worst designed tool? ALCO DRILL CHUCK!

Here's my vote for a poorly designed tool - poorly designed as in it doesn't work!

A few years ago I bought one of those Alco Products, or whatever the company name is, micro-chuck for drill bits. The end which inserts into a tool is a standard hex shank like on the phillips bits which go into a standard drill machine. The end in which the bit gets inserted is three small metal fingers encased by what looks like a brass sleeve which you screw down to compress the three fingers together to squeeze and thus hold the drill bit. The outside of the the sleeve is knurled for a better grip when turning. Nothing special here, just typical drill chuck design.

The problem is after I used it a couple times, when I unscrewed the sleeve, the fingers wouldn't "relax" their grip on the bit and I was unable to remove it. I took one of my small screwdrivers to try and gently pry one of the fingers loose, just enough to slide out the bit. Well just the slightest pressure, really, and the finger snapped right off! It looks to be some kind of cheap, cast pock metal or some such. I mentioned it to the guy I bought it from and he just shrugged and said he would mention it to his supplier. . .and that was the end of that!

Anyone else had this problem with this chuck? Just a wonderin'

Take care,

Paul "The CB&Q Guy" (Protolancing the Burlington Illiniwek River Branch in HO)

Reply to
Paul K - The CB&Q Guy
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Apparently you give up more easily than I did.

You should suggest that the product was defective and that you'd like to try another one.

Also, he should take the product back and return it to his vendor. When I worked in retail, that's what we did. After enough RTV's for an item, the vendor stops making crappy products.

Be sure to be polite, get the guy on your side, and offer a solution to the problem that is fair to everyone. If he doesn't like your suggestion, then ask him what he thinks would bring the issue to fair resolution.

If he won't agree to a fair solution, take your business elsewhere, tell all of your friends about the fair solution the guy refused, and possibly file a complaint with the BBB.

If you go up high enough in the ranks, just about every rule can be bent - as long as it is fair to everyone involved.

Reply to
Neb Okla

My vote for the worst designed tool is the Robart Paint Mixer (shaker). I received one as a gift, and it lasted a week (two evening's work) before the motor burned out. I took it apart and found that the motor had pieces of brass angle in place of brushes to contact the commutator. The brass wore down, dug into the commutator, and good by motor. I put the whole works in the trash and didnt' even bother trying to get it fixed.

Walt

Reply to
OLDFARHT

Yeah, I agree with everything you say, but . . .

For the monetary equivalent of the time and effort I'd have to put into doing all you rightfully suggest, I could buy a case of these. Plus the vendor is a personal friend, yada-yada. So at this point in my life I prefer to _choose_ my battles, hopefully wisely.

Take care,

Paul - "The CB&Q Guy" (Still In North Central, Illinois)

Reply to
Paul K - The CB&Q Guy

I would have to vote for the Wagner Power Painter products. I have both the hand held one and the roller. Neither of them can pull paint out of the bucket. I have to place the bucket higher than were I am painting and let gravity help, OR with the hand held sprayer if I dilute the paint to whitewash consistency it will spray out of the small plastic attached container. I've replace the ram, the seals, tried all the different nozzles, and all the different "power settings" to no avail. Further they say, "clean up is easy". Ha! To get all the paint out one must disassemble the whole thing and scrub it down and use pipe cleaners for the tubes. Just running clear water or solvent through doesn't get the paint out of all the nooks and crannies.

The instructions talk about "danger of skin injection", what a joke. My kids supersoakers produce more pressure than they ever have.

I thought it was me and I was using it wrong when I saw one in my neighbors trash. I asked him why and he gave a similar story. Mine would be in the trash except I'm such a tight-wad I can't bring myself to throwing away a $100+ tool.

Reply to
SleuthRaptorman

snipped-for-privacy@insightbb.com (Paul K - The CB&Q Guy) tickled the keyboard:

Usually the "fingers" have a bit of in and out slack. Instead of prying them away from the drill I would have first tried tapping them back toward the back end of the chuck. For larger size chucks this often works with sticky chucks. Not sure it would have worked with the mini chuck but thought I'd throw out the suggestion just in case.

Reply to
Jeff Finch

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