Excellent news Adam.  you would be surprised how much you take notice of switches. and how things work on an em if you actually get over the fear of pulling one right down and re asembling it. the hard part for me was to pull apart a working pin.

All the repair sites said to be careful with the stepper units. Most said to leave the springs alone. After pulling a few of these apart, I got more comfortable with them and knowing how they should go back together. Stepper units aren't as scary now....switches and tearing down a working machine. Whoah! Will see if I get more comfortable with that when I start working on my own EM. Hot Tip was scary because someone else owned it and I didn't want to make it worse than how it was when it arrived.

Another positive out of all of this...I didn't care much for EM machines (a bit before my time), but I really take notice now when I see them on eBay. Will definitely miss Hot Tip when it leaves the house.