Thread: Luban plane blade adjustment

Good result, at least you can now move on. Always good to be standing on firm ground before you start firing shots, otherwise you risk losing your balance and shooting yourself in the foot.

I've got a Luban No.5 of about the same vintage and bought from the same seller. I've had zero issues with it so there's definitely something 'odd' about the one you got. I recall that when Fine Tools were just getting started here they put a lot of products up for auction on Ebay at very attractive starting prices. I suspect that mine was also one of these bargain buys.

There are worse sellers around; I am currently in dispute with an Ebay seller who sent the wrong product. His offer to resolve the matter is to give me a 50% refund for something that I didn't order, don't want and can't use??? I've offered to send it back to him, but he seems disinterested in this. There's not a lot of money involved so I can only assume that he's keen to get some negative feedback. Having said that I've also run up against some totally unrealistic and obnoxious buyers as well.

Damn, at $89 it would have been worth your while to sort out the problems with the plane rather than the purchase. You can buy a spare cap iron from Timbecon for 30bux. 120bux for something which currently sells for $200+. Guess it depends if you actually use something which was in storage for 5 years

Originally Posted by aldav

....... Always good to be standing on firm ground before you start firing shots, otherwise you risk losing your balance and shooting yourself in the foot. .........

Very ancient Chinese proverb, Aldav; from Qiangshang Province, I believe.

After 63 posts, I really cannot see why Stevo got his knicker's in such a knot.

The facts, as they slowly emerged, seem quite simple:

• He bought a plane five years ago, in 2013, for $89,
• He failed to detect a manufacturing fault in a reasonable time,
• Five years later he detected a problem and started his rant,
• Vendor gratuitously refunded $99 against original price of $89!
• Rants about partial refund.

Many, if not most retailers, maintain blacklists.



Cheers

Graeme

Wow Graeme, I know Steve actually invited this but that's really hitting him with both barrels. I suspect he's not alone in having found himself in such a situation. I can't quite put my finger on the circumstances, but I'm sure I've been there.

I'm the seller in this scenario and got a chance to read this thread last night. I decided not to respond, thinking it would breathe further oxygen into an irrational exchange blown entirely out of proportion by impatience. My name's Jason Daniel, the company is Artesan Pty Ltd, under which we operate the Fine Tools website.

That was before I received the latest abusive and threatening email from Stevo this morning, questioning my integrity for not refunding him three times the amount he paid, and also for not refunding him for express postage that was neither discussed nor agreed. There’s a solid history of shoot first and ask questions later from Stevo.

It is absolutely correct I gave him a mild spray, as I'm sure most people here would after being abused, threatened and having their integrity questioned on multiple occasions.

I’ve considered addressing the many individual inaccuracies in this thread however it’s simply not worth the time, and I’m sure it’s not worth any of yours either. One point I’d like to make is I had a smaller but similar exchange with Stevo last year, and he is well aware we can’t respond instantaneously to every email, circumstances simply don’t permit that.


Fair enough though I took a while to get to Stevo's original request, have to cop that on the chin.

Rest assured that although we may be a small family business, we’re a serious one and of course honour our warranty obligations, in most cases in excess of what’s required by Australian consumer law. For example, the Luban factory doesn’t offer a warranty, the 5 year warranty offered on our website and listings comes out of my pocket. We’re prepared to offer that because it is a quality product and we’ve had very few issues. I’m under no obligation to do so, but do to provide peace of mind for people to feel comfortable with their purchase.


In this case, we have provided a full refund for an item purchased in September 2013.

We’re certainly not at all short on goodwill, we really appreciate our customers and will always bend over backwards where we can. The only reason Stevo was only offered a refund, is because quite simply I’m not prepared to deal with abusive and aggressive people.


All the best


Jason

My suggestion is strip down the plane and check the threads in the two outside frog locking screws. The issue with my Luban #4 was that the threads were not threaded fully. the screws would screw in and appear to bottom out, but where they stopped was just short of the position where they would secure the Bedrock frog locking pins. so the frog could move. It was an easy fix run an M6 tap down the holes and a die over the screws. Then just go back to basics , sharpen and hone the blade then calmly and carefully assemble and adjust the plane. Leave the lever cap off and use your eyes, see if the yoke is engaging in the lever cap correctly and that you have a good range of movement with the blade projection when you spin the adjuster. If it is doing all those things you should not have any further issues. All the best.

Well I think we can quietly close this thread now & all go home.

Stevo, I commend your courage for 'fessing up to the extent you have, it's not easy to admit our gaffes publicly. I think Jason has acted with undeniable integrity, given the time interval, so full kudos to him, & I hope that goes a long way towards restoring brand reputation. The thread has probably not done Luban a lot of good, it will have created a lingering doubt about the products in some minds, since we still don't know for sure what the source of the problem is.

If there is any good to come of it, maybe we've all had the value of careful analysis and patience re-enforced.....

Cheers,

Hello Ian W,
After reading your last post I fell I should say the following. My experience with the threads on my Luban #4 was on an earlier version with the Bronze lever cap and my understanding is that the newer versions with the stainless lever caps are subject to better quality assurance. After fixing the threads I had no further issues with my Luban #4 and it performed in all ways just as well as my Bronze LN #4. It was such a minor thing and only took 10 mins to fix, I did not even contact the seller. I hope people looking at Luban do not get turned off by any comment I have made, Luban tools are a quality products and like any tool, including premium tools, may need a small tweak to get the best out of them.

I have also bought from Jim Davey and as for items being prepared for immediate use, I wish he would not do it except on request.He is a lovely guy and is good to deal with and it is intended as a service to his clients, but I like to prepare my own tools for use as I get to know the tool and actually get something out of doing it ,even if it is only more experience sharpening.

All the best.
Jeff

Jeff - can you try to add a 1mm 50 degree bevel to the cap iron and see if you can seat it right at the edge of the iron and still get a reasonable cut depth? If so, can you let us know how much travel you have left? On a properly designed plane, you should basically be able to run a cap iron like that into the back side of the mouth without running out of adjustment.

I suspect this will be a systemic problem on luban planes due to what they were copied from. Creativity (and making various different versions) isn't something the chinese are big on with something they've copied. However, there's a chance that Rob Cosman may have addressed this and the entirety of QS tool's makes corrected (including the luban branded plane).

Jeff, I don't think your post was any cause for concern, I think there is always a place for constructive criticism, and information. In your case a bit of slack QC was probably to blame, you analysed the problem, fixed it, so I would put your post in the "useful info" category. I think Steve had a genuine problem, which would've been better addressed at the time he got it, however, I'd be lying if I claimed I'd never been guilty of procrastination or oversight, myself!

So here the matter rests for now. I would love to get hold of the item in question for 10 minutes, just to see what the problem is for sure, but that's unlikely, so the saga ends with a fade-out, it seems.....

Cheers,

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Hi Graeme

Around 2012, when discussions began about the chipbreaker, notably on the WoodCentral (and also the WoodNet) fori, the focus was the results of a video made by Professor Yasunori Kawai and Honorary Professor Chutaro Kato, Faculty of Education, Art and Science, Yamagata University. This may be found here ..

https://vimeo.com/158558759

(and) .....

David (DW) wrote a wonderful article, here: Setting a Cap Iron

(and) .....

Cap Iron Study: Cap Iron Study by Kees van der Heiden

.....Derek

Hi Derek

Foregive my delay in thanking you for these references and your summation, but I wanted time to read them properly and digest them.

Thank you so much. Great primary source material.

Its not what I saw before, but my (lost) source may have been based on a reproduction of this experiment.

Cheers

Graeme

Originally Posted by fine_tools

For example, the Luban factory doesn’t offer a warranty, the 5 year warranty offered on our website and listings comes out of my pocket. We’re prepared to offer that because it is a quality product and we’ve had very few issues. I’m under no obligation to do so, but do to provide peace of mind for people to feel comfortable with their purchase.

Firstly I'd like to say that paying a refund on a product bought five years ago is what I'd call excellent backup.

And secondly, I'm curious to know if you've had a chance to look at the plane in question and compare it to others to see what the issue with that particular one is?