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A

ando

I'm New Here
Took my nosegear leg to a local machine shop. "No problem, I can thread that for $50". Next day he called to tell me he was giving up.

Sent it to Langair. Harmon called me and said he had gotten several of these half re-threaded legs and may not be able to save them all.

Seems that if any high-speed steel from the first attempt is imbeded in the threads, they can't be saved. Too great a risk of ruining Langair's tooling.

Also, it takes a lot more set up time to pick up the exact thread line once it has been started. Its a one shot deal. If the set up isn't done perfectly, the leg will be ruined.

I lucked out. It looks like mine has been salvaged, but others may not be so fortunate. Consider sending it to Harmon right off the bat...

Good Luck All!
 
differences?

Good info for those of us who are (were) considering doing ours locally.

On another note does anyone know if there is any difference between the old type gear leg and the newer version other than the length and threading. Is the leg made stronger or made differently in any way or exactly the same? thanks.
 
Exactly the same

The gear legs are identical in design. No changes whatsoever except the axle length.

It is also likely the die may not follow the axle exactly as it should and will leave non-uniform threads resulting in a compromised thread strength.
 
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I recall him saying about the same thing back in Aug. of 2005 when I dropped off my nose gear leg.
 
Little_Richard said:
The gear legs are identical in design. No changes whatsoever except the axle length.
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One needs to be a little careful with this - the nose gear design was indeed changed somewhere in the late '90's. You can dig around in Van's site for details. I understand that this answer pertains to the shortened vertical portion recent design change.

Little_Richard said:
It is also likely the die may not follow the axle exactly as it should and will leave non-uniform threads resulting in a compromised thread strength.
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I would guess that thread strength in this application could be one hundredth of normal and be safe. It basically just has to deliver the compression of the spring washers.
 
Forks are Back-ordered, Too

Just got an e-mail from Van's shipping dept. saying that the forks are back-ordered. Shipping expected in 2-3 weeks.

I ordered it on 03 DEC and likely wont get it until the last week of JAN. Bummer.
 
Alternative to new fork

Someone recently posted a pic where Langair cut into the bottom of the old fork one inch. Serves the same function and maybe is better. I have not seen anyone discuss the pros and cons of cutting into the old fork versus getting a new fork.

Still need to cut the bottom of the gear leg I believe.
 
Harmon Lange may be an artist in the shop, but he needs a lesson in diplomacy.

Go ahead, call me crazy for expecting a refund, but Harmon's instructions stated that out of the requested $100.00, $75 would be used for machining with the rest going for return shipping. Any overage would be refunded; any underage would be billed. I paid $20 and some change to ship my gear leg in its wooden box per his instructions. I got it back in a smaller cardboard box with the explanation that he is saving money by not shipping it back in the owner's wood box. Great. Unfortunately, he didn't pass that on to the sender. He stated he saves about $10 by using cardboard, so I thought I would get a $15 refund. Hey, it's not much but it's lunch! However, here is his less than honorable reply:

You are the first one to request a refund.

Shipping cost =$13.43
Ups fuel charge = $2.97
Residential surcharge = $1.95
Pick up service = $1.05
Shop rate to calculate all these charges $15.00
Packaging materials to save the $15.00 penalty for wood =$2.25

Total = $36.65

I guess if we had sent it back in the wood box you would have had to send us more money. Then I would have to spend time sending you a bill. I think we should call this a wash.
Harmon

In nearly 8 years of homebuilding, I haven't before dealt with somebody who played that game ($15.00 for calculating all charges, indeed). You guys can be the judge of whether I'm making a big deal of this or not, but it really did leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Jim Bower
St. Louis
RV-6A
 
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proball looking at it

as us as a whole. i would surmise many of us sent oversize boxes(me) and he was loosing money sending them back..ups's calculator is inaccurate..so he's making up the difference. i e-mailed him and told him to let me know of any difference. he never did. but i guess he changed to prevent further losses. maybe if he did as others and charged handling that would be ok?
 
cytoxin said:
as us as a whole. i would surmise many of us sent oversize boxes(me) and he was loosing money sending them back..ups's calculator is inaccurate..so he's making up the difference. i e-mailed him and told him to let me know of any difference. he never did. but i guess he changed to prevent further losses. maybe if he did as others and charged handling that would be ok?
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Well, if he's overcharging some people to make up for neglecting to get reimbursed for underpayments, that's pretty shoddy business practices. I am not really bothered by the amount of money (I AM an airplane builder after all), but if a person says something will be handled a certain way, I expect him to stand by his words. Getting a smart a$$ reponse was just sort of icing on the cake for me.
 
Maybe charging shipping plus handling would have been better

Maybe charging shipping plus handling would have been better. I think that Cytoxin has it right though, the part about how UPS' shipping calculator is innacurate.
 
jimbower said:
Well, if he's overcharging some people to make up for neglecting to get reimbursed for underpayments, that's pretty shoddy business practices. I am not really bothered by the amount of money (I AM an airplane builder after all), but if a person says something will be handled a certain way, I expect him to stand by his words. Getting a smart a$$ reponse was just sort of icing on the cake for me.
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I figure that if I sent a hundred bucks in, and it cost me $20.00 to go to the trouble of shipping it myself ,which is time, and time as well to a business; then I shouldn't get too upset that the business makes a supposable five bucks for their time (which is worth much more than that), or perhaps an additional few bucks for more efficient shipping.

So the point of this post comes down to great work, but shoddy business practices. I don't see anything shoddy about it, and think they should charge more to start with. Seriously!

L.Adamson
 
There are a couple of threads running about how great company XYZ's service is, and how they bend over backwards to make sure you get what you need. I understand Langair's service is like that. One way to change all that is to get all uptight over a couple of bucks. Running a business isn't a piece of cake. There doesn't seem to be a trend here to rip off everyone, or to promise and not deliver. I have even been known to tip for good service. Lighten up, already.

Bob Kelly
 
Bottom line:

If you plan to re-thread it yourself, or have a local shop try it, be aware that the results may be less than desirable.

As for the discussion about Langair, here's my take: It costs any business time to do anything. Many companies charge a shipping AND HANDLING charge to cover this time and other expenses like shipping materials. I've never had anyone actually break it down piece by piece. It seems to me that the charges are reasonable, but that's just my opinion.

Since this thread has rounded the corner from constructive advise about threading parts to reasonable vs unreasonable shipping charges, I've decided to close the thread. Please understand this is not an attempt to "over-moderate", just an attempt to keep things on track. Thanks for understanding.
 
Addendum to the Bottom Line

The following was sent to me in a private post, which I have copied here:

jimbower said:
Craig, you closed out the thread, but you and all the other posters missed the point. I regret not being able to defend my position.

1. Harmon Lange's pricing structure AS HE STATED IT was acceptable.
2. His work is impeccable.
3. Harmon's work is not going to get worse if somebody has an issue with him.
4. Not refunding an overpayment as promised is wrong. Do you get a refund from the IRS every now and then? How would you like it if the government just kept your tax money? Would you appreciate it if others told you to suck it up because the government undercharged some people, and it provides good service and should maybe charge more?
5. Had I owed Harmon more money, he would have billed me as he stated, and I would have cheerfully paid.
6. I am not sure if Harmon's response was deliberately sarcastic or just an attempt at humor. In either case, it really bugged me because nobody I've dealt with in my years of homebuilding has ever treated me that way.
7. Finally: Harmon sent me a refund. I won't speculate as to his motivation, but I appreciate it when somebody keeps their word.

I suspect Harmon was swamped by the volume of work that hit his shop after the service bulletin. He may not have the inclination or the resources to do all the paperwork and accounting, preferring to do the machining instead.

Jim Bower
St. Louis
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