What's New

March 21, 2006 As some of you may already be aware, a small number of our motor mounts produced prior to June 1, 2005 have failed under use. The problem was investigated and attributed to the adhesive we used at that time to bond the rubber to the plastic disks. Shortly afterward, we switched to a flexible rubber-toughened cyanoacrylate adhesive, IC-2000. IC-2000 is much more durable and exhibits far greater peel-strength than any of the other glues we’ve tested. Please note that there have been NO bond line failures of mounts assembled using IC-2000 reported to us. For those who are interested, here’s a  link to additional detailed info about the problem. While we have tried to “get the word out” about the problems we had with the early motor mounts using the urethane adhesive, it’s obvious we haven’t reached everyone. We still occasionally receive a report about a mount coming apart, and in every case to date, it has been one of the mounts assembled prior to June 1, 2005 with the urethane adhesive(s) noted above. However, any failure is one too many, so we've decided to announce a recall of any Budd Engineering Soft Motor Mounts produced PRIOR to June 1, 2005. Here's the Terms of the Recall: If you have a mount of ours that you purchased from us, or one of our retailers, prior to June 1st, 2005 that you think may have been assembled with the urethane glue, please do not hesitate to contact us about it. We will exchange it out at no charge to you. If you want to send the mount back we will update the mount and return it to you free of charge. If you’d prefer to change out the mounting disk yourself (it’s easy to do as the mount was designed to be serviceable), just send us an email indicating when and where you purchased the mount and we’ll send you a replacement disk, free of charge, no questions asked. If you have a prototype mount that you received from someone who was asked to test it for us, the same offer as above applies. While it should be expected that prototype test products would have some problems (after all, that’s why we test them), we will nonetheless include them in this offer. We value our customers and we think this is the least we can due to alleviate their concerns. We are truly sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused them. March 19, 2006 We've added a  Frequently Asked Questions section to the web site to help answer the questions we are asked most often. We'll be adding to it from time to time as more questions become popular enough to warrant inclusion in the FAQ listing. Not that this is news to anybody, but there's a lot of misleading information being spread around these days, particularly on the Internet. Some of it pertaining to our products is being posted on a popular on-line forum, for the most part without any facts or data to substantiate the statements being made. So far we've chosen not to respond to the comments, as it's generally not possible to defend one's self against innuendo, hearsay, or rumor (which is why that type of information is not allowed in a court of law). However, the whole issue has brought to mind that we should convey our  philosophy concerning how we intend to conduct ourselves when dealing with these situations. It's obvious from the material being posted on the forums and the ads being run by our leading competitor that we've put a "chink" in their armor. The reality is that the playing field is a lot more level now than before. We intend to keep it that way. March 6, 2006 We've added a bunch of accessories to the website, including some firmer rubber isolators for the Electric Soft Motor Mount (ESMM). Dave Lockhart did some flight testing for us with his Plettenberg-powered Abbra using the Wide ESMM and we learned some interesting things. The motor was aft-mounted to a firewall and the mount initially used the softer rubber mounts included in the Standard ESMM. After a number of flights it was determined that firmer rubber mounts were needed to limit lateral deflection at the tip of the spinner under flight loads. Nothing catastrophic happened, it was just felt that the soft rubber mounts were allowing the thrust line to change a bit during pitching maneuvers (Note - this is due to inertial effects on the aft mounted motor. Front mounted motors typically have their mass distributed more evenly across a forward "thrust plate", avoiding the problem). I shipped Dave a set of the stiffer rubber mounts which were also flight tested and deemed "just right". What does this mean? It means that all future "Wide" ESMM's shipped will have these firmer rubber mounts. It also means that if you purchased one (or more) of the Wide ESMM's you can exchange your unused "soft" rubber mounts for replacement with "firmer" ones at no charge to you. Just send them in (rubber isolators only) and I'll get the replacement's sent out to you ASAP. BTW - in case you're not sure which rubber mounts you have, the firmer rubber mounts have "blue" dots on them whereas the softer rubber mounts have "silver" dots. I have some aft support mounting plates being fabricated for the Hacker C50 motors as an optional accessory for the ESMM. The support plates are being fabricated out of 1/16" thick aluminum and will be black anodized for a nice finish. I expect them to be very light. I should have them available in about a month with an expected retail price of ~$25 or so. March 5, 2006 We've added this page to help keep everyone up to date with the latest going's on here. There is a lot happening and word of mouth just wasn't getting the job done, so I'll try to update this section periodically with any noteworthy items that may be of interest. Thanks, Jerry