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Rod Sheridan
11-16-2009, 9:14 AM
Hi, last Saturday I had the pleasure of attending an old tools club meeting in Victoria Square, Ontario.

I purchased a Stanley #7C jointer plane for $50 ( I know, I'll post photo's next week when I'm home).

The star attraction however was Robin Lee, who graciously gave almost two hours of time to discuss Lee valleys approach to business, and their methods of prototyping and designing tools.

I must apologize to Robin if he's misquoted here, all errors are mine;

- LV will be selling more Starret tools in the future, part of their mission to source as much product as possible from NAFTA areas

- Robin answered a question on who their competitors are by stating that they're X boxes, baseball etc, or any activity that competes for hobby dollars, as opposed to another supplier similar to them

- LV sell approximately $30 Million in mail order to the US, about the same in Canada and about $40 Million in stores in Canada.

- a new store will be opening in the Kitchener? area

Robin gave a great video presentation of their CNC machines producing plane parts, as well as the measuring and quality control aspects of those activities.

In addition he explained how their 3 D plastic model "printer" produces #D plastic parts that can be assembled into a plane, for evaluation as to how the object fits into a human hand, or other design criteria.

Robin also passed some plastic model pieces around, some casting blanks and a completed side rebate plane.

Unfortunately he kept track of their whereabouts, so I don't have any items for "show and tell" here:D

Robin, if you read this post, thank you very much for a most educational and interesting presentation.

Unfortunately as a multi-decades long customer of yours, you continue to lead me astray into the local LV store.:D

It was very nice to hear about the directions and products a family business can engage in, when they set their priorities.

To bad the larger corporations are held hostage by their shareholders.

Regards, Rod.