Funny - I was just talking to a good friend of mine Monday about the repair or replace boards issue. We have always repaired boards or bought other used boards to repair for our machines and he always called us "nuts" for doing all that work when for a little more money you can just but "new replacement boards" for just about anything - he has been replacing boards with new ones for years. Anyway - he works fully time fixing machines and has been in that business for over 10 years.

Monday he said to me out of the blue - "I am going to start fixing boards again" and then a little small talk later he said "I have been having so many issues with new boards it is just easier to fix the originals".

We have had more new boards fail than repaired boards so my first and only choice is to fix original boards. We have never bought new boards because we don't like the quality of most of them but we have had over 30 new boards in machines we have bought. Normally we pull the new stuff out and put good original boards back into machines because we have had so much better luck with repaired boards.

Don't get me wrong - I am not blaming the guys making the boards - the problem is most parts being used are coming in from China and we all know how good most stuff coming from China is.

So my take on things is to fix old boards up if at all possible and if not try to find good used boards to fix up for your machines. I doubt if any of the replacement stuff being sold today will last 30 years yet original boards have and most are still going strong if it wasn't for battery damage or a bad part or two.

Just something to think about!