A New Compucarve

[Ken Massingale]

I posted a few days ago about getting a Compucarve and having the collet damaged after a couple of minutes of carving.

I called Carvewright and spoke with a nice lady who took my information and promised someone from hardware support would call me back as soon as someone was available.
That was around 10 a.m. Monday. As of late yesterday no one had called, which is disapponting to say the least. I hope this is not typical of support.

I was speaking to a friend who works at Woodcraft (WC will begin carrying the Carvewrights in Feb.) and he mentioned that one of the 'local' Sears had the Compucarves in stock. This was not what I had seen online, so I called and they did have one. I drove many miles round trip and they exchanged the machine for me.

The replacement is working fine, the collet definitely 'feels' different/better than the original. The c-ocking is smooth and there is a nice feel to the bit assembly fitting into the QC assembly.

After 3 ~ 1 hour projects the flex cable is staying nice and warm except at the extreme of the curve. This point changes as the position of the Z truck changes. It is hotter than the rest of the cable, I can stand to hold it but it is verging on 'hot'. I called support when I received the original unit before using it to ask about lubing the flex cable before the initial use and was told it was not recommended. I'll call again and ask if I should lube this one. Hopefully this support experience will be better than the last and I will get to speak to someone.

ken

[Semper Fi]

Ken, anytime I call and don't get a callback in a day, I call in again. If there is one thing LHR needs to fix, that is it. Tech support is great, but something is broken when you get the answering machine or a secretary. Good luck and welcome!

[deemon328]

Yep, keep calling back. On the one message that I left, it was 4 days until they returned my call. It's much easier to sit on hold than wonder if they'll get back to you.

[hotpop]

I talked to LHR last week. During our conversation it was mentioned that they hired four new people for phone customer support. I'm sure it is going to take a few weeks to get them up to speed. I got the impression that there will be a significant improvement with phone and e-mail support in the immediate future.

[Traveler]

There were two points in the original post. First, what to do if the flex shaft is hot. The answer is to get the chain lube with moly. Read the forum before doing it. There is plenty on the forum about lubing.

Don't hesitate, don't wait and don't overlubricate.

The second point is what to do if you have a problem. I have only rarely been called back and have not had any luck with holding on the line. I generally get knocked off. My answer is to call and call and call - several times a day, until you get to someone who knows what's going on. You can leave a message the first time. but waiting more than a minute has never helped me.

T