Got exactly what I needed . . . almost
One of the gas struts failed on a big heavy Murphy bed I own so the search began for an exact replacement. Apparently, though, Stabilus built their struts in Imperial sizes when my bed was manufactured, but switched to Metric at some point since that time. At any rate, that made finding an exact match difficult - well, difficult for the person who I was emailing with. For me, it wasn't just difficult, it was impossible.
Finally, though, she located the struts I needed, so I ordered two. They were packed well and arrived even sooner than I had expected. So far, so good. The connectors, though, had me confused, as I had thought I could separate the ball and socket easily (on one end of the struts, I only needed the socket part of the elbow). Once they educated me in taking the elbows apart, one problem was solved.
Another was created, however, when one of the circlips that secure the elbow balls within the sockets was lost. Bummer! I contacted the person who helped me originally and asked if they could send me one or two circlips. (It turned out what I call circlips are called pins by that person.)
She incidated I'd have to buy an entire elbow. OK, no problem, since they're only $2.67. The charge, however, to ship one elbow to me was quoted at $11.99!
No way was I willing to do that. I can get gas strut connectors where I live or use one off the failed strut, even though they're plastic and not nearly as good as the metal elbows. And, of course, they have a different thread pattern (again, Imperial vs. Metric), so they won't attach to the new gas struts.
With my tap and die set however, it was simple to tap the connector I have to screw onto the metric threads on the new Gas Springs Shop strut I bought. Problem solved.
It isn't ideal, but it makes more economic sense than paying the ridiculous shipping charge.
