When the Instrument Workshop closed for the final time, I asked David Voeller (the owner) to take down his website or at least inform prospective customers not to order parts as the orders would not be fulfilled. I’ve had several emails from readers of my book, The Harpsichord Project, complaining that they’ve ordered parts from the IW and the parts never arrived. Thankfully, their credit cards were never charged for the parts.
Since then, I would periodically check the IW website to see if it was still on the internet, and it still is - until today. This morning I checked again and the site says it is under maintenance - please check again tomorrow.
Does this mean it is reopening, or perhaps sold to someone else? Does anyone have any further information?
Not surprised. I received some very unwanted advice with one of my orders. I caused me to take the initiative and find a new source of delrin. I now get it from McMasters-Carr for less than a tenth of their prices.
I have no idea regarding that site but I can say that it is very often the case that when people abandon a site it tends to get left running, neglected, moribund, until the domain name registration expires, which can take up to a year, or more, after which a site will no longer respond.
@Ernie if you have access to a linux machine you can do a whois and find out the registered owner details. It is the person you mentioned but it also gives the the email and a phone number (these details are required by ICANN and are publicly available). The domain is registered to 2028 - common for people to take out very long holds on domain names.