No support for schatten winder...

[achase4u]

When I had my first winder, it actually broke under 6 months I believe - To their credit, stewmac DID replace the first one. I get my replacement, and same thing happens. Im going, ok this is still not acceptable. This time stewmac says "theyve never heard of the problem, contact schatten"

So I did, got no help there, and here I am today.

I thought I put that in the original post but I obviously didnt, so I must give credit where credit is due to stewmac for replacing the first one. After that though, with a second one breaking quickly, no one wanted to deal with it... which is why I was miffed in my first post.

[achase4u]

here is the guarantee.


Customer service : Our guarantee at Stewart-MacDonald

That is the stewmac I am used to. Standing by ALL their products. Not suddenly going,"we dont know what your talkinga bout" and passing the buck.

[David Schwab]

David - unfortunately thats the problem. He offered me free motors, which dont cost hardly anything - and he never sent them. He said if it was the speed controller, it was 60 dollars. So at the rate I was having winder breakdowns, it would be 60 bucks each time - it wouldnt break me, but it would be annoying after already paying the 400 for the winder. So the real fix wasnt free...

He told me if it was the speed control, I would have to send the winder to them to fix. I didn't want to do that, so he sent me a motor. I paid for the postage.

This was what he wrote to me. Keep in mind that I bought my winder in April 2006. My speed control went bad in January 2009.

'good morning David,
From what you're describing I tend to think that the motor is the culprit. There is quite a bit of circuitry built into the motor and I have seen that type of behaviour on the odd occasion.
You may return the winder to us for service and check over or we can simply send out a new motor. I won't charge for the motor or servicing the unit but you would be charged for whatever shipping charges there are. Personally I would suggest that you send the winder back to us. If you are going to send it back, please contact us first; failing to do so can result in some expensive cross-border brokerage charges.
Let me know what you'd like to do.
Regards,
Les

So he was willing to fix a three year old machine, for free. That's why I said contact them.

I admit I did not know that was Schattens shpeel in the advertising. Unfortunately theres nothing about it not being able to handle production work. The price tag sort of gives the impression that it is a well made, production ready piece of equipment.

Les seemed like a nice guy, but he said some things that made me scratch my head, like he couldn't build the winder when he first wanted to, because he had to wait for CNC milling to be invented to have the pulleys custom made. I kid you not. They are clearly off the shelf parts.

The price is because of all the hand work involved in making the winder. Mine has the metal case, but you can see the whole thing is made by hand. It doesn't look like anything was farmed out to a machine shop.

I really dont mind winding on the machine for its design, now that I use a two-way transformer and motor - I dont have to worry about the speed controller. So Im ok with using it in its capacity now. Just not how they are made stock...

I've been using mine on a regular basis since I got it. Now I power it from a DeWalt hand drill. It winds faster, and with more torque, so I haven't bothered to repair it.

But I tell people try and make their own winder now. I didn't have the time or space to make one back then, so it was an expensive way to start winding. I'd have to say it paid for itself at this point.

[achase4u]

Yea I see why you said talk to Schatten for the fix. I did call him but as I remember it he didnt mention fixing anything free, just the 60 for the speed controller.