LN stuff?

[Cian]

............
I know it's like letting go of that part of your life, Admiral...but it is time that you can never get back,...I keep after my daughter...she's still working at 65, even tho they are financially secure..she likes what she does as a nurse for the VA....I WILL make one concession...be SURE you have a hobby or something that you can stay busy at to occupy your time...but I have NEVER had a problem like that..I always have something I "could" do and like to do....just don't always feel good enough...everybody gets to that point eventually....Best to do what you LIKE to do before the time comes when you CAN"T.

Besides...work cuts into your Free Time!!!!!
 

Wise words.  I've heard on more than a few occassions from my parents and their peers wherein their colleagues would retire, but up to that point work was the totality of their life.  So when their friends had retired, they had no other passions nor any idea what to do, and sadly had expired less than a handful of years later.  Really sad.

[iclark]

Hi Scott - 

We are having lots of problems....out of just about everything - with capacity running at about 20% lower than normal - with demand through the roof. Lead times are pushing 8-12 months for our products now.

That's before supply chain issues - 

Not a fun time for manufacturing....

We can't even run all the machines we have, let alone increase capacity.

There is light at the end of the tunnel.... but there's still a lot of tunnel.....

Cheers - 

Rob

Rob,

Thank you for the update. +1 on the well-wishes for good health for you and yours.

May the light at the end of the tunnel not be an on-coming dragon.

[Tony Z]

To Rob/LV and LN, manufacturing is coming back very strong, though your sector might lag mine by a few months. Our challenges, as yours, are inflationary costs of raw material and out-sourced services.

[CStan]

I sure wish Preston, Record, Norris, Mathieson, Marples, et al. were still in business. That would really be something.

[tablesawtom]

I am a retired Tool and Die Maker. Retired at 62 and am now 75. A friend of mine ,who was a book keeper, figured out that a person retiring at 62 would have to live to 84, before staying until full retirement at 66, for the extra 300 a month money would make a difference. 

Don't get me wrong because I live comfortably on retirement. But $3000 for a replacement engine for the SUV, or replacing a truck when the leaf spring comes through the bed of the truck can cause a few problems.  I haven't had to deal with the lose of my wife yet.

Anyway we just got back from a 2 week vacation, went to Texas. Why are you writing this? It is because about 3 years ago I went back to work Part time. I work Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7am to 12. Working paid for the trip and hopefully the switch over from a General 350 Table Saw to a Saw Stop. And #2, I just love building things, it is what I am.

I make tooling, jigs and fixtures and anything that needs made so production can continue. I work in a machine shop with about 15 or so CNCs And he hasn't had a whole lot of problems getting materials. The longest wait was 2 week for forgings to come from Italy. And if someone is absent for any reason another person goes over and runs the parts. If they are in-between orders they run a different  part on a different machine. In other words the people are cross trained and the work is accomplished and parts are shipped.

My employers biggest problem is getting good employees. Not everyone can do that type of machining where a person can change or write and MDI their programs.

Maybe things are different on the coasts, but I haven't seen the delays some are experiencing. And based in what I am experiencing, I find some of the reasons hard to believe. 

Tom

[AHill]

I turn 65 this year. I will not retire this year. I love what I do. Last year I was offered a substantial bonus to stay for 3 more years. This year, I was named a corporate Technical Fellow for a large aerospace defense company. I love solving problems, mentoring, and teaching my discipline across the corporation, so that reinforced my decision to stay at work. I got remarried 5 years ago and inherited 3 kids. Two are supporting themselves now (an Air Force Air Traffic Controller and an Amazon Distribution Center manager). The youngest will graduate from HS next year and is quite talented. I want to ensure she can choose wherever she wants to go to college without any financial pressures. To me, family is more important than any of my hobbies.

My company has also suffered getting components and materials from suppliers. Early during the pandemic, many were shut down by the respective country, state or local governments. The USG got involved getting some of those companies exemptions in the interest of national security. We are fortunate. I am thankful I never had to get laid off during the pandemic. Our production isn't back to the same pace as it was pre-pandemic, but we are pretty close.

[Handplanesandmore]

I turn 65 this year.  I will not retire this year.  I love what I do. 

Retirement is a personal choice, and as long as you love doing what you do -- for money or not -- your decision is right.

I know two fellows your age who have no plans to retire whatsoever.....probably until their health conditions dont allow them to work anymore. They think work is their only way to spend time. Hobby? -- unless you count working and making money -- none for them.

A few professionals I know have retired but still maintain their professional life by freelancing, eg, an accountant doing tax returns for others once a year and making some money to pay for toys or travel etc. In terms of hours, they're working an hour or so a week (total hrs worked a year/52 weeks).

Some people dont like the label of a retiree....they think it equates to old, weak or second class. It's a confidence issue for them.

Simon

[Admiral]

I turn 65 this year.  I will not retire this year.  I love what I do. . . . .  The youngest will graduate from HS next year and is quite talented.  I want to ensure she can choose wherever she wants to go to college without any financial pressures.  To me, family is more important than any of my hobbies.

Those are two good reasons to continue working, and you will accrue additional SS benefits as a result of the delay, so good for you! But I'm guessing your SS "full retirement age" is 66, so you would have at least another year to go without penalty but you are Medicare eligible, which is the most important thing. I'm 68 in May, and put off hanging it up last year due to the pandemic, but I think I'll be out by the end of the year.  Working remotely the last 14 months has given my bride time to acclimate to my being around the house so perhaps I won't annoy her very much by retiring!!  

[Yodascaretaker]

Yeah, it sucks. Because of shortages, the resell (or should I say “scalping”) market is out of control. I just saw an eBay listing for 4 regular LN bench chisels... $499... The crazy thing is that those items are available through backorder.

If the fear of overproducing and getting stuck with inventory is an issue, I don’t understand why they just don’t do “drop” style releases. That’s where you announce the possibility of producing a batch of a particular item, allow people to sign up and pay in advance, and manufacture them only if a quota is met. For example, you’d say “If 300 people sign up and make the payment for a number 51 Shooting plane by July 1st, we will manufacture them and fulfill the orders within 4-6 months.”

That eliminates the possibility of overproducing and being stuck with excess inventory. It also provides much needed funding to acquire materials, pay employees, and manufacture the products.

I totally understand why stock has been so unpredictable, so I’m not here to complain. The one thing that bothers me is that they really don’t (because they can’t) communicate about which items will or will not be made again. There are a few things that I REALLY want, but I’m not sure if I should wait, or if I should pay more than MSRP to a reseller now in order to avoid having to pay 3x that in a few years when the items are officially “discontinued”.

We’ve all seen the listings... Whenever you see an insane price (like $1,300 for a large chisel plane), the first word of the listing is “Discontinued”, “Extremely Rare”, or “Will never be made again”. I won’t get into my personal views about the people who do such things, but I will say that I’m not a fan of those who try to take advantage of things like that. It’s one thing if you need the money and you didn’t plan on getting rid of the item (in that case I think it’s acceptable), but if someone just wasn’t using it and decides that they are gonna cash in big time on covid related shortages, they definitely aren’t someone that I’d be friends with...

I hope that Lie Nielsen makes it through this because their stuff is just special. I’ve only recently started working exclusively with hand tools so I have only been aware of LN for less than a year. I own plenty of tools from other manufacturers, but LN is at the top of my list. They are a great company and make a great product. I was bummed when I found out that they wouldn’t be holding any events or workshops until 2022 at the earliest. I was really hoping that I’d get an opportunity to go up to Maine and do the whole “kid in a candy shop” thing.

Anyways, I’m sure that they are doing the best that they possibly can considering our current situation. They have always taken care of me as a customer, so as long as they are making the quality tools that I’ve come to love, I’ll keep buying them.

[CStan]

I think L-N's teat is in a wringer because they've ended up sub'ing out way more than they make under their own roof. Works until it doesn't. They're getting hoisted on their own petard of just-in-time, lean inventory models that look great in an Excel spreadsheet. Ain't lookin' so great now.

I am by no means the best customer they've ever had, but I have spent money with them -- always directly and never through Woodcraft or anywhere else -- hand beader, rabbeting block plane, dovetail saw, a few card scrapers, is what I recall off the top of my head over the last twenty years.

If a company has maintained protocol within the organization, one individual getting sick or being exposed elsewhere should mean that only that person has to go on quarantine, and for the amount of time normally represented by, say, going on vacation. So, are we to believe nobody at L-N ever took a vacation, or that when they did the whole bloody place, or particular product line, came to a screeching halt? Two (or more) employees were never on vacation at the same time? Wuuut? Either sump'n don't gee-haw, or that's a flimsy business model in the first place and problems were baked into the cake. Indefinite backorders should be an embarrassment, not a management tool. Nowhere have I seen in the statements on Lie-Nielsen's website a profound apology to customers or a mea culpa. Just put your cute little vest on, wax your mustache, have a little tea, and shrug it all off. "Meh, this happened and we're taking backorders." "It's the supply chain, you see..."

Okee dokee.

Short of a nuclear holocaust, to not be able to fill an order for a standard iron bench plane in No's 4, 5, and 7, what I presume is the heart of their business, is practically unforgivable. And then there's the issue with replacement parts, which is probably worthy of another thread. Suffice to say, better take care of what you've got and if you've chosen to use their tools to help you make your living, that you've built in redundancies so none if this will affect your own operation. The guys that run and own these companies need to be reminded that not everybody is a hobbyist and/or tool collector. Companies that provide tradesmen's tools have a particular duty to be less vulnerable than they have clearly been shown to be. Stanley apparently adapted to WWI (with accompanying flu pandemic), the Great Depression, and WWII. Two world wars, a depression. and a pandemic at least as bad if not worse than the current one! Hell, some of the best planes Stanley ever made were made during the Depression years. My maternal grandfather was a carpenter in the Mississippi Delta during the Depression, and I can assure you there was no work. My mother literally grew up malnourished, and had many health problems later in life because of it. Yet, Stanley soldiered on. I understand that the pandemic created some unique challenges, but enough is enough. Too many excuses. If all L-N is doing is hoping they can keep it pieced together so they can go back to doing business the same way as they did before the pandemic, then they can frankly go pee up a rope. They're just as vulnerable to the next crisis. You're a fool if you give them your business. I don't know what other companies have fared better, thankfully my tool kit has been complete for years, but if I were in the market I'd find that company or companies and lavish my business on them for the rest of my working life.

Off soapbox.