Lie-Nielsen Paint vs Powder Coat

[Patrick Baney]

I've been on the waitlist for a LN no 7 since early January. Today, LN customer service reached out to me to let me know that they had come across some older no 7 castings that they're going to give those on the waitlist (and soon to be their site, I guess) the option to purchase. She said the only difference is they're painted instead of their current productions powder coating. Anyone have any opinions on this? I know the basics of paint vs powder coat, and I can't imagine it really mattering, but they certainly switched to PC for a reason. Should I take them up on their offer? It sounds like it'll be a bit longer before they sort out production issues with the 7s.

Also...they don't have any idea when a batch of 8s may come through, if any of you were wondering.

[Joe Rogers]

I’d bite on the painted unit. All of my LN planes are the painted versions and they hold up fine.
Joe

[Scott Winners]

Given the likely price the buyer is probably going to take pretty good care of the tool and I would expect paint to hold up well, agreeing with Joe R. If it was a tool you would leave outdoors overnight routinely, maybe hold out for the powder coated version.

[Patrick Baney]

Thanks for the replies. I called back last night and told them that I'll go for it. They even knocked off $50 after the fact, and shipped it out 2-day UPS. It sounded like they had a number of these and some will likely be showing up on the site in the near future.

[Ben Schmidt]

Interesting, I've been waiting for a #7 for a while now so I hope they show up on the website or email me as well. Did they say how many years ago they switched from paint to powder coat? Were there any other reasons the previous castings were not used in production batches? Please share pictures of your new plane when it arrives!

[Mike Brady]

When did they make the switch to powder coat? This is the first mention of this that I can recall. I have several earlier LN planes and they seem fine and are visually identical in appearance. Seems like a non-issue to me.