Bird, Glad you got 'er done. Yo hit a raw nerve with that story... One of my all time pet peeves is stuff you can't get parts for. Stuff built so it can't be fixed. Several decades ago there was a big shift i philosophy as regards maintainability n a lot of things. Just a few decades ago that wave had not engulfed the British Iles (yet.)
I found a lot of British built stuff was designed to be worked on and had parts available. In more than a few cases it was a good news/bad news story as in the good news is it could be worked on and the bad news was that it needed to be worked on. T
Take for example something simple like a hand held portable bildge pump. US made... throw away, Brit made servicable with parts available. Look at small outboard motors.The British Seagull can be rebuilt with a pair of pliers and ALL the parts are available for decades after manufacture. Not often the case for American brands. Of course the Seagul is a primitive smoking beast but north sea fishermen in small boats staked their livlihood and lives on them for decades.
I too have rebuilt OLD faucets, predating ceramic cartridges (a great technology.) I found Chicago brand parts for units over 30 years old with ease.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]