Archive for January 27th, 2010

I mentioned having to drill out a broken flight base in my most recent post. What I hadn’t mentioned was the drilling process itself. About a year ago,  I picked up a Gale Force 9 pinning drill, but other than drilling out the odd broken flight base (as a Tau player, I deal with this more often than I would like), I hadn’t really used it too much. The standard bit it ships with is a bit large for pinning 28mm mini bits. Fortunately, they sell a pack of extra bits and rods that includes a much slimmer bit, and I had purchased one of those a few months ago once my local shop had them back in stock. I wanted to avoid drilling a new flight base hole, so I got out the thin bit in the hopes of being able to drill a hole into the small nub of flight stand inside the mini and pull it out. However, I was disheartened to discover that the small bit didn’t work in the drill. The drill’s chuck was constructed in such a way that it could close around the bit, but could never grab it – there was actually a cylindrical section of the inside of the chuck cut away that was just slightly larger than the small bit. I ended up having to use the larger bit and making a new hole (which did work).

This was not at all what I wanted out of my pinning drill, so I did what any frustrated customer should do: write a letter to the manufacturer. I sent an email to Gale Force 9 expressing my dismay that their product did not work as intended, and asked if there was any possible resolution. This was on Sunday afternoon. Monday morning, shortly after the start of business, I received a response telling me that they were investigating the issue. Less than an hour later, they returned with what they’d found – that a batch of drills made a few years earlier had bad chucks – and asking for a mailing address where a new one could be sent. Since my drill could have been sitting on the shelf for a while, it’s very possible that it was in that batch.

This afternoon, my new chuck arrived in the mail, along with a few extra slim brass rods for good measure. That’s a three-day turn around between them receiving the initial complaint and my receiving a replacement part. I can happily report that the new chuck works wonderfully with the smaller bit. I’m very, very pleased with Gale Force 9. I’ve sung the praises of their micro files before, and now I’ll praise both their pinning drill and their customer service department. I can guarantee that I’ll be buying more of their products in the future.