Fletcher Framemaster

Create a Post
Bogframe

Bogframe

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
May 8, 2000
Posts
2,823
Location
Brooklyn, NY USA, Right Near Coney Island, The Bro
Our fitting gun has lost it's spunk. We called Fletcher to see how much it would cost to repair it, and they told us $40. A new gun is $50. My question is: Why so much to replace a spring??? We had a similar problem with an arrow stapler, and they only charged us $5. What's the deal here?
 
Bogframe, No disrespect meant, but a framing customer might ask why so much to build a frame, its only 4 sticks of wood. I'm sure the spring doesn't cost much but the labor to take apart and put back together is the real cost. You could just see how much the part cost and if it is worth your time.
 
It's two or three screws, take out a spring, put in a spring, two or three screws...ten minutes, tops, seems like a bit much for such a minor thing. I don't know how old the gun is, by the looks of it, not more than three years old, but I still think that $40 is a lot of money for a minor repair.
 
You're not paying so much for the part as for the time, and the additional time for the paperwork. They, like most businesses that sell their time, probably have aminimum amount they charge. I do, and it's about $40.00.
Though it's not difficult to do, it's not as easy as you make it seem. I've rebuilt many point drivers, and until you actually do it, you don't know the trick to it.
 
Originally posted by Bogframe:
It's two or three screws, take out a spring, put in a spring, two or three screws...ten minutes, tops, seems like a bit much for such a minor thing. I don't know how old the gun is, by the looks of it, not more than three years old, but I still think that $40 is a lot of money for a minor repair.
Click to expand...
Perhaps you can fix it yourself then. Fletcher Terry has the parts list on line.

Framemaster parts list
 
I remember buying "stops" for my 3100 some years ago and being rather blown away by their cost. I bought them anyhow - in part because it supports the company from whom I purchased the machine. However I have several friends in the engineering field and asked one of them roughly how much it would cost to make the same parts as a "one off", around half the price I paid was the answer and that was at full price (engineers don't do discount...). He also drew a modified version that would better suit our purpose for production of standard sizes which would have cost around the same.

I have also bought a spring for a framemaster in the past, even that was an exceptionally high price - but again it is the correct part from the correct people and if I were them I would be learning more from the re-orders for broken parts and hopefully use this information to improve future models. This does benefit me more than finding cheaper parts elsewhere.
 
What Paul said, plus

I once went to a jeweller to have a couple of links taken out of a watchstrap, after trying and failing myself.

Took him about 30 seconds, no parts, £8:50 ($13:00?) After that we decided to apply a minimum charge for things like mounts to take up excess space in readymades bought elswhere. Had I bought the watch from the jeweller he would have taken the lnks out for free - fair dinkum, as they say - somewhere!
 
You have to see it as how much money that tool has made you and not how much to get it working again. If the season has be kind to you and I hope it has, order a new one and several springs as back up. Things always break when you need them most so a back up is always cool to have.
 
Time is money. It's worth spending some time to save BIG money. In this case Seth is wrongfully spending much of his precious time to save or maybe just lament over spending LITTLE money. Ellen offered an excellent solution here, second to donating a new Fletcher to Seth.
 
Seth, Have you tried United? I have sent many guns back to United for parts and overall, and it didn't seem to be that pricey. I think that Tom Moscato is the one to talk to about repairing your Framemaster.

Susan
 
How long does the point shooter last? I bought one. I guess I should have read the manual. I figured I'd pitch it when it wore out. That's cool that I can buy parts for it.

As a new framer, it makes fitting go so much faster. I used to drive brads with a tack hammer. Never again!
John
 
Originally posted by EllenAtHowards:
Oh, for crying out loud... just buy a NEW ONE!!!
Click to expand...
Amen!

Sell the old one to a DIY customer for $15 and throw in the "new spring".

Fixed mine a couple of times, just delaying the inevitable!
 
Create a Post
Back
Top