you. We send out all
replacements very quickly and I can only guess that they were delayed at
international customs. I checked our records, and our sales department
received your replacement request Thursday, June 18th, 2009. We shipped
the replacements on Monday, June 22, 2009. We try to work hard to send
all replacement parts quickly, as we know how important this is to our
customers. (For the fastest replacement parts service, please send
future parts emails to [hidden email] )

In the case of the concentric Volume/RF gain  knobs, we solved this
problem several months ago. It turns out that unknown to us, our knob
vendor had used the wrong black pigment in a single production lot of
those knobs earlier this year, which made the plastic become more
brittle over several months. Some K3s would have the problem, and many
others would be perfectly OK. We only discovered what was happening
later into the year as more of these began to break and that is why the
early replacements had the same problem. We thought we were sending out
good ones when in fact they had the same problem. They would test OK
here and then fatigue and crack in the field.

Once we found the problem, we required the knob manufacturer to take
back all of the defective knobs and supply us with new ones. In
addition, we also made the decision to change the formulation of the
plastic to add glass fiber reinforcement for extra insurance. As a
result the knobs that we currently ship are almost impossible to
destroy. We actually tested them by over tightening the set screw
severely, and the set screw stripped out before the plastic cracked :-)
They are very strong.

New K3s have been shipping with these new stronger concentric knobs for
some time.

These new knobs match the rest of the knobs on the K3, and we will
replace any broken knob for free.

** When we now receive a report of a broken concentric knob for the AF
volume/RF gain pots, we now send the customer a complete set of four new
replacements (2 inner and 2 outer knobs.) We also now include the
required hex wrench with the replacement knobs.

One other note - Gary is incorrect about the cost of these knobs. They
are in fact custom designed by Wayne and manufactured to our
specifications. They actually cost us more than off the shelf knobs.
They are not cheap knobs. (But we are embarrassed by the mistake made by
our knob supplier.)

Tord - We will send you four new concentric knobs and the Allen wrench
immediately, and we will ship them to you via international priority
mail. Please contact me directly if you have further concerns or
questions, or of these knobs do not arrive in a reasonable amount of time.

73,
Eric  WA6HHQ

=====

>  
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Re: K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get an replacement.

Jan Erik Holm
Eric Swartz - WA6HHQ, Elecraft wrote:

> Hi Tord,
>
> I personally apologize for your problems with the K3 concentric AF/RF
> knobs, or any delays from us sending them to you. We send out all
> replacements very quickly and I can only guess that they were delayed at
> international customs. I checked our records, and our sales department
> received your replacement request Thursday, June 18th, 2009. We shipped
> the replacements on Monday, June 22, 2009. We try to work hard to send
> all replacement parts quickly, as we know how important this is to our
> customers. (For the fastest replacement parts service, please send
> future parts emails to [hidden email] )
>
Sometimes Swedish customs are reel slow, I´m surprised SM3ALR
doesn´know this.
In any case, a parcel could be delayed 1-2 weeks just due to
slow customs. Also mid June being prime vacation time could
have been a reason.

Another thing is if the parcel is airmail between lets say
California and Stockholm it might not be airmail between
Stockholm and SM2 (or SM3). It could take just one day
to get to Stockholm but another 4-5 days from Stockholm
to northern Sweden, plus the customs delay.

73 Jim SM2EKM

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Re: K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get a replacement.

AD6XY

All this is very interesting. It certainly demonstrates the need for the continual product testing Elecraft undertake. Sending spares to remote regions with poor postal services, e.g. the UK is an expensive and slow business.

The problem with the wrench - or hex key is a real one. It also applies to all the nuts and bolts used in the K3. For unknown reasons of patriotism the USA is non-metric so these are all in imperial sizes. Getting these outside of the USA is getting harder and harder.

Failing Eric or Wayne running for president and changing this, and with Elecraft now becoming a major international force, would it not be better to use metric for new Elecraft designs?

Mike, UK.
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Obtaining spares from Elecraft

Julian, G4ILO

AD6XY wrote
All this is very interesting. It certainly demonstrates the need for the continual product testing Elecraft undertake. Sending spares to remote regions with poor postal services, e.g. the UK is an expensive and slow business.
International post is slow, period, unless you are prepared to pay FedEx prices. I recently ordered two Finger Dimples, one for my K2 and one for the Griffin PowerMate remote tuning knob for the K3, and they took 4 weeks to arrive. It is definitely worse than 10 years ago when a part for my K2 took just 4 days to get here.

I don't know what the answer is short of a European distributor that also carries spares and handles servicing.
Julian, G4ILO. K2 #392  K3 #222 KX3 #110
* G4ILO's Shack - http://www.g4ilo.com
* KComm - http://www.g4ilo.com/kcomm.html
* KTune - http://www.g4ilo.com/ktune.html
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Re: Obtaining spares from Elecraft

Mike Harris
G'day,

If I post something to the UK it is usually delivered within five
working days of departing VP8 (including a day in the air).  When I
order anything from Elecraft it takes 2-3 weeks to arrive, always
has done.  All my Elecraft stuff comes air letter post (expensive)
because the US parcel services have no clue about the Falklands, at
least in California they don't.  Other companies like LL Bean or
Landsend manage perfectly well.  However, I must stress that in 2000
Lisa went out of her way to try and sort it out, even contacting LL
Bean.

So it looks like it's just the "system".

Regards,

Mike VP8NO
K2 #1400
K3 #345


----- Original Message -----
From: "Julian, G4ILO" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 6:16 AM
Subject: [Elecraft] Obtaining spares from Elecraft


>
>
>
> AD6XY wrote:
>>
>>
>> All this is very interesting. It certainly demonstrates the need
>> for the
>> continual product testing Elecraft undertake. Sending spares to
>> remote
>> regions with poor postal services, e.g. the UK is an expensive
>> and slow
>> business.
>>
>
> International post is slow, period, unless you are prepared to pay
> FedEx
> prices. I recently ordered two Finger Dimples, one for my K2 and
> one for the
> Griffin PowerMate remote tuning knob for the K3, and they took 4
> weeks to
> arrive. It is definitely worse than 10 years ago when a part for
> my K2 took
> just 4 days to get here.
>
> I don't know what the answer is short of a European distributor
> that also
> carries spares and handles servicing.
>
> -----
> Julian, G4ILO. K2 #392  K3 #222.

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Re: Obtaining spares from Elecraft

Don Wilhelm-4
Mike,

I believe the answer to the delays can be found in your country's
customs house.  Apparently items from LandsEnd or LL Bean pass through
quickly.

73,
Don W3FPR

Mike Harris wrote:

> G'day,
>
> If I post something to the UK it is usually delivered within five
> working days of departing VP8 (including a day in the air).  When I
> order anything from Elecraft it takes 2-3 weeks to arrive, always
> has done.  All my Elecraft stuff comes air letter post (expensive)
> because the US parcel services have no clue about the Falklands, at
> least in California they don't.  Other companies like LL Bean or
> Landsend manage perfectly well.  However, I must stress that in 2000
> Lisa went out of her way to try and sort it out, even contacting LL
> Bean.
>
> So it looks like it's just the "system".
>  
>
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Re: K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get an replacement.

Craig WØLV
In reply to this post by Tord-2
I have had my K3 for almost two years now and NO problems either.  Also VERRRRRY good service from all at Elecraft.

Craig W0LV


Tord wrote
Hi Elecrafters!
Must tell you!
Broken AF Knobs.And bad service to get a replacement.
Still same shit? very very bad "quality"? its happend again, broken in pieces.

Purchased a new factory built K3  03/18/2009.A week after I get it AF button  went to pieces.
Ordered new and had to wait eight weeks for a new one. Now it is broken again,
in three pieces and how long should I wait to get a replacement this time?
three months?
Also unable to find Allen wrench 0.050" here!
This is really bad. really bad!
Sorry to say.....My experience of Elecraft service is really bad. But its true.
73/ SM3ALR Tord
 K3/100 #2926.
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Re: K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get a replacement.

drewko
In reply to this post by AD6XY
Nah, fractions are better than metric-- more rational.

--
73,
Drew
AF2Z


On Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:24:44 -0800 (PST), Mike, UK. wrote:

>
>Failing Eric or Wayne running for president and changing this, and with
>Elecraft now becoming a major international force, would it not be better to
>use metric for new Elecraft designs?
>
>Mike, UK.

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Re: Obtaining spares from Elecraft

Mike Harris
In reply to this post by Don Wilhelm-4
Hi Don,

Stick to the K2, you know something about that.

Regards,

Mike VP8NO

----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Wilhelm" <[hidden email]>
To: "Mike Harris" <[hidden email]>
Cc: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 10:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Obtaining spares from Elecraft


> Mike,
>
> I believe the answer to the delays can be found in your country's
> customs house.  Apparently items from LandsEnd or LL Bean pass
> through
> quickly.
>
> 73,
> Don W3FPR
>
> Mike Harris wrote:
>> G'day,
>>
>> If I post something to the UK it is usually delivered within five
>> working days of departing VP8 (including a day in the air).  When
>> I
>> order anything from Elecraft it takes 2-3 weeks to arrive, always
>> has done.  All my Elecraft stuff comes air letter post
>> (expensive)
>> because the US parcel services have no clue about the Falklands,
>> at
>> least in California they don't.  Other companies like LL Bean or
>> Landsend manage perfectly well.  However, I must stress that in
>> 2000
>> Lisa went out of her way to try and sort it out, even contacting
>> LL
>> Bean.
>>
>> So it looks like it's just the "system".

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Re: K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get a replacement.

Don Wilhelm-4
In reply to this post by AD6XY
Metric hardware in the US is slooowly becoming available, but it will
take at least another two generations IMHO.
The automotive industry is now almost fully converted to metric parts,
but small machine screws are lagging way behind.
In the meantime, we here in the US have to keep two sets of tools, and
yes for international trade, must send along a tool for things like knob
setscrews.
There have been several efforts to switch to metric over my lifetime,
but the machine tool industry has always resisted because  re-tooling is
expensive.
I believe our math education system is partly to blame too.  Children
are taught fractions earlier than decimals, and by the time they get to
decimal math the inch/foot/yard units of measure have already been used
extensively as a tool for teaching fractions, so thinking gets stuck in
fractional units and there is no mental concept of meters/cm/mm.  I am
watching my grandchildren struggle with the concept of measurements in
an easy decimal based system, but they know fractional measurement.

But I digress...

73,
Don W3FPR

AD6XY wrote:
> The problem with the wrench - or hex key is a real one. It also applies to
> all the nuts and bolts used in the K3. For unknown reasons of patriotism the
> USA is non-metric so these are all in imperial sizes. Getting these outside
> of the USA is getting harder and harder.
>  
>
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Re: K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get a replacement.

Gary Bartlett VE1RGB
In reply to this post by AD6XY
Hi, Mike:

        Be careful what you pray for.  Once, after he had done something
particularly cool, I suggested to Wayne that he run for President.  He said
that the first thing he would do as President would be to double the price
of fuel and thereby end global warming.

        I withdrew my suggestion for fear that someone in the U.S. found out
that I was implicated.

        73,
        Gary, VE1RGB

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email]
[mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of AD6XY
Sent: December 4, 2009 4:25 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 Broken AF knob and bad service to get a
replacement.



All this is very interesting. It certainly demonstrates the need for the
continual product testing Elecraft undertake. Sending spares to remote
regions with poor postal services, e.g. the UK is an expensive and slow
business.

The problem with the wrench - or hex key is a real one. It also applies to
all the nuts and bolts used in the K3. For unknown reasons of patriotism the
USA is non-metric so these are all in imperial sizes. Getting these outside
of the USA is getting harder and harder.

Failing Eric or Wayne running for president and changing this, and with
Elecraft now becoming a major international force, would it not be better to
use metric for new Elecraft designs?

Mike, UK.
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