Many thanks for your replies to my post.
I appreciate I am a complete newbee to this stuff and my questions may be irrelevant, however, I have purchased Bosch, Makita, Stihl and Dremel products and without fail they have been quality. I haven't had this experience with RP and on the basis I am not the original of the species I thought I would share my views.
After a couple of phone calls and feeling pretty much fobbed off, I put a few queries together and sent them to RP on 23 May, I got a reply on 2 June. Yes only 11 days from my initial enquiry. And to their credit t they did address one of my queries. Sorry, but however trivial my queries, this is not good customer relations.
OK so I'll list the issues small they may be, but all adds up to a lack of confidence in my book:
1. the wheel set came supplied with 8m bolts instead of the 12m required. When I informed RP of this I was left feeling like I was the gobshite. Managed to order some m12 x 80, but took a bit of searching and cost me £5.00.
2. The yellow molding that covers the on/off switch came away in my hand. the small self tappers that secure it to its surround appear insufficient. RP haven't responded to this query.
3. The table bed is quite marked and despite polishing it still looks tatty.
4. The trunnion for the bed is not good and needs a lot of external pressure before it will move.
5. The blade tension guide (I know these are just guides) is a mile off and bears no relation to reality.
6. The blade guides, top and bottom are not square, to the extent that when one part touches the blade, the other is 1mm or more off the surface. Piece of ***** engineering in my book.
7. The mitre fence when set in its bed has more than 2mm play in all directions. Another piece of ***** engineering in my book.
8. The plastic ends on the fence supplied to me are inverted when compared to those shown in the instruction manual, dvd and Bob's photos. And, I best let you in on this now, your instruction books, dvd's and videos are wrong. On this issue, RP's Richard responded to me
"Apologies for the delay in my response and initial issue with your machine. As telephone call I have quizzed the factory on the mitre fence previously and the response was the way they are now is correct, I don't when or why this changed. But can only feedback what the factory are saying."
So, it appears the design of the mitre block was wrong for all these years, but the factory have now put it right and aren't I the lucky one. RP by their own admission don't know why or when this modification took place, but appear happy with the factories departure from norm.
I shouldn't moan, they did address one of my queries.
So for any of us who were led to believe, as I was, that despite being manufactured in China, RP quality control were a force, It appears to me from the comment above their own people are admitting no control and accepting what the factory tells them.
My own opinion of the quality of the product delivered to me is poor. Had I paid a cheap Chinese price for this no problem. I didn't however, I paid£1,000+ and went to a lot of effort to find it.
I Haven't even taken the lathe out of the box and only bought it because it was costing me £250 to get a pallet delivered here in Brittany. I can only hope its better quality than the bandsaw.
Despite all I Have said, and lacking the quality of the finer details of the machine, so far it has done what I expected of it. So, so far, robust motor and wheels seem good, but I'm holding my breath.
This is my first workshop and I guess I was hoping for a one stop shop on machinery and thought I had found it with RP, however, given this experience this will not be the case. I feel I paid a good price for what I perceive to be poor quality.
Alexam now I re-read my post I need to be careful with my words - does sound a little suspect going to end up on the "register" if i'm not careful. But then again for a bit of discount !!
