The Veritas Router Plane - a review

[Derek Cohen]

My review of the Veritas Router Plane is finally on-line and may be accessed through the link below.

http://www.onlinetoolreviews.com/reviews/veritasrouterplane.htm

I was asked to write a review by the website involved (which is dedicated to tool reviews. Another review of mine, the LV Medium Shoulder Plane may be found in their index). They supplied the plane (which I got to keep - yeah!).

The article is quite long (I guess you should be getting used to this by now - why say something in one word when several will do), in the main due to the many images it contains.

While the Stanley #71/71-1/2 is compared, this is not a shoot-out, really more to highlight the new features the Veritas RP introduces.

The article will also take you through a number of joints at which the router plane excels, such as stopped grooves, the dado, the sliding dovetail, and hinge mortising. These are all illustrated step-by-step.

I hope you find it enjoyable and helpful.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[David Scarborough]

Hi Derek,
thats an excellent review on the new plane. I am a die hard #71 user but I'll definately give the new plane some serious consideration.
Think you might be willing to do a "long term" usage review?

Best,

DS

[Mike Henderson]

Derek - Good review on the LV router plane. Can you answer a question about the Stanley 71, please? Why did Stanley make it with the arched front? What's the advantage of that design compared to the 71 1/2, which is flat across the front?

They offered the dohickey that bridges across the arch, but it is so far from the blade so it doesn't work to "close the mouth".

I haven't been able to come up with any advantage to the arched design.

Any comments will be appreciated. I've always wondered about this.

Mike

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Mike

As I understand it, the Stanley router plane (#71) started life as a flat, enclosed model. About 5 years into production they arched the front. And then another 5 or so years later they introduced the mechanism inside it. Shortly after this they brought out a second model, the #71 1/2, with a enclosed front (which was a return to the original #71!).

Thus it appears that:

(1) the original arch was added to aid vision.

(2) the mechanism added performs two tasks: (a) it provides additional footprint for registration, and (b) the rod is used on its own as a depth stop.

(3) Stanley realized that they had screwed up the design of the original #71, the better of the two designs, and so brought it back.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[rick fulton]

Derek -
Excellent review. Your write-up and pictorial is more thorough, in-depth, and balanced than most trade magazine reviews. Thanks for posting.
rick

[Roy Wall]

Nice review as usual Derek!!! Excellent - to be more exact!

You got a good thing going with those reviews......:cool: :) :D

[Jerry Palmer]

Derek,
Fantastic primer on joinery with the router plane. It answers a significant number of questions I've seen here and elsewhere concerning "How to" do this that or the other. Definitely gonna bookmark that one as a resource.

As well, a great summary and conclusion on the plane itself.

[Tyler Howell]

Very informative. Thanks Derek

[James Mittlefehldt]

I recently had occasion to cut a 21 inch long 1/2 inch deep, by 3/4 wide slot in a shaving horse I am working on. I marked it out and rough chopped it with a mortise cisel and cleaned out the bottom with the v blade of the Lee Valley router plane. took me roughly 20 minutes, and it looks great. I have the Stanley version which I bought new in 1999 or so, but never used the v blade. It is slick and it was amazing the way it cleaned up the bottom of the slot.

Derek thanks for the revue, I had already bought mine but your revue showed much that could be done with it. I used my Stanley mainly as a plough plane for box and drawer bottoms. By the way how do you like that marking gauge you show in the picture of the mortise and tenon joint, it looks like the one I just bought from LeeValley but have not been able to use yet?

[Terry Beadle]

Thanks again for a great review! When are you going to start your own magazine? Book? Videos!

What I like best are your examples and technique methods.

Thanks again.