lolorobison

Cool! I found this group after searching for, "Correct Shimpo Aspire wheel wobble?" Lol. Apologies for joining the conversation way late in the game, but thought I would share my experience with Shimpo's Aspire. I purchased mine about 1.5 years ago. Right out of the box, the wheel head wobbled. You could see and hear it. I was pretty distressed, because it wasn't inexpensive - far more affordable than my two Skutt wheels, but still a luxury. I purchased about a dozen Aspire bats, and every one of them wobbled. I took the Aspire to my local ceramics retailer, even though I didn't purchase it from them. I wish I had. The service guy was going to charge me $60 per hour to take a look at it. After about two hours and comparing mine to those he had on the sales floor, we discovered that all the Aspires in the shop had a similar wobble that they'd never noticed. He measured the pinholes' distance and they, indeed, a couple of centimeters off, i.e., not equidistant. I exchanged emails with Vijay at Nidec-Shimpo because the online shipper I purchased it from couldn't assist me with product defects. After going back and forth for quite some time, Vijay finally agreed to send me a newly calibrated and drilled wheel head and belt. Unfortunately, I encountered the same problem. Last summer, I took it outside (I ordered specifically to take on the road with me and throw outside on my back deck) and it is virtually impossible to throw on it. I can center my clay, but because of the wobble, pulling and trimming are impossible. Unfortunately, I didn't submit my warranty documents in a timely fashion. I'm not giving up trying to figure out a way to correct the problem so I can get some use out of it.