Thread: Calling all Lie-Nielsen smoothing plane users

you could argue that the extra weight of the bronze is nice for some , and you could argue that the bronze won't rust and is better in that regard.

But you used the phrase "that much better than a Stanley", so I'll ask "how much is "that much"?

Lets assume you pay $30 for a Stanley and spend two hours messing with it. Let's also assume you make $100k a year and your time is worth $50/hr.

Then you've paid $130 for the Stanley.

From memory that's around a quarter of the price of a Lie Nielsen smoother, so, I guess you're asking if the LN is four times as good.

Functionally? No. Absolutely not. It's based on all the same patents. It's functionally the same thing, just machined on modern equipment and made of bronze. If you can take a super thin shaving that's the full width of the iron using a Stanley, as millions do, then there is really .no room for functional improvement.

So the real question is really just whether or not you want it. It's NOT going to take your woodworking into the stratosphere and improve the quality of what you produce, but you may feel really excited to use it and therefore find inspiration through it. That's worth something for sure.

Maybe not a super helpful answer but that's my AU$0.02.

Cheers,
Luke

Curious as to why a new user would state that the plane has wear on it and then provide a stock picture. What the wear looks like is relatively important.

Thank you for the replies. All very valid points. No pre-loved tools for this occasion though(unless it's a Stanley No1) . Have to ruminate on it for a while me thinks.

Do you have any import duties? If not, and you want to risk one coming from the states, I could order one from LN (tax free) and ship it to you. It wouldn't save you millions, but it would probably be USD equivalent $395 (350 plus $44 flat rate shipping priority -about a week of shipping) plus about 5% (paypal kills us on foreign origin funds - their regular fee of about 3% plus another 1.7% or 1.8%).

That looks like the equivalent of $531 AUD at this point.

I may have forgotten more conversion fees on your end that paypal adds. It's amazing (to me) the number of fees that paypal adds on now, that they didn't early on. Early on, you could get your credit card to convert currency by paying in the currency of the country that you were ordering from, and paypal was none the wiser.

Now, I believe they take 3 or 4% on currency conversion from the buyer and another 1.7% or more from the seller.

Crooks.

Originally Posted by D.W.

Gosh!! they're $625 new there?

in the US, at current exchange rates, they're about $448 AUD ($350 USD).

At $487.50 USD equivalent, I probably wouldn't buy one. I don't know what else you could find that's better at that price, but the markup is offputting.

this is how it works

$350 USD is around $477 AUD, using my Australian bank's current exchange rate of 0.7332 USD to 1.00 AUD.
But it's a foreign currency transaction, so the bank also says "I'll also take a fee of 3% because we're the only game in town and no one can stop us." So you're at $491 AUD and the plane is still sitting in Tom's packing line in Maine. Add in shipping -- say $100 USD, which is $140 AUD after the conversion and 3% fee -- and you are looking at $631 landed.
Then the big difference, the Australian retail price includes a 10% nation wide consumption tax. In the US, tax, if applicable, is added at the checkout.

So the like for like Australian retail price is $568 AUD -- $625 less the 10% tax.

In that light, the AUS retail markup on LN tools is generally around the cost of shipping from the US.

Flat rate medium international is $43.XX here, but ln probably uses ups, which is too bad given their rates.

Bummer on the consumption tax, as well as your bank.

rather than guess I subsequently looked up USPS Flat rate boxes to Australia. Around $80 USD for a medium box, which is about $112 AUD. So all up a Bronze #4 would be about $600 AUD landed.
Currently that is below the consumption tax threshold for individual imports -- but not for much longer.

Cost is a lesser consideration (within reason) if this is a major birthday pressie from the family. The question is whether a LN #3 or #4 is a good choice as a user as the OP views the plane as desirable.

I have the bronze #3 and it is one of my go-to smoothers. It is set up with the standard (common angle) frog and used with the chipbreaker (I must point out that the #3 handle is smaller than the #4, and I swapped mine out for the larger version). It is a better nicer to adjust than my Stanley #3, and feels more solid in the hand. The extra mass is not intrusive and, as David mentioned, aids with hard woods. Most of all, I love using the LN. It just feels special each time. And that is what this thread is about.

Regards from Perth

Derek

WOW. You fellas went the extra mile. Thanks a bunch. I was of the opinion that the $1000 thresh hold in Australia for import duties and GST was no more. If they pick your package, you'll pay the extra regardless of the value.

On those figures, I wouldn't bother going to the trouble. At least if I were it were purchased from LN Australia, I'd have someone to yell at here if things didn't go well (cheaper to drive to South Australia than fly to the States). I might see if Tom will give me one at WoodDust.

I'll keep you posted on what ends up happening.

Originally Posted by ian

rather than guess I subsequently looked up USPS Flat rate boxes to Australia. Around $80 USD for a medium box, which is about $112 AUD. So all up a Bronze #4 would be about $600 AUD landed.
Currently that is below the consumption tax threshold for individual imports -- but not for much longer.

You're right. the FR medium box price list that I was looking at wasn't very clear that $4x.xx was only for Canada. Australia's price group is the highest in the world for that box and a 6 or 7 pound box without FR is even higher.

I wonder why so terrible.....I guess because of the relatively low volume of US postage going there and the fact that it's so far away.

Originally Posted by D.W.

I wonder why so terrible.....I guess because of the relatively low volume of US postage going there and the fact that it's so far away.

No, Its because five years ago when the exchange rate was one US dollar for our 75 cents, Aussies were buying heaps from the US so the US postal service upped their rates to capitalise on it.
Now that the exchange rate is the other way around and we pay an Aussie dollar and only get US 75 cents they haven't dropped the postage back to what it was.

Our international options have pretty much all gone to crap.

We used to be able to ship medium flat rate box to canada for $24. Now that's the one that's $44.xx. Japan was about $48, and now about 1 1/2 times that.

I'm not sure why they chose to sting the international rates across the board, but perhaps they were subsidize and they changed their mind (maybe they were subsidized and the rash of new ebay sellers and global shipping made the postal service very aware of the loss.....who knows).

At any rate, as a buyer and sometimes seller, it's disappointing that the shipping rates from here to international buyers are so bad.

Originally Posted by D.W.

Gosh!! they're $625 new there?
in the US, at current exchange rates, they're about $448 AUD ($350 USD).

Funnily enough, LN have always been one of the fairer priced imports here. You oughta see what they try and flog Woodpeckers for, or high end German precision power tools (in particular the accessories which can be 3x price). Incra and Veritas used to suffer the same thing, but are more reasonable these days - perhaps the suppliers had a word to the importers.

Makita, Bosch, Metabo and no doubt others are not worth importing outside the system, so if they can do it for a proper price....then.....