"I received this product 3 days after the order was entered. I was pleased with that until I saw the shipping carton. It looked as if it fell off of the truck! There were a few cosmetic scratches but, what the heck, it's a salt spreader.
The assembly manual has much to be desired; it made the assembly tedious but it got done.
Where this device comes up short is in the mesh of the pinion gear and the ring gear. It's so loose that the gears bind and when that happens, nothing turns. Not the drive wheel and not the spinner. There is an assembly addendum that instructs the assembler to place a provided washer on the shaft and between the pinion gear and the spinner shaft support.The provided washer was too small for the shaft. I used a conventional 1/4in washer (in fact, I stacked 2 of them) and the gear binding seemed to be less. A bit of grease further improved it but it has not gone away. The manual does not mention any alignment proceedure but there isn't very much that can be adjusted.
Now, shame on me for not reading the product reviews before ordering. That said, there are many good reviews for this product so somebody's found the secret to getting this to work properly.
Stainless steel fasteners and plastic components promise many years of service except for the challenge of the gear mesh."
What is your level of technical expertise? Home Handyman
