Don’t mind me. I covered those snap rings when I didn’t need to.
The bit of wobble is fine. These tools are made to give a bit. It’s not noticeable when you get going. You just learn to keep the wood centered and your eye on the ball as you clamp those handles together. And these tools are made to be calibrated from time to time. I calibrate my 450$ tool a few times or three every grafting season, sometimes more.
Keep some WD-40 on it and dismiss my wild tape adventure. Notch that top out however . . . and you’ll be good to go.
Dax, Thanks for the info.
I ordered several blades from the same seller. It should arrive within a few days. (It is already in the US per tracking information)
I got the $23 tool from Banggood.com. It looks identical to the Amazon tool so I’m sending the Amazon one back. I also got two sets of replacement blades for what $7 or close to that. I’ll be grafting figs soon.
Just received the blades today from Dax’s recommended seller on aliexpress. They look very well made!
I got them before I received the grafting tool itself which still appears to be in China.
What a weird site Aliexpress is. I ordered one of the grafting tools along with the spare blades but I’m still not exactly sure what kind of site it is. It appears as if Aliexpress is some sort of broker for a bunch of Chinese wholesalers. I added the tool and the blades to my cart. When I selected checkout the “paypal” option was greyed out. I was unwilling to use my credit card. It dis allow me to check out individually for each item using PayPal so that’s what I did. I paid about $31 for the tool and two spare sets of blades.
They take paypal. Thats how I paid them.
But I agree that the site needs a lot of usability work. They successfully completed the purchase and then silently canceled it for some unknown technical reason. when I checked the site again to see shipping details, I found out there was an issue and had to repurchase.
Amazing that they are the #1 ecommerce site in the world!
I went through the purchase process for the blades in BarkSlip’s link. It shows paypal on the main page, but when you go to make the purchase, that disappears. The little digging I did said that AliExpress does handle paypal but each individual merchant decides if they will accept it. They even have a help page that shows you how to delete non-paypal items from your cart so you can pay with paypal for those companies that accept it.
If you can point me to a link for the blades that does have the paypal option, that would be great. I couldn’t seem to use it for the blades.
alibabba is a big Chinese company. They are trying to legitimize the wild wild west of Chinese commerce. Most folks here in the US won’t take the risk. They have put a lot of money into there AliExpress site but it will take a lot of time to build trust. Like they have done in many markets, the Chinese are trying to buy in on price. That is why you see prices that are ridiculously low compared to say Amazon for the same item.
I’m not about to offer up a credit card number to them. I figure that with Paypal a trusted 3rd party holds my CC number.