Hi Tim, I understand your disappointment. There is an inherent flaw with kits familiar to those of us that built Heathkits. When a shipment of 1000 or more knobs arrives from the knob manufacturer the kit manufacturer sample checks the lot. So some defective knobs may slip through. (The previous cracked knob flaw would pass inspection because the cracking happened over time).
A factory built K3 would not have this problem since the knobs would be rejected by the assembler. But the good news is now you can enjoy perhaps the best reason to buy Elecraft. Send an e-mail to Elecraft support and you'll get a really fast response and you'll have new knobs in a few days. 73, Mike K2MK NZ8J wrote > > K3/100 kit sn 6150 arrived yesterday just in time for the weekend. Took > my time today and it went together in about 8 hours, with no significant > issues. Everything worked according to the manual as I expected. There > is one issue that is somewhat irritating though. The AF and RF knobs > cannot be "nested" as they should be to fit properly. In order to be > able to turn the AF gain or RF gain without having them catch on the > larger respective SUB knobs they have to be pulled out so they won't > catch. They are visibly out of alignment. > > A quick search of the archives revealed a rather long 2 /1/2 year old > thread about some defective knobs. The gist of the thread was not so > much about them cracking or breaking as some had experienced, it was > because they were "off center" and would not allow for a proper > installation. Apparently whatever the issue was, it is still there 2 1/2 > years later as the one I received yesterday has the same problem. > > It's hard to understand how a product can be so well designed and the > manufacturing tolerances so close (take the cabinet parts and pieces as > one example) but yet something as seemingly simple as a plastic knob > some 2 1/2 years after an in-depth discussion that Elecraft was part of > are still being manufactured and delivered out of tolerance. I don't > have a problem with the intended look or feel of the knobs, I think they > are fine, just the fact they turn out so badly in many cases and detract > from the end product. > > I was having a lot of fun putting this together today until I got to the > part where I installed the knobs, big disappointment! > > I have a set of the Mouser machined aluminum knobs and although they > are smooth and have a nice feel they just don't match the rest of the > knobs to my liking, I wonder if anyone has come up with an alternative > to the Mouser knobs? > > Tim > NZ8J > > K3 - 6150 > P3- 1775 > KPA500 - 618 > -- View this message in context: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/K3-6150-tp7163842p7164515.html Sent from the Elecraft mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
