When is a square edge not square?..............UPDATE!!!

Mark Rios

Member
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Location
Central CA
So I bought a new LN 60 1/2. Finally took it out of the box today to use it and I noticed that I had to move the back of the blade WAY to the right to get it to square up with the mouth. It wouldn't square up so I took the blade out and checked it with my machinist's square and, sure enough, it was definately not square.

Is this normal for a LN blade to be out of square like this? Or is this part of the tuning that one is expected to do on a new plane? I was under the impression that the only thing one needed to do to a LN block plane was to flatten and polish the back of the iron and maybe put a finer edge on it? Is this bonehead not thinking straight?


Thanks very much for your input.
 
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Another consideration is that the sides of the iron may not be parallel to each other, which would throw off the ability to measure with a square.

There are other possibilities, but in any case simply contact them. They'll make it right.

Take care, Mike
 
You definately got a bum blade if its not square to the side of the blade and it does not measure straight on the edge of the mouth. If you can see something is amiss with a machinist square, then something is wrong.

To be honest with you, I am not surprised. I bought a replacement blade for my Stanley #140 and it had a nick in it. In my case it was just a matter of sharpening it up, but I did tell them about it. No big deal, but their quality is definately starting to slip.
 
I ended up sending my blade back to LN, as was suggested by some of you, on December 29. This morning I called LN to see if they had received it yet. They had and the new blade was already being prepared for shipment!!!

I happened to have had the good fortune of Patrick taking my call. Apparently, he is the exact person that deals with this issue of making sure that unsquare blades (and other such things) don't get shipped out. As expected, he was very kind and helpful and, of course, apologozed for the defective blade getting sent to me. He had read my posting of this issue already and said that he had planned a meeting of the folks involved to see what needed to be done so that this type of thing is minimized even further.

In the past 6 or 8 months I have read in different forums some people mentioning that LN's QC must be starting to slip and that they must not be caring as much. My opinion is that those folks don't know what the bleepity bleep they're talking about. When the number of items that are shipped out increases, the percentage of oops and errors that get shipped will also increase. However, LN seems to have the best QC of any manufacturer that I have dealt with AND when something does happen, I don't know of any manufacturer that deals with the problem any better than LN, from what I"ve experienced and from what I've read in other posts.


Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, all is well in Lie-Nielsen land and I expect to have my blade back and in my plane shortly.

Many and large thanks to Lie-Nielsen ToolWorks INC.
 
In the past 6 or 8 months I have read in different forums some people mentioning that LN's QC must be starting to slip and that they must not be caring as much. My opinion is that those folks don't know what the bleepity bleep they're talking about.

Work there, that will change your opinion!!
 
I think that perceptions from the point of view of someone from the inside of a company and those of someone from the outside are often different. The person on the inside gets to be privy to all the gory details of what decisions are made verses simply seeing results of decisions as an end purchaser.

Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

Would be interesting to know what all you got to do there, though, Travis.

Take care, Mike
 
A little off the point, but when I was a new fire inspector I discovered there was an unwritten rule: Never inspect the kitchen of your favorite restaurant. The gulf between the shop floor and the front office often very wide.
 
You guys are right, you do have a different perspective in working at a place than just being a customer. I certainly wish I had never worked there. It changed my perception of the place that is for sure and I am not alone in that. They have a super high turn-over rate.

But one of the reasons I left there was because of my ethics, and it is those very ethics that will keep me from disclosing some of the tactics and decisions that occurs there. I just don't think that would be right.

I will say this to thier credit though, Lie Nielsen does provide jobs in a poor part of Maine, and unlike say papermills or other industries, they are a clean, non-poluting buisness. They also give Maine a reputation of doing high quality work. Its just that I feel sorry for the Machinist's that have to stay there for finincial reasons and can't seek employment elsewhere like I was able to do. Let's just say that I know first hand what Lie Nielsen code is for "planned a meeting with those involved" and feel real sympathy for the machinists I used to work with.

Former Machinist, Block Plane Group
 
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