Steve Maskery
Established Member
In the last 24 hours I have had absolutely excellent and absolutely appalling Customer Service from two different companies. But let's leave Appliances Direct out of it for the moment and concentrate on the brilliant service I got yesterday from DJN Air Filters.
My old Electra Beckum DX (nearly thirty years old, now) has always been pretty good at the big stuff like chippings, but has never been very good at the finer stuff. As a result, my workshop has a perpetual layer of dust over everything.
Last weekend, a few woodies came round and DougB, once of this Parish, told me that RogerS, also late of round here, had retro-fitted a cylindrical filter to his DX. So I asked Roger where he got his filter from and he sent me the details. It turns out that DJN Air Filters are 15 minutes from where I live, so I popped round yesterday afternoon.
What fantastic service! I explained what I wanted to achieve, they gave me a few options, took me into the factory area, got a couple of filters out for me to see. They have a rubber gasket, but I can have that anywhere I want it. I said I'd have to go back and measure more precisely and come back.
"Tell you what", says he, "Why don't you take this one and try it. If you can get it to fit, come back and pay us. Is a week long enough?" I was, of course, a very happy bunny with that idea. We carried on talking for a bit and he asked me what sort of stuff I made. Furniture, mainly, but all kinds of odds and ends.
He went out and came back with a plywood disc with a groove and a flange on it.
"Could you make one of these?"
"Yes, but that's good quality Birch Ply, expensive stuff, it's years since I bought any so I'd have to price that up before I could give you a price. How many do you want?"
He wants 3, but I reckon a sheet would yield 10 or even 12.
The upgrade.
The filter is 700mm tall and about 320mm diameter.
The existing ring gasket is not in the right place for my machine, but they said I could have it anywhere I wanted on the surface. No need, I have some leather, so I cut out some pieces and glued them on to the end.
That black smudge is me being careless with the spray adhesive, then trying to clean it up but making it ten times worse in the process.
To fasten it down, I cut a piece of wood to fit inside the machine, and embedded an M8 nut. That requires a 13mm blind hole and then a through hole at 8.5mm.
Then I pull a nut into the cavity
and jam the thingy into the wotsit.
The filter then goes atop, held down with a rubber washer, steel washer and nut.
Proper job, and over 20x the filtration surface area of my old cloth bag.
All I have to do now is go back and pay for it (£52+VAT, if you are interested), and pick up a bit of work in the process.
Now don't get me started on Appliances Direct...
My old Electra Beckum DX (nearly thirty years old, now) has always been pretty good at the big stuff like chippings, but has never been very good at the finer stuff. As a result, my workshop has a perpetual layer of dust over everything.
Last weekend, a few woodies came round and DougB, once of this Parish, told me that RogerS, also late of round here, had retro-fitted a cylindrical filter to his DX. So I asked Roger where he got his filter from and he sent me the details. It turns out that DJN Air Filters are 15 minutes from where I live, so I popped round yesterday afternoon.
What fantastic service! I explained what I wanted to achieve, they gave me a few options, took me into the factory area, got a couple of filters out for me to see. They have a rubber gasket, but I can have that anywhere I want it. I said I'd have to go back and measure more precisely and come back.
"Tell you what", says he, "Why don't you take this one and try it. If you can get it to fit, come back and pay us. Is a week long enough?" I was, of course, a very happy bunny with that idea. We carried on talking for a bit and he asked me what sort of stuff I made. Furniture, mainly, but all kinds of odds and ends.
He went out and came back with a plywood disc with a groove and a flange on it.
"Could you make one of these?"
"Yes, but that's good quality Birch Ply, expensive stuff, it's years since I bought any so I'd have to price that up before I could give you a price. How many do you want?"
He wants 3, but I reckon a sheet would yield 10 or even 12.
The upgrade.
The filter is 700mm tall and about 320mm diameter.
The existing ring gasket is not in the right place for my machine, but they said I could have it anywhere I wanted on the surface. No need, I have some leather, so I cut out some pieces and glued them on to the end.
That black smudge is me being careless with the spray adhesive, then trying to clean it up but making it ten times worse in the process.
To fasten it down, I cut a piece of wood to fit inside the machine, and embedded an M8 nut. That requires a 13mm blind hole and then a through hole at 8.5mm.
Then I pull a nut into the cavity
and jam the thingy into the wotsit.
The filter then goes atop, held down with a rubber washer, steel washer and nut.
Proper job, and over 20x the filtration surface area of my old cloth bag.
All I have to do now is go back and pay for it (£52+VAT, if you are interested), and pick up a bit of work in the process.
Now don't get me started on Appliances Direct...
