January 2012 Tool Tip
Updated 01/20/2012

This is the January 2012  issue of the Carving and Tool Tips section.

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Total cost of ownership (TCO)
or
( how much does that tool "really" cost?)

When people shop for tools, especially for what have been traditionally expensive tools, they tend to shop around to get the best price.  If you can get the same, or similar, tool at XYZ company for 40% less than what ABC company is selling it for, why wouldn't you?

Well....  Sometimes you have to read the fine print, and should maybe ask a few pointed questions.  Like: what is included with the tool?  What the warranty is, what does it actually cover, and for how long?   You might even want to know the cost of "out of warranty" repairs (would you be better off just buying a new one when this one has a minor problem in a few years?).  Does the manufacturer have reasonable rates for non warranty repairs?  Do they even repair them, or do they just sell replacement parts and expect you to repair it yourself?  These questions should all be asked during the buying process, if you plan to have the tool for any reasonable length of time.

For example:  Recently, I seen one of our competitors selling a similar micro motor handpiece to the Optima 2 Plus for a seemingly much lower price.   This is obviously being done to drive their competitors out of the market place, so they can then jack up the prices again later on, as all of their other handpieces are still at relatively much higher prices.  Well, low and behold, that handpiece only includes one collet ($22.00 more for a second collet), and no extra brushes ($12 more, their price).  Okay, but that only accounted for a $34 difference.  What about the rest of the price differential?  Well, the warranty on the power supply is only a year (ours is lifetime), and the warranty on the handpiece is only for six (6) months (ours is two years).  Finding their warranty on their web site proved somewhat difficult, as I ended up having to google their site for the word "warranty".   Specifically, their warranty says: "HANDPIECES – These products are under warranty for a period of SIX MONTHS from the date of original installation by the purchaser. IT DOES NOT COVER MISUSE, NORMAL BEARING, OR CARBON BRUSH WEAR."

Okay, misuse (obviously) and brush wear (considered a consumable) are understandable, nobody's warranty covers those two items.  But what about one of the main, and arguably the most expensive, components?  Bearings!  Other than brushes (again, considered a consumable), they are THE main parts of a micro motor handpiece that is going to wear, and eventually they wear out and need to be replaced.  If properly designed, with the proper lubricant, proper installation, and barring any misuse, bearings can last for thousands of hours.  They generally are not considered a "consumable" like brushes are.  So what do they mean by "normal bearing wear"?  More to the point, what do "they" consider "normal"?  I think the six month warranty speaks volumes as to what they consider "normal" bearing wear.  

Here is a simplified example, to give you an idea of what that means.   Normally, most manufacturers calculate the MTBF or "Mean Time Between Failures", which is kind of like the "worst case scenario" expected lifetime of a piece of hardware, component, or device as a whole.  Then divide that by at least two or three (possibly higher), and then use that resulting number as the basis for their warranty and/or price (again, this is a simplified example of a much more complex calculation).  That way, they do not have to replace or repair hardly any of the products that they sold in the past under warranty.  Understandable, as companies are in business to make money, and  most can't afford to replace or repair even one tenth (1/10) of their previously sold products for free.  But what this should be telling you, is that with a 6 month warranty, they assume that a significant amount of their handpiece bearings WILL START TO FAIL within at least a YEAR or two!  Hmmm, and how much do those cost you ask?   Well, just to buy the bearings and install them yourself will cost $13.35 for each bearing, and at least another $6.50 for shipping.  That's $19.85 for one bearing!   And there are four of them in each handpiece (not including the collet thrust bearing which sees little wear).  If you call them up and ask about what it would cost to have them repair it, you will probably get an "hourly rate" (usually north of $80 per hour for labor, not including parts) with no definite estimate.  In fact, it is not unusual for handpiece repair centers to charge upwards of $120 per hour for labor alone.

By the way, our costs for out of warranty repair for handpiece bearings is only $10 per bearing, plus ACTUAL shipping costs (currently $5.00 for a Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Box).  You should also note, that the warranty on our handpieces is now two (2) years (since Jan 1st 2011), which include bearings (barring misuse, abuse, or improper storage).

Well, you might be thinking that you can just buy the bearings from them, and replace them yourself, to get by much cheaper.  You'd be wrong!  In the long run, that will cost you even more.  In fact, if you call me up and ask me to send you replacement bearings, I won't sell them to you.  Wait, what? Why?!?  Well first off, to do it properly you would need at least a half dozen of each bearing size to insure that you are not putting on a bearing that is either too tight, or too loose, onto the main shaft or motor armature shaft.  The shaft OD's and bearing ID's are rated at ABEC5 standards, which are specifically +0.0000" -0.0002" tolerance.  If you force a bearing onto a shaft, you will loose most, all, or even more than the clearance inside the bearing (typically 0.0002" to 0.0005" clearance, AKA MC2 specs) and the bearing will not last very long.  Conversely, if you put a bearing onto a shaft and it is too loose of a fit, your bearing will have excessive runout, causing vibration, brinelling of the shaft and bearing race, excessive bearing wear (because you are now running the bearing beyond the runout tolerance), and if that loose bearing seizes it will cold weld itself to the shaft (ruined shaft = even more money).  I can't even get into the other methods that we use (proprietary, sorry can't talk about it ;-) to insure that the maximum possible bearing life is attained.  But to put it simply, if you do not know the exact proper methods and procedures used to install precision handpiece bearings; I can guarantee that even with the best possible bearings that money can buy, you'll most likely ruin them upon installation, or at the very least, significantly shorten their potential lifespan.

Having your handpiece repaired by a qualified professional can also head off other potential problems, before they become a real liability.  For example, if your handpiece brushes are about to wear out, and you do not change them immediately, you will dramatically shorten the lifespan of any bearing that is near the commutator ring, and possibly incur an expensive armature replacement too.  A conscientious professional will always check the brushes (even if he/she is only working on the shaft bearings), and should advise you to spring for the brushes if they need replacing, which will save you money in the long run.  If this is not spotted, and the commutator is damaged, you will go through bearings (excessive heat) and brushes (excessive wear) like a chocoholic through candy, and end up paying for an expensive new motor armature.  Unusual debris, or debris in the "wrong" places will also tip off a qualified professional that you may be doing something wrong that can dramatically shorten the lifespan of the handpiece bearings, and will advise you not to do that anymore (it might sound harsh over the phone, but remember that this guy/gal is actually trying to save you money).

Knowing all of this, your probably now asking yourself "if this is true, then why would any handpiece manufacturer allow customers to change their own bearings?".  Well first off,  they're selling you more parts, more often!   As my younger daughter would probably say... DUH!....  Either they don't know, or just don't care, about what is required to install precision bearings into a precision instrument like a micro motor tool.

Another question, a skeptic like myself might ask, is "how can you charge so much less than your competitors for bearing replacement?"  Well, we do this as a service to our customers, not as a part of the business that needs to generate a profit.   Since fewer of our handpieces need repair any ways (mostly 5 to 6 years and older is what we see), repairing handpieces is not a full time job.

So, lets compare them now shall we?   After 5 years, assuming no "in warranty" work was needed, the handpiece was properly maintained, and the equivalent "in shop" repair by the Mfg. was done.  The variability in the least number of repairs and most number of repairs assumes that, all things being equal, a significant number of bearing failures do not start happening until at least two to three times the warranty period, and that average excludes "extreme users" that use their handpieces a lot, inappropriately, or in an industrial environment (8+ hours per day).  In other words, average users.  The "<<<1" means WAY LESS than 1, or very unlikely (almost zero, this is taken from our own data).  Also, you should keep in mind that it is usually our policy to replace bearings in pairs instead of individually, as one bad bearing on a shaft will usually cause problems for the other bearing on the same shaft down the road (so it's actually cheaper to replace the so called "good bearing" then, than having to ship the unit back and forth again in a year or so for that previously "good" bearing to be replaced).  So 1 would = 1 "set" of bearings (2 bearings).  The "True Costs in 5 years" column shows both the "Least non warranty bearing repairs" average and the "Most non warranty bearing repairs" average, rounded up the the nearest whole number (which, only mathematically, doesn't actually favor us).

Keep in mind, that even if you had the same number of repairs on one of our handpieces, your costs would still be less.  So, if you use their "number of repairs", but using "our costs for doing the repair"; the following shows two expressions for best and worst case scenarios: Best case = 2*((10*2)+5)=50 + Original Cost = $259  Worst case =  4*((10*2)+5)=100 + Original Cost = $309. 

Given, this is a conservative estimate only using our data, as we do not have access to our competitor's failure rate data.  However, knowing how manufactures determine price and warranty gives us a key insight on their expected failure rates.  Also, we called around to a few of our competitor's dealers, asking what the average lifespan was on their handpiece bearings.  The consensus we heard was about two years, and that the labor costs were usually around a minimum of $35 per repair (bearings & shipping is more). Therefore, I feel the above table should be fairly accurate given the known variables.  Keep in mind also, that there are also "certain flaws" that we are aware of in our competitor's handpiece, which we know causes most of their bearing failures (even though it may look identical to ours, it is NOT).

After comparing the "total lifetime cost of ownership" of a tool like the Optima 2 Plus, and our competitor's discounted micro motor handpiece, you should realize that "cheap handpiece" is likely to cost you much more money than you bargained for down the line.  This of course doesn't even include your downtime (what is your time worth to you?).  What is also missing from this discussion is the power supply.  Their power supplies typically have a 1 year warranty on them, and I'm guessing repair costs could possibly exceed the price of a new one.  Our power supply carries a lifetime parts and labor warranty, the most you would have to pay for is shipping to and from the factory, and it is our policy to ONLY charge actual shipping costs.

So, would you rather pay a little more up front for a micro motor handpiece that is less likely to have problems, and lower repair costs down the road, or opt for the super cheap handpiece that has a paltry warranty (an indication of poor reliability), and higher repair costs?

Check out the previous tool tips to get more useful, and timely carving and tool tips.

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