Ok - I'm venting here so please bear with me .... I love my little FW that I got a few years ago. She hasn't seen much use this past year so I decided that I would take her to my local techy to get her tuned up. She had a few minor problems that really do not affect her abillities but I thought I would look for the parts and give them to the techy so that she would be restored and be just like new. She had a chipped pulley and the motor band was missing. I found the parts through a very informative dealer online and took them in for the techy to put on.
Vintage motor bands are hard to find and are very delicate to put on because the two little prongs holding the band onto the motor have a tendancy to bend and break off if they are fiddled with. I got great instructtions from the dealer on how to put it on and discussed it with my techy and we both agreed this was a fragile item to work with. He has been working with all kinds of machines for a long time and is very experienced - he agreed with me that the band with the correct voltage printed on it is hard to come by and delicate to work with - said that he would do the best he could.
Well I got a phone call yesterday and went to pick her up - unfortunately there were problems
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He got the band on the motor, turned it over and the prongs snapped off. He then proceeded to glue the band on the motor casing. I was upset and disappointed. I had made such an effort to find a true vintage band so that my FW would not have a 'naked' motor anymore and the result was less than desirable.
The techy apologized for messing up and I mentioned my concerns that the gluing was not the best solution - the heat from the motor could affect it and disintegrate the polymer, also if I had to have future work done on the motor, taking it apart might be a problem and I wanted to it to last for for a long time and be a true restoration. He agreed with me and has offered to look for another band and if he possibly finds one, would call me. You can not tell that it was glued on by just looking at it - He was very honest in telling me what he did.
I did leave on good terms with my techy because I knew how fragile the band was and I know that sometimes even the best of us make mistakes. I don't think he will try too hard to find a band so I don't think that I will be getting a phone call from him but you never know - meanwhile I will keep an eye out for another band.
Thanks for letting me vent - I had to talk about it to those that would understand.