Thread: How many Rob Lees are there?

Well, I guess what you have there is someone who is a) proud of his company's reputation and b) enthusiastic about the products he sells and c) not just in it for the money.

Maybe one day he'll drop a plane or two down my chimney. Christmas is not that far away

Derek,

It's all in the name

Isn't it great to see another supplier with comittment to their customers.

We look forward to hearing your reviews Derek.

Rob is probably like a lot of his countrymen - a decent, humble bloke!
He's also a canny businessman who values the opinions of potential customers.
I've dealt with Lee Valley for a very long time and will continue to be a regular, if modest, customer as long as they give the value for money that I think they do. (The excellent and courteous service don't do no harm, neither ).
Thanks to Lee Valley and a (very!) few like companies, the woodworking world is much richer than it might have been at the end of the 2oth century......
So yeah, thanks Rob - keep up the good work, and if you're enjoying it, well, so much the better!
And if you do come by Brisbane sometime, drop in for a cuppa and I'll keep my promise to give you a couple of bits of Aussie wood that will give your planes a good workout!
Avagooday,

Totaly agree with whats been said. I've never had any contact with Rob himself but the service from LV is fabulous, just wish I could justify more of their stuff. Oh lets be honest, I'm terrified of SWMBO.

Originally Posted by derekcohen

I have this image of a Santa visiting all the children in the world. He must move pretty darn quickly, or there must be a whole lot of Santas to be there for each child.

Derek

An Engineer's Christmas
Author/Engineer Unknown


There are approximately two billion children (persons under 18) in the world. However, since Santa does not visit children of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or Buddhist (except maybe in Japan) religions, this reduces the workload for Christmas night to 15% of the total, or 378 million (according to the population reference bureau). At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that comes to 108 million homes, presuming there is at least one good child in each.

Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 967.7 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000th of a second to park the sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the stocking, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left for him, get back up the chimney, jump into the sleigh and get onto the next house.

Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household; a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops or breaks.

This means Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second--3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run (at best) 15 miles per hour.

The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized LEGO set (two pounds), the sleigh is carrying over 500 thousands tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that the "flying" reindeer can pull 10 times the normal amount, the job can't be done with eight or even nine of them---Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth (the ship, not the monarch).

600,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance-this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would adsorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and creating deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip.

Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of accelerating from a dead stop to 650 m.p.s. in .001 seconds, would be subjected to acceleration forces of 17,000 g's. A 250 pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo. If this didn't prematurely end his existence, the sudden deceleration of 17,000 g's would shoot the poor fellow so far up the backside of the last reindeer, he would suffocate.
QED Therefore, if Santa did exist, he's dead now.

Have a Merry Christmas!


Please note - This view of Santa and the mathematical references have been sourced from the Web and may not be accurate - but it is a good visualisation.

Dead eh? I guess that must be the reason I didn't get a Jet Supersaw last Xmas, either that or I was a baaaaaddddd boy.

Hi Derek -

Thanks for the kind words...

As I explained in my email to you, I'm like a conductor in front of an orchestra - I don't make the music, but I get to take the bows!

It certainly helps that woodworkers (and gardeners) are about the most reasonable and honest people to deal with... our service policies reflect the nature of the people we deal with!

Cheers -

Rob
(off to get a bigger hat.. )

Derek,

Think of me as thick or new to woodwork. But would have thought that if Rob is as good as you say, you would have said who he represents. I'm in the market for a lot of stuff, and would like to talk to someone as good as that.
Tony.

Lee Valley
www.leevalley.com

They are based in Canada, but mail-order to just about anywhere

Originally Posted by tonyjune

Derek,

Think of me as thick or new to woodwork. But would have thought that if Rob is as good as you say, you would have said who he represents.

Rob is replying to a thread in which everyone knows who he is and who he represents.

There has been enough mention of him and his quality products (and service) on this BB that he needs no introduction to the regulars (mostly old farts with to much time on thier hands ).

He's also decent enough to be subtle and fair when it come to advertising.


Hence the offer for the cuppa, and the desire to take his products off his hands for him (hows that for great english? )


Ben.

Ps. clicking on Robs name and selecting home page will also reveal all.

Originally Posted by Ben from Vic.

(mostly old farts with to much time on thier hands ).

This old fart wishes he had a lot MORE time on his hands! But I do make time to have a quick look at this BB every morning - being dumped on by some of the other old (and young farts) here (who DEFINITELY have too much time on their hands) is one of life's little pleasures I wouldn't want to deny myself.
And just occasionally, one of the old farts even comes up with some useful information/advice.

But you're right, Ben - it can get a bit clubby at times.
Avagooday,

Originally Posted by IanW

And just occasionally, one of the old farts even comes up with some useful information/advice.

I'll give you that one, but if anyone asks, I'll deny it.