Had to pick between a $90 China flex shaft and a used Fordham, chose wrong at first

Been doing shutter curtain repairs for a few years now, mostly old SLRs. My old flex shaft finally gave out last month, and I needed something quick for a job coming in Thursday. Amazon had a $90 one arriving next day, and a used Fordham popped up on a local forum for $120, no guarantee on shipping time. I went cheap because of the deadline. Burned through two of those cheap flex shafts in 3 weeks, both lost torque on the first heavy job. Ended up paying $140 for the used Fordham and it's been solid for 2 months now. Anyone else had to learn the hard way that speed beats quality in a pinch?

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brookethomas15d ago

The cheap ones are all the same guts with different paint, and they just dont handle the constant back and forth torque of curtain work. Fordhams are built like tanks, and the price difference pays for itself the first time you dont have to stop mid job and re-tension. Biggest thing is checking the chuck runout before you trust it on anything, both cheap and used. Once you burn through two of them, you basically paid for the good one anyway, so its a hard lesson but a common one.