LV "Little Victor" plane modification...
John Aniano in central NJ...
>Hello All,
A few weeks ago I got (2) of the new Lee Valley "Little Victor" planes and they are quite nice. Nice finish, nice machining, flat bottom, etc. I thought they would be appropriate for my bow making use as they are quite small and a size intermediate between the Stanley 102 planes I use for roughing out and the tiny ~1-1/2" long brass planes I use for finishing. In general, one planes a bow stick by holding the stick in one hand with the plane being held in the other hand. The LV planes however, have the blade adjustment/tightening screw/device right where I would put my fingers of my right hand when holding the plane. So, I removed the screw and it's cogged wheel and replaced it with a wooden wedge contoured to give some comfort to my fingers. So far, it feels far better than the original adjustment screw and cog but because the wedge is longer than the blade (for comfort) it is a bit more difficult to set the blade depth. Some of my tiny brass planes are similar so it is not too much of an inconvenience - I already am used to adjusting planes with short blades. Thus, I'm happy with the result.
Finally, I apologize to Robin Lee of LV for my customizing his well-thought out tool. I hope my changes to this plane doesn't cause grief to the engineer(s) who put these into production.
Over and out,
John
