check your parts

[wa2crk]

Have been working in the shop making Christmas gifts and such and ran into a supplier problem. I bought two Summit pen kits from a Rockler store which are the Penn State Designer kits. Rockler is a reseller for PSI. One of the Rockler kits did not have the cap nut threaded so the gold top cap and pocket clip could not be assembled. Rockler made good on the kit. Recently I bought ten of these kits from PSI and one had the same components defective. The parts were assembled and they were so tight that I had to use pliers to hold the cap nut and a rubber gripper to turn the gold cap. Re-assembly was also difficult so I decided not to use the kit. Another kit had a frozen transmission which I discovered after assembly. Another ruined kit and pen blank. That is a total of 12 kits with three with apparent quality control issues for a 25% failure rate. All of this since July of this year. I have been buying PSI kits mostly the Designer series for several years because I like them and never had a problem until this year.
WORD TO THE WISE; CHECK ALL COMPONENTS OF ALL KITS BEFORE STARTING ASSEMBLY. It is possible that PSI has switched suppliers and has an issue and I am confident that they will make good on the kits. They seem to be reputable in that respect.
Just wanted to let the turners here know to check everything.
Bill V

[Gene Howe]

That's excellent advice for us all, whether or not we turn.

[rpd]

Have been working in the shop making Christmas gifts and such and ran into a supplier problem. I bought two Summit pen kits from a Rockler store which are the Penn State Designer kits. Rockler is a reseller for PSI. One of the Rockler kits did not have the cap nut threaded so the gold top cap and pocket clip could not be assembled. Rockler made good on the kit. Recently I bought ten of these kits from PSI and one had the same components defective. The parts were assembled and they were so tight that I had to use pliers to hold the cap nut and a rubber gripper to turn the gold cap. Re-assembly was also difficult so I decided not to use the kit. Another kit had a frozen transmission which I discovered after assembly. Another ruined kit and pen blank. That is a total of 12 kits with three with apparent quality control issues for a 25% failure rate. All of this since July of this year. I have been buying PSI kits mostly the Designer series for several years because I like them and never had a problem until this year.
WORD TO THE WISE; CHECK ALL COMPONENTS OF ALL KITS BEFORE STARTING ASSEMBLY. It is possible that PSI has switched suppliers and has an issue and I am confident that they will make good on the kits. They seem to be reputable in that respect.
Just wanted to let the turners here know to check everything.
Bill V

Good advise re checking hardware before assembly.
With an inexpensive set of transfer punches you can disassemble the pens and salvage the blank and/or hardware that is still good.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRT0bpFDx1s[/youtube]
He also has a series on repairing pens. (this is the first of four)
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcOsSbGF7rc[/youtube]

[wa2crk]

Ron
Thanks for the links. I bookmarked 'em.
Bill V

[wa2crk]

Well this day has been a pleasant surprise. I got an E-Mail from PSI and I called Tony who is described as a pen technician. I explained my frustration and he said that he checked several kits and also found that some of the kit parts ( the caps and the cap nuts) were screwed together too tightly and he is sending a certificate to replace the kits. This is a nice turn of events in the Customer Service segment. Between Shopsmith, Saw Stop and now Penn State Industries things are getting better in the CS industry.
Bill V