Joe wrote:
Have any of you tried to take the gear off the
shaft, squeeze it
shut and somehow glue or "weld" (ultrasonic welding, perhaps) it
closed and then re-install it?
If someone wants to send me one or two plotters with
bad drive gears, I'd be
willing to have a go at repairing them. My technique involves repairing the
damage with Araldite (epoxy adhesive - sets rock hard) and then putting a
small (#10) staple in across the damaged section. The staple is heated with
either a soldering iron or a small "night light" candle (as used for
aromatherapy burners) and is then pushed in across the damaged section of
the gear. Two are fitted across each cracked section, one on each side. Like
I said, if someone wants to send me a dead plotter, I'll have a go at fixing
it. I'd be tempted to take a few 10ths of a mm off the inside of the hole
for the shaft that the gear fits onto. If they're cracking, the shaft is
probably too big for the hole. Enlarging the hole very slightly should
reduce the pressure a bit and hopefully make the gear last a few more years
that it would have done if it were not modified.
FWIW I had a CGP-115 years ago. It split the gear
also. I tried
to buy one from Radio Shack but they wanted me to pay their
technician for an hour's labor to "verify" that the gear was bad.
I
know that frustration only too well...
I later ran into someone that was a regional manger
for TRS, I told
him about the trouble that I'd had tying to get the gear. He ordered
a package of six of them for me at no charge. So the gears are
(were!) available. I used one of the gears and never used the others
but I have no idea what happened to the rest of them.
I'll give you $5 or so
for the remaining five if you can find them. To be
distributed among anyone on the classiccmp list for my cost only.
Alternatively, can someone get the RS part number and annoy the salesdroids
at their local store with a "Can you get this in for me" request? Living in
the UK makes it quite difficult to get stuff that Radioshack are/were
selling.
Later.
--
Phil.
philpem(a)dsl.pipex.com
http://www.philpem.dsl.pipex.com/