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I know this thread is about the fine work Josh does, however, I need to vent about my experience at AIC in San Jose recently with Ashley of Precise Parts. I had a PP adapter made to fit from Gemini DSI tubes to a TEC flattener. I previously sent Josh my rotator and fittings and he went through everything to find the sources of my trouble which were two fold. 1 rotator tilt on rotation (now fixed with that massive adapter shown in an earlier post by Josh). 2. serious issues of tilt in the PP adapter. Josh proved it was the adapter by putting a dial indicator on the ends of DSI tubes and then he added the PP adapter. The error on rotation increased to over 100 microns using a dial indicator. Considering that this is far forward in the imaging train (the beginning of the flattener, followed by flattener, filter wheel, finally camera) the error becomes massive on rotation. Josh repeated the experiment several times and on different days. He kindly videoed the results which I took to AIC on a memory stick. Josh made an observation that the DSI have a chamfer fit (not tapered threads) and the PP adapter lacked the necessary chamfer to keep things square. I thought that if I demonstrated this to Ashely he would take responsibility after viewing the videos. Think again! I was met with great resistance and all he would basically say is that Josh must have made a mistake! When I pointed out the lack of a chamfer he denied that Optec DSI tubes are made such. So I spoke with Jeff Dickerman of Optec who confirmed that DSI tubes do indeed have this chamfer, but he also said the original design of DSI tubes did not. He speculated that perhaps Optec had not supplied the updated design to PP. I asked Jeff to speak to Ashley about this. The next day I approached Ashely again. This time he said he would attempt to repair the adapter for a cost + shipping but wouldn't guarantee the results would be any different. I was astonished by this attitude and politely walked away saying I would think about this. As the part was/is useless I gave it to a well known but "to remain nameless" machinist who kindly took additional measurements in his shop. His report came to me today saying that he speculates that in addition to lacking the necessary chamfer the part was probably made in two steps instead of one. i.e., it was un-chucked from the lathe when cutting the threads on both ends which would account for non-concentricity. He also speculated that the part had been excessively clamped resulting in some distortion of high spots on the flat surface.
I will conclude this rant by lamenting the integrity of work by PP. I cannot understand how PP can sell a part that has an integral error (lack of chamfer, not to mention being poorly machined) and then walk away from responsibility by saying that Optec supplied the incorrect specifications for the DSI tubes. What does this have to do with me? If I buy a Toyota and the airbag is recalled I go to Toyota and the airbag is replaced for free. End of story. PP doesn't get it at all. As far as Ashley is concerned the problem is never his even when it blatantly is his problem. I will never do business again with PP.
And, since this thread is about Josh let me once again praise his work and attitude toward his clients as beyond reproach.
Peter
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