I recently bought a pair of LeeValley aluminum winding sticks. I can already hear people saying, you could have made them yourself, but the temptation of having something stable was too high.
When I received them, they had a deviation from straightness of 0.07mm (0.0025") over 18 inches on the bottom surface, the one that touches the lumber.
I contacted LeeValley and they kindly replaced them. Smoothest customer service.
Anyway, they told me that my winding sticks were far inside their factory standard tolerances.
Their reference tolerances for aluminum winding sticks are, as the kind employee told me: 0.0125”/ foot of length which is slightly under 1/64” (1/3 of a millimiter) and a twist of 0.5º/ foot of length.
I thought they meant 0.00125 but they actually meant what they told above.
For me 1/3 of a millimiter is not even thinkable. Unworkable. But they told me that
for the purpose it's ok because they are not straightedges.
What do you think? Am I wrong? I'm still at the start of the learning curve so I may miss something.
Cheers,
Haisam