Today was the last day of a road trip vacation, that took my wonderful wife and I up to Burlington, VT(sorry I didn't have time to holler at you Joshua P), then up to Montreal, and then ended over in Ottawa, the home of the Lee Valley Dynasty.
The entire trip was planned around my long awaited visit to the Lee Valley/Veritas factory (I married a great women), and, oh my, was it ever worth it!
My Lee Valley visit began at the front doors of their main office, where I was greeted by my friend/Veritas's brilliant head of R&D Rick B. After a brief stop in Rick's office (where I must have handled every tool on his desk), we headed upstairs to see the man himself, Robin Lee. I've gotten to know Rob over the past couple years on the forums and via email correspondence, so it was wonderful to finally meet him in person. In addition, to getting to have a nice chat with him, I was able to see and handle the tools on Robs infamous office shelves. The shelves are packed with a mix of old and new planes that reflect Rob's favorite tools at any given point in time. Not only did I get to handle some really interesting old tools (such as a very unique small fenced block plane....that I would describe as something like a Stanley 101 with an adjustable fence), but I also got to handle some very high end modern infill planes made by the likes of Brese, Marcou, and even Holtey. I must to say that it is comforting to know that the head of such a great and prolific tool manufacturing company has the same...really worse..addiction as the rest of us. It is clear that the man is passionate about hand tools.
While the visit to Robs office alone was worth the proverbial price of admission, that was only the beginning of an afternoon visit that far exceeded what I expected and hoped for. Upon leaving Robs office Rick spent a full 3 hours with me taking me through every nook and cranny of the Lee Valley/Veritas offices, factory, store, and warehouse. Every part was incredibly interesting and innovative to say the least, down to how they organize the warehouse and organize their pickers product lists. I never realized how much could go into to something like organizing a warehouse, and I must say I found it incredibly interesting.
Anyway, I could go on so here are the bullett'd highlights of the visit:
- Rick sat me down and mapped out/explained the entire design process, from origins of initial idea, to the design, the actual engineering, the early prototyping, the "pre-production" run, final tweaks, and finally production.
- I had the privilege to see the current "project wall". This was basically a full wall of printed out AutoCAD type renderings of all the things they are currently working on....some of which were currently in production to be released soon, some of which are currently in the design and engineering phase, and others that are nothing more than concepts that may or may not ever come to fruition. "The wall" may have very well been my favorite part of the visit. The number of cool things I saw on it and hope to be able to buy some day blew my mind. AND NO, I can't tell you what they are, so don't ask.
- Rick showed me the 3D printer and showed me how it works. It was way cool. Even COOLER, I also got to handle a 3D printing of a tool that is currently in the early stage of design. It was amazing to to be able to hold and adjust a tool that has not even been produced...sure it was plastic, but it was super cool.(again don't ask...sorry I can't and won't say what it is)
- I got to meet several of the designers and engineers. I made a point to ask Rick to introduce me to the good fella, named Terry, who designed the SBUS, so that I could tell him how much I like it.
- I got to see all the video and photo studios. It's all done in house, which is awesome. I even got to see the video studio where they shoot the demos with Vic Tesolin. Vic was on vacation so I didn't get to meet him, but I did chat with his video producer and I got to mess around in the studio and of course, put my greedy hands all over the tools that sit on the shelf behind him in all the videos.
- I got to go through the entire manufacturing facility. I saw raw castings and was showed what makes a good casting and a reject, I saw castings being machined and tools of all sorts being machined, I saw a large number of MASSIVE granite inspection plates and employees checking tolerances on them at EVERY step, I was shown the blade grinding and the blade lapping equipment, saw individualized setups for machining different types of tools, got to see the CNC shop where some handles/totes are made, visited the assembly rooms, walked by an assembled run of tools fresh of the presses...and the list goes on and on...I can't remember it all..but it was awesome!!!
- Another favorite part of the visit was the trip to the room where the R&D team tests out the tools. Not only was I able to play with just about every tool LV makes in there, but I got to walk through the room where they keep the bins that hold the original plastic prototypes of every tool they've made. It was really cool to look through the various models of some of the tools and see how they evolved (sometimes significantly) from the original plastic prototype to what ended up sitting on our tool shelves.
- Finally...I almost forgot to mention. I got to see "The Lee Collection"...the legendary room FULL...and I mean FULL, of row after row, of vintage tools...from hand drills to lumber jack saws...from common hardware store bailey planes to Preston shoulder planes and vintage infills...I couldn't begin to look through or handle everything. I've never seen to many incredible tools in one place.
Anyway, that is just some highlights, I can't begin to describe every aspect of the visit. I can only say that as much as I already liked this company, I am 100 times more impressed now that I have seen its inner workings.
I feel privileged to call Rob and Rick my friends and honored that they trusted me enough to show me so much of the inner workings and confidential projects of the company.
Thank you Rob and Rick, sincerely, it was an incredible experience.
And to all my SMC friends if your an LV fan (and maybe even if you're not) I advise you to start setting aside some cash in anticipation for this fall. It's going to be a doozy. Sorry...that's all I can say...but trust me on this...it's going to leave our wallets a good bit lighter.
(I know, I know,..no pictures, it didn't happen. Sorry I didn't bring my camera and even if I had I wouldn't have been allowed to use it..so you'll just have to take my word this time)
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Originally Posted by george wilson
