Thread: Buying direct from Lee Valley

Ask them for a quote mate

Keith S

If you order, they give you several shipping options, including costs. Your order is not final until you accept a shipping option. If the shipping is too dear, you simply cancel the order. There is no obligation to proceed until that point. Another reason LV is head and shoulders above the rest...

Dan

If you place an order with Lee Valley they will give you a shipping quote before sending your order. They will give you a couple of shipping options to choose from. If at that point you find that the cost of shipping makes it a better option to source the plane locally then just cancel the order instead of giving them the OK to ship.

I have ordered stuff direct from Lee Valley before and they are a good company to deal with. I will no doubt order stuff from them again.

The biggest order I've bought from Lee Valley was 8 Bessey K-body clamps when Lee Valley had a special on them. Even after shipping it worked out that I saved a fair bit compared to sourcing the clamps locally, and that was back when the AUS$ was worth less than US$0.75. The weight of the clamps I bought would be more than the weight of the BU Jointer.

When you get stuff shipped into Australia like this you have a limit of AUS$1000 before you start to get stung with import duty.

G'day,
I bought a Bevel up Jointer from them, and had it sent here (Japan)
I cant remember the shipping cost, but there are options depending on how long you want to wait. It wont be cheap, but the shipping cost was soon forgotten for me. Its a lovely plane, a joy to use. (I recomend you buy the Jointer fence and 38degree blade as extra)
The service is A1, Ive never had service like they provide. I place an order, make a cuppa, come back and they have replied with shipping quotes, I choose and within an hour they have replied, and my order is being processed (if the order is placed in their working hours ofcourse) Amazing service...
I say go for it

Originally Posted by underused

G'day,
Its a lovely plane, a joy to use. (I recomend you buy the Jointer fence and 38degree blade as extra)

Thats what I was thinking. Do you find it to be a good all round plane? It seems to me that with the option of different blade's it should be a much more versatile unit. I've given up on the stanley plane's after buying a LV block plane last year a the WWW show. I gave my old jointer away, a "mate" I lent it too somehow bent it, & its never been the same again. The block plane was a revelation, "so this is how a plane should be made".

Yep, I use it more and more (ive now got the 25, 38 and 50 degree blades). the bonus is the blades are the same size throughout the bevel up range (smoother, ,jack and jointer) I'll be getting the Jack soon for shooting
its a great plane, I dont think you will have any regrets with it
cheers.

Here is the link to the costoms websitehttp://www.customs.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=5549

Just don't pick the UPS option - not only are they slower than Express Air, they will try to slug you with an extra $60-$70 in 'Fees', 'duty' (even tho' none is payable) & etc. If you seem to know the current Customs proceedures & speak to a 'Supervisor' - someone without an Indian accent - they will generally fold & try to blame it on Customs or someone else -its just not worth the hassle.

Oh, and they will just dump the parcel whereever they feel like.

At least with OzPost they pay some attention to your goods.

Originally Posted by bsrlee

Just don't pick the UPS option - not only are they slower than Express Air, they will try to slug you with an extra $60-$70 in 'Fees', 'duty' (even tho' none is payable) & etc. If you seem to know the current Customs proceedures & speak to a 'Supervisor' - someone without an Indian accent - they will generally fold & try to blame it on Customs or someone else -its just not worth the hassle.

Oh, and they will just dump the parcel whereever they feel like.

At least with OzPost they pay some attention to your goods.

Yep - I was sent a replacement plane from LV, and the UPS dicks tried to charge me $70 for duty or something. Took weeks to sort out.