Hi Drew, Let's differentiate between an engineering concept and a manufacturing design.
The engineering concept of these knobs is certainly reasonable. For example, when nested knobs nest properly, that's just fine.--they look good and work as planned. Great concept! A design that is suitable for manufacturing is quite a different thing, however. Obviously, the goal is for the knobs to work properly not just on your K3, but on ALL other K3's as well. The design dimension tolerances must be specified in view of the manufacturing precision which is available to implement the design concept. Some of us think that a different design concept could be mass produced with more precision so that all of the knobs work properly on all of the K3's. I'm sure there are several who will be glad to hear that this is my last comment on knobs--honest. 73, Dan - W4TQ ps: The superb fit of the K3 chassis/enclosure parts demonstrates that there is someone at Elecraft who thoroughly understands manufacturing design tolerances. Congratulations on a great job in that area of the mechanical design. ................................................................................................................................................ I have K3 #1029. The nested knobs are perfectly concentric to my eye. The Shift/Width knobs don't fall off and are not too short. None have cracked in one year of almost daily service. Perhaps there have been some incompatible production variations along the way. I don't doubt you are having a problem but have to disagree with your comments about design. The original design seems perfectly adequate if #1029 is any indication. 73, Drew AF2Z ______________________________________________________________ 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
