Veritas Router Plane - review *LINK*

Re: Veritas Router Plane - review

Jack Guzman from Maine

>Very nice Derek.Not only a thorough review but a handy tutorial on making a few common joints.Great pictures too.---Jack

Well Done!

Paul Kramer

>

Easily readable, informative review.Thanks

Matti Kuikka

>

Thanks Derek-very informative!

Jim Cosgrove

>

Thanks for Another Great Review.

Mike Fitterling

>

Re: Veritas Router Plane - review

Dick Schafer

>Thanks Derek, I just got mine yesterday so haven't had a chance to play yet. Have wanted one since I saw the prototype at Montanafest.

Re: Veritas Router Plane - ploughing grooves

Norman (Metcalfe, Ont.)

>Derek,

The part about using the router plane as a plough plane.

I hadn't thought of that..

Actually, I wasn't even aware that a fence was available for the LV router plane, very necessary for this operation...

Is this something you heartily recommend, or would

you reach for a plough plane first...

How does it perform in dense hardwoods. specifically for

ploughing grooves?

Thx,

Norman

Very informative Derek. Nicely done. Thx.

HC Sakman

>

Excellent, Derek! Thank You Very Much!

Bob Hutchins in central Texas

>

Re: Veritas Router Plane - ploughing grooves

Warren in Lancaster, PA

>I found it interesting that the review doesn't mention the one operation that I use the router for most often: routing a flat bottom depression in the middle of a board. I use a plow for grooves, a dado plane for dados and a chisel for some of the other operations mentioned.

One big difference in the new router is the lack of a depth stop. When making an excavation of say 3/8 inch with a Stanley router, you can set the cutter depth to 3/8 and set the depth stop to 1/64 or so to limit the depth of cut and rout out multiple pieces without changing the setting at all. With the veritas you would have to rout a small depth and then make an adjustment every time as you lower the cut, a dozen times or more for every recess you make- a distinct disadvantage. If all you are doing is flattening the bottom of a recess and not actually routing the veritas would be alright.

Re: Veritas Router Plane - review

Nick Tuzzolino

>Perfect timing, Derek. I got one of these for Christmas and was getting ready to hone the cutters this week. Great article. thanks!!

Re: Veritas Router Plane - ploughing grooves

Alan Bierbaum, near Denver, CO

>"One big difference in the new router is the lack of a depth stop"

Mine has a depth stop and Derick even shows how to set it for a hinge mortise. On top of the depth stop; the cutting depth adjustment is by a "calibrated" knob. I fail to understand what you are trying to actually say.

Alan

Re: depth stop

Warren in Lancaster, PA

>On the Stanley router there is a post in front of the cutter which can be adjusted up and down. This post is adjusted to slightly less depth than the cutter. The post, which is called depth stop in the literature, rides on the surface that you are cutting preventing the cutter from digging in. The result is that you can rout to a given depth in increments as if you were planing- the shavings are regulated and you do not adjust from start to finish. If you wanted to do this on the veritas, you could set the final depth on the plane, but then you would have to set it to cut a shallow amount then slightly lower it many times in order to cut the full depth. None of the operations in the review removed material incrementally with the router.

I hope this helps. Warren

Re: depth stop *LINK*

Alice Frampton, UK

>Never could make head nor tail of that Stanley stop, but fwiw I did a start-to-finish stopped groove with the Veritas, adjusting the cutter incrementally. It's a piece of cake. Once you're in the rhythm of loosen cuter clamp, advance blade, tighten clamp, cut, loosen etc, it goes pretty quick. I've never even used the depth stop on the Stanley, simply because it's less intuative. But to be honest, how often do you need an incremental depth guide on a router plane anyway? Well maybe you do, I don't know, but for me it wasn't much of an issue either way.

Now if you'd objected to "All blades were sharp enough out of the box to be used � but of course no sensible handtooler would do that" and "I cannot see how a serious router plane user could live without one (a fence)." I'd having been rushing to agree. Now an insane handtooler unnecessarily honing router cutters, yep, that makes sense, so maybe a typo? But the fence? Pish. Only one operation Derek did used a fence; heck, it's a luxury, mate :~)

Cheers, Alf

P.S. Nice one, Derek; I only disagree with, oh, two or three things ;~)


Another viewpoint

Re: depth stop

Alan Bierbaum, near Denver, CO

>OK, I understand what you are talking about, now. I have never used the original Stanley with a depth stop; however it seems that it would raise parts of the base off of the work surface (and make it somewhat unstable). I have used the Veritas for incremental depth work, and do not find moving the cutter to be a problem. Different strokes for different people, maybe.

Alan

Nice review & tutorial also, thanks!

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>

Re: Veritas Router Plane - review

Steve knight

>I wish I could afford one right now. but I don't use one enough to justify it. but I did get a replacement iron for my stanley.

Veritas Router Plane - a little follow-up

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>Many thanks all for the kind words about the article. They are very much appreciated.

Rob Lee has clarified the position with the 1/4" blade. You may recall that I questioned why it, as with the two 1/2" blades, could not have a removable cutter. Rob pointed out that this was not possible owing to the forces on the blade being too high ("... the forces on the blades are VERY high ...") to avoid the likelihood of breakage. And there was I going to ask for (or grind myself) 1/8" (for stringing) and 3/16" cutters!

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Veritas Router Plane - ploughing grooves

Paul Kierstead

>I'm not Derek, but I do own the router and a plow. The plow as a much better "position of power", especially for longer grooves. If you push a bit hard on the router, it tends to want to cant foward due to the position of the hands; I don't think you can practically get the really rank shavings off the router that you can of the plow.

Re: Veritas Router Plane - ploughing grooves

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>Hi Norman

Now only a plough will cut like a plough :)

But a router plane will plough a groove (with the grain) and can take quite long shavings in doing so. My point (in the article) was that if you add the fence to the router plane (so that it is held to a line), the router plane will plough a decent groove. Not as fast or as securely as a dedicated plough plane, to be sure, but good enough to use in this guise should you need. And when you are cutting a stopped groove, then using a dedicated plough plane is not as easy as using a router plane.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Stringing

paul womack

>As far as I know string is (was!) always done using a scratch cutter, or (if you're being fancy) a Preston style quirk blade.

http://nika.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswingle/archive/get.phtml?message_id=106189#message

http://www.toolbazaar.co.uk/Spares.asp#3

BugBear

Re: Stringing

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>Yes BB, I know (that a scratch cutter can be used for stringing). I am curious at this time, having had so much intense involvement with the router plane recently (and still thinking somewhat single-mindedly about its use), whether and how one would work to do such a task. I have not attempted this before. Curious enough to experiment a little.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Stringing

paul womack

>I can tell you that using a 1/8 blade in a #043 tends to leave quite a torn surface.

I think (speculation alert!) when a scratch is used for stringing, it has VERY little tendancy to tear out the sides/surface of the groove - there's no "upward" component to the cutting action.

BugBear

Re: Stringing

Dan Donaldson

>Couldn't you make a blade for a router plane that is basically a "scratch" cutter? Not sure if it would work, or if it would have any advantage over an actual scratch cutter, but might be possible.