Go with the flow
When I am telling you to follow the crowds then you know something is amiss. But today was one of those occasions
Turned up at a customer salon to sharpen their blades and as they didn’t have a dog in I did my normal of grabbing their clippers for testing. Not because I don’t trust my clippers but because it isn’t always the clipper blade which is at fault if the blades are dragging. I also give them a mini service which is blowing out the hair and inspecting the blade drive. The blade drive was worn. (we’ve been here before)
At this point I would normally tell the customer and ask if they want it changed and the clipper serviced. After getting a yes I’d reach into my drawer of spares and pull out a blade drive.
The drawer of spares
My slowly growing collection of clipper spares
Bottom left is my blade drive collection of heiniger, andi and whal
and yes the inserts are 3D printed
However today wasn’t one of those days as the clipper in question was a no brand one as punted out by some of the big boys in supplying groomers.
I don’t carry spares for these and looking on the suppliers website they have no spares in stock. Consulting the top secret sharpeners network resulted nothing, well some insults and light mocking but that’s normal. I will carry on in my mission to find a replacement blade drive for this customer.
This time around it isn’t a biggy as the wear isn’t too bad and it will last a while longer before it gets an issue.
However if this was a few months down the road and it failed on a friday (they always fail on a friday) then you are going to be cancelling grooms and pissing off customers if you don’t have a spare clipper.
Your cheap clipper isn’t so cheap
What if i fail to find a replacement blade drive?
Then you are binning a £230 clipper because of a part which for a heiniger would cost £6
Again the cheap clipper isn’t so cheap.
So my conclusion for this is to avoid the bargains as they aren’t a bargain in the long run.
Go with the flow and find out what is popular.
UPDATE
The suppliers of this cordless clipper told me that the blade drive can’t be changed as it is part of the motor