Q: Good afternoon, I’ve been in business as an Architectural woodworker for 33 years with a crew of 2-4 guys tops and many a time by myself. I have a shop full of old machinery and I value the work I put out. So I’m small time building furniture, specialty doors and staircases etc for contractors, designers and regular homeowners. I believe this is the first time I’ve picked up 4 of your 5 knuckle ball bearing Architectural hinges with the PBB label in fabricating for a 2-1/4” door/mahogany entrance. I’m usually picking up Cal Royal, Ives etc but in this particular case I was told Cal Royal was a lengthy wait and I would have to work with PBB. I must say, and you won’t like this, that the US10B finish on this Item :PBB 4B21 5 x 5 613 hinge was terrible. It looked like it was sprayed by rookies, was rough, and lacked any type of quality. I need better than that if I have a customer who is spending $9000.00 for an entrance. I now plan on either spraying on my own or having them powder coated. If this is what I’m to expect from PBB then I would rather stay away. Picked them up through AB Supply. I was even thinking that this was sprayed in the backroom of AB supply hoping that this really isn’t the type of product that you like to sell. You may not like hearing that but I really need to let you know. Sincerely, Rudy S
A: We apologize if you have received product from us whereas the finish is unacceptable, could you please send us a few pictures via email for our quality team to take a look at. We are not in the business of sending out bad finished product as the product itself goes through many stages of quality inspection. PBB’s 10B finish is known to be one of the best in the nation as others follow our lead and we are the only hinge company that has a state of the art finishing facility. We have been in business for over 31 years as PBB and the owners are expert hinge makers going back as far as 1973 (44 years). We understand that quality product makes the sale as most of our customers are high end users of door hinges and we make every single kind of hinge that there is. It’s an art to making a hinge, but it’s even more of an art to finish that hinge in a very fine fashion. If the product is unacceptable, please just send it back to us for a replacement as we stand behind everything we make.
Q: Thank you for your quick reply. Didn’t expect that. I took the 4 hinges and immediately and with ease removed the finish with a 3M pad. I’ve enclosed the pic of the 4 hinges in that state along side a Cal Royal as seen here:
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I need to install the door early next week so I’m going to spray on a Oil Rubbed bronze finish. With all of your High Tech finishing capabilities it wouldn’t seem possible that a finish of such poor quality would get out the door. As stated earlier it looks like it was hand sprayed over PBB hinges. In ending I thank you for your time and for responding to such a small complaint but nevertheless important to me. We will move on. Have a good day. Rudy S
A: I have spoken to PBB and asked:
Jeff - please reply to this email me a step by step process of how 613 is done and what 613 is and what it should look like along with an explanation of "living finish"
To which they responded:
To Whom It May Concern,
As PBB’s US 10B plating technology is under specific proprietary rights, we cannot give out our formulas or chemical structures by any means of our oxidizing or the electroplating methods and techniques. We can however tell you that our process conforms to not only ANSI standards A156.18 for US10B antique bronze processing but also conforms to the ASTM B-117 salt spray testing affirmed and accredited by ITS (Intertek Testing Services).
Pictures attached here:
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affirm that PBB’s US10B dark bronze plating is in fact US10B dark bronze plating (#1 picture)
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unlike the picture of the light antique bronze picture sent to us (#2 picture) here:
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We know that the inventory in stock is like the picture #1 and not like the picture #2, we do not know what happen in between here and there. If the customer is unsatisfied with the product or the finish of the product please just send them back for a replacement. #2 US10B plating affirms that the unit parts coming off the plating line are in fact US10B dark bronze. Our plating machine is state of the art in today’s world (PBB Plating Machine), no equipment compares as seen above! Please find our statement on US10B “living finish” Attached here:
Download File
Regards,
Jeff W
PBB, INC.