My feelings about the oven are kinda mixed; like the oven performance. There are really good things about the oven and some of the other. The good things: (1) Seriously, the door design is really good. The doors is flat and doesn't have gaskets - the gaskets are on the oven body. It's pretty thin but also feels heavy and stays where ever you put it. The door has vents near the top, but not on the top. Those vents align with some on the oven body. I guess you could manage to drop something into the vents, but it would take some work. (2) Although it will not fit a full sheet pan on a rack, it will fit a half sheet plus a quarter sheet per rack. Or a chicken roaster and two sides on one rack. It comes with 3 racks, but 4 or 5 could fit depending on how many were glide racks and what you were making. (3) Once its made up its mind about temperature, it's bang on and will not move at all unless I leave the door open for a while (but see 3 below). (4) The porcelain color of the oven is just a few shades off from burned. That means that stray people who look in the oven aren't going to be able to tell I haven't cleaned it. I do wipe it down every couple of uses but haven't done a big cleaning yet. Most stuff wipes out. I'm considering steam cleaning the sides. (5) The broiler works fine and has a lot of coverage - like a half sheet pan, centered. And, the instructions say never to clean it. If it looks dirty, just run it for 10 minutes to burn the stuff off. That's kitchen gear I can support. (6) Hugeosity! Many loaves at the same time, many dishes at the same time like 3 pans of lasagne plus 3 other casseroles. (7) Gliding rack. If they didn't want a small fortune for extras, I'd have three. This is one of those things that you didn't know you wanted until you have one. (8) It's thermally cool. There isn't a lot of waste heat pouring at the front or through the top or sides. The heat is channeled to the rear vent and it goes right out the hood. (9) The convection fan is protected by a grease filter that goes into the dishwasher. It should keep the fan working well for a longer time. The filter is easy to take off and put back. The bad things: (1) Parts of the oven floor and upper oven back have sharp edges. (2) Only one light - kinda cheezy when the oven is that big and its color that dark. (3) I bought an oven thermometer and learned to use it. The oven has something of a mind of its own when it comes to temperature. First, results improve a lot if you give the oven 45 minutes to preheat and ALWAYS use the fan while preheating. Even then, occasionally it will decide to use some other temperature - and that temperature will be as much as 75 degrees off in either direction. To "fix" that, I open the oven door for a while then close it and it will most likely be at the knob temperature when it recovers and then will stay there. Strangely, turning the oven off briefly and then on again will not reset whatever is causing that. If you don't use the convection fan, try prayer because anything could happen. In my tests, only one in ten oven starts are the correct temperature. Whatever they use as an oven temperature controller, it doesn't seem to be able to figure out what's going on in the entire oven. I wonder if the controller used just can't run an oven that large. Or maybe I gotta busted thermostat or something. Someday, when the weather is better, maybe I'll complain. I have two years and 10 months left on the warranty. As many people know, if you have a sporadic problem, it ain't getting fixed until they can reproduce it. (4) The gliding rack is difficult to remove. It's easy to put back in. Overall, I still like it, even with the goofy oven temp thing. At least I know how to get by until I want to get it fixed. And I know the old nxr ran pretty hot and the stinkin' GE profile ran pretty low - from my trusty oven thermometer. Best thing so far was lemon-blueberry cake, slightly dense with sweetened, beaten cream cheese between each of 4 thin layers. Made me wish I had a tea table.

To: ase_tech and Tarus Owner: The symptoms most asuredely point to a belt that is too loose. By the comments presented above, it seems that it has slipped before and probably is worn because it has been run for some time while loose. Tightening the belt may be a fix, or it may a short term patch-up for a worn belt. I'd certainly inspect the belt before giving it a clean bill of health. Indications are that it may need replacing. To the Tarus Owner: One source of overstress of the belt happens when the driver turns the wheel all the way to its stop, either right or left, until he hears squealing of belt slippage, or a hissing noise of the overpressure relief valve. Don't persist in forcing the front wheel against its turn stop. It is not a good practice. In your case after you wet the belt, you temporarily lost power steering assist and had manual only. You did not "loose" steering, but got a surprise of how hard it was to turn the steering wheel without power assist. The steering wheel was very hard to turn unless the car was rolling some. This is normal - welcome to the days before power steering. One other desgin feature that was working against you was the gearing is made 'faster' for power assist steering units than for manual. When (in my distant past) manufacturers offered both power and non-power steering, the gear ratios of these steering units were different. The manual unit required more turns of the steering wheel to go from lock-to-lock than for the power unit. This gave a more mechanical advantage to the manual unit. Can you drive with the power assist disabled? Yes, but you should not drive great distances, but should get it repaired as soon as pratical. Why? Besides driver fatigue and control, power assist takes the lion's share of the load off the steering gear teeth and lengethens its life. Today's rack-and-pinion steering depends on the power assist for longevitiy of the rack gear.

The older model Homelites where built much better than the later models. While that model was not as powerful as some of the others in its class, it is worth restoring ----if you can get parts for less than about $200. More than that, restoration will be simply for the fact it was your grandfathers saw.

Jon, dreedree had asked "Does anyone have any experience with or knowledge of this product? thanks in advance!" And yes I do have experience and knowledge about the company, Im just simply answering a question or questions that had been asked and pointing out the fact Granite Shield has no restrictions such as the other companies I had mentioned. Many customers now are buying granite from Lowes and Home Depot with these kind of warranties because they know granite stains and want some kind of protection rather than having to seal often. I am one of the owners and have tested and had a part in the creation of the chemicals Granite Shield offers. Granite Shield is a member of the Marble Institute and a highly respected company. It is your choice whether you want to use it or not, but for anyone to say its a gimmick and just a way for some fabricators to upcharge the customer is incorrect. It is quite known that granite does stain even if its resin filled and a homeowner can make that decision to which sealer or sealing service they want to choose. Its a granite fabricators choice whether they want to seal or offer a sealing service to protect granite with a warranty. 2008 you will be hearing a lot more about Granite Shield and many very large granite fabricators will be offering it to their customers on the bottom line, the customer either wants a lifetime warranty against staining or not. Here's just a few things being said about Granite Shield: "I wanted to inquire as to who I would contact to have an appointment done for the Granite Shield. I have granite in my kitchen and had the Granite Shield applied and have had no problems. However, my parents, who have the same granite as I do, did not have the Granite Shield applied and their granite has darkened in certain spots, due to some staining. I was wondering who would be the contact to find out about having the stains removed, if possible and then having the Granite Shield applied?" Thanks, J. A. Calabrese, CFP Assistant Vice President East Longmeadow, MA 01028 "We installed a CaesarStone (HONED finish) bar counter that is extremely difficult to clean. Following is an excerpt of an email I received from a CaesarStone representative recommending your Granite Shield product: There is one product that CaesarStone has tested and approved for use on our product. It's a one time application that doesn't change the finish hardly at all (it might add a little luster to it). From the results that I have seen it really does keep the dirt and oils from sticking to the surface which makes cleaning a lot easier. It's called Granite Shield 877-477-3254. We live in Chaska, Minnesota (just 20 miles from Minneapolis) and would like to engage someone to professionally apply your Granite Shield product to protect the bar from fingerprints and stains. Could you recommend someone we could contact?" Thank You, J. Metzger Chaska, MN 55318 "Wow for Granite Shield! Once again my son put a container with oil on the bottom on top of my very light colored granite counter top. Only this time it is shielded! No stain!!! Yes! Granite Shield is wonderful!" Thank You, P. Symonds San Francisco, CA "First of all, I would like to thank you for the prompt and professional service I received from you and your staff at Granite Shield. I would also like to share with you a little story of an event that occurred a couple of days after you completed the job. At about 3:00 in the morning I was awakened by my teenage son advising me that his bathroom was overflowing with water. I quickly got up and was greeted with his bathroom having about 1/4 of an inch of water from an overflowing toilet. I quickly shut off the water supply to the toilet and proceeded, with my wife and son, to clean up the mess. To my great surprise, the travertine floor that had been treated by your company actually held out the water and as soon as we dried it up, the floor showed no water spots of any kind. As a matter of fact, the bathroom is located on the second floor and to my great surprise we had no leakage onto the first floor. You may use this testimonial if you so desire, as part of your advertising as I am very happy with the way your "Granite Shield" has functioned thus far. I have and will continue to recommend your company. Very truly yours, L. P. Carreras, EA, AT" L.P. Carreras & Associates Chino, CA "Craig, Last week you shipped me some sealer at the request of Craig Kenningson at Santa Regina International, LTD www.SantaRegina.com. I also spoke with you about the products application on Friday afternoon. We applied it on Sunday after the Terrazzo was completely dry. It is a nice product that is pretty easy to work with. I had a slight amount of the product left over and I did some testing with it on my own. All I can say is wow. I put it on a couple of pieces of slate, and it worked great. Beaded up like a mother. I thought your talk about Dry Treat was a guy proud of his product, but hey the proof is in the pudding. I also honed 1/2 a polished square of Brecca Oniciatia. I split the tile in thirds, with one section your stuff, the other a competitors and one clear. I applied two coats each. Your competitor didn't fare so well, so I gave him another coat. Maybe it will be better for him in the morning. Worked great on the polished side as well as the honed. I will send pics, but I am sure you know all this. I call on architects, designers, tile retailers & distributors (like Daltile where Craig found us) stone fabricators here in Jacksonville FL. We should talk about your products. I am filling out the applicator info and will send it to you." Sincerely, H. Edenfield Jacksonville, FL "We have spent a lot of time refining our process in order to completely eliminate the absorption and staining issue on our cement based engineered terrazzo flooring. Initially, we tested all major sealing products on the market. We solved our problem by developing a new proprietary sealing system with a company called Granite Shield which takes the free lime from our cement and crystallizes into a quartz material. This satisfies 98% of the seal. We then add an ionized polymer sealer on top of the tile to complete the seal. Now our Santa Regina engineered terrazzo has a 10 year stain resistant warranty backed by Granite Shield. To enhance the warranty to a 10 year stain proof warranty an Authorized Granite Shield applicator must complete the sealing process by sealing the grout after installation. Our terrazzo is sold through Daltile nationally. Thank you Granite Shield for solving our problem." Craig Kennington Santa Regina International, LTD Palmer, TX 75152 www.SantaRegina.com "My name is Karan Barber and I am the Granite Shield Distributor for this area. This product is terrific. It truly is amazing! We have Shielded several types of stone and put them to the test. We put red wine, red Kool-Aid, iodine, brake fluid, oven cleaner, lemon juice etc. on the shielded stone, left it for 24 hours and it wiped right off with a wet paper towel. Water beads on honed stone." Thanks, K. Barber Granite Shield Distributor / Applicator Monroe, NC 28110 "November 07, 2006 I have a customer for whom we installed new Venetian Gold granite kitchen countertops in August 2005. He claims that every day the counter is covered in "grit" that can't really be seen, but can be felt. It has been an ongoing problem since installation. I went to visit and found the tops to be just as smooth and shiny as the day installed. I suggested maybe his ceiling is falling apart rather than his countertop and that if that much "grit" came out of his tops every day, there wouldn't be much granite left. He is raising hell with the cabinet shop and contractor and I don't have any ideas. Has anyone had a similar problem customer in the past?" "November 08, 2006 The granite was definitely sealed, but I don't remember which sealer we were using at that time. Furthermore the customer went to Home Depot and purchased a cleaner and sealer kit and has sealed the top another half dozen times. The only time I have experienced anything like this, it was short lived, not continuous for over a year." "December 19, 2006 2 weeks ago I applied Granite Shield to the table as a sample to see if it would stop the "shedding" problem. The customer is now very happy and I will be applying Granite Shield to the countertops after the holidays." "January 11, 2007 This is definitely grit that is coming off the tops. The table was the worst area and it had almost a honed feel to it, but was still shiny. We had to epoxy fill just 2 "chips". The Granite Shield did the rest. Shedding stopped, feels smooth, CUSTOMER HAPPY!" Sincerely, B. Stone Architectural Surfaces Granite Shield Distributor / Applicator Punta Gorda, FL