Welcome, Jon Allred!

Hi, Jon!
Thank you for the kind comment. In my page, I posted a picture with the title "fanplate", and added a detailed comment about how those tuners work. In fact, they are typically Portuguese, nobody else makes tuners like those. However, there are 18th century english instruments, called "English gittars", with similar tuners, only the plate was square, not fan-shaped, and there were no thumbscrews, only the screws, you had to have a key (similar to those of old time clockwork toys, or the ones used by piano tuners) to tune the instrument. That was a great progress, if compared with renaissance lutes's tuners, however these modern ones are much better, and are in use in Portuguese tuners since the last quarter of the 19th century, if not before. They are reliable, long-lasting and grant you fine tuning that holds the string tension for days. And they are a lot nicer than conventional tuners. Besides that, they allow to contain tuners for 12 strings in a very small space (much better than the celebrated Rickenbaker solution). The two examples shown in the pictures I posted are custom made, handcrafted ones, made specially for me by the man I consider the very best artisan in the field. You can choose very expensive ones, made of noble woodas, or semi-precious stones ( Traditional Portuguese taste is a litlle kitsch). I go for solid brass thumbscrews, it's a matter of taste.
Nice to hear from you!