You guys may remember, that a few weeks ago, I had a problem with a couple of Hardinge made #7 B&S taper collets for my new dividing head.
Someone here had suggested that the taper in my DH might be a Morse #2, as he had found such a DH on an English site. It turns out, that this was indeed the case, even though the tech at Enco was rather adamant about the fact, that they only carried dividing heads with B&S tapers.
The same person here suggested that I write to Enco, and complain about the poor treatment that tech support person had given me.
Well, I did write to Mitchell Jacobson, the CEO of MSC, since I could not find anyone at the top, and in charge of Enco. I also addressed a copy of that letter to the operations manager of Enco.
This morning I spoke with the operations manager, and this afternoon he sent me an email. Here is a copy of part of that email.
"We heard from MSC QA department this afternoon that the 8" Accupro dividing table that we were discussing as a possible solution today - MSC item#
06105811 (found at top of page 1508 of MSC's 2004/2005 Master Catalog) - also has a #2MT taper...meaning that ALL of dividing heads sold by both Enco and MSC have Morse tapers instead of B&S tapers!We also got an e-mail back from our supplier - they confirm that they did indeed make a design change to these dividing heads without informing us and without updating their product literature. They also state that they have not made the B&S version for a long time...so apparently you are the first person in quite some time to get the idea of sticking a # 7 B&S collet into the dividing head (and thus discovering the problem)!
At this point, I am sorry to say that neither Enco nor MSC has any dividing heads available to send you that will have a B&S taper of any size. Having said that, I'd like to offer up two alternative solutions to make things right between you and Enco: ...."
They are offering to refund me the money I paid for the Hardinge collets, so I can use that to buy Morse taper collets instead.
And they are offering to take the DH head back for a full refund, plus the money back I paid for the collets. Not an option, because I need a dividing head, and I now do not want to go looking around to see if someone else has one with a B&S taper.
He also wrote "I'm open to alternative solutions if you have any". I think I am going to tell him, that I want a Yuasa DH for my trouble and emotional trauma caused by this whole experience. :) As compensation for the time I spent sorting this out, so to speak.
Abrasha