Lee Valley Scraper Plane Insert - Any Info?

[Kevin Blunt]

Hi Guys,
I stumbled across this a little while ago and was thinking of buying it. It's a scraper plane insert that fits into specific sizes of the Bailey planes, which in turn converts them into a full fledged scraper plane. I'm wondering if anyone has this or has used this and what their opinion/results were. I think it's a great idea, but after speaking to one of the Lee Valley folks at the Toronto West store, he didn't even know what I was talking about. Basically, I showed it to them on their website in the store, and they took the part number and went and found it at the back. I had a look at it, but opted not to buy it since it will be over $40. Recently I have noticed a couple of these for sale on eBay, and now I'm thinking maybe I should grab one. Here's the catch: apparently LV/Veritas is not making this anymore and the scraper inserts the Tor West store had in stock were all they could get and when they were gone, they were gone. This leads me to this post...if they don't make it anymore, does it not work well, or is it just an unknown product? They are available on the website but are not in the catalogue for the last two years.
Here's the link if anyone is interested:
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=32635&cat=1,310
Any input at all would be greatly appreciated, since it would save the need to buy a scraper plane.
Thanks,
Kevin

[David Marcus Brown]

I haven't read anything good about them. If it were worth buying, they'd still make it.

[Paul Erickson]

I suspect that one possible reason it is no longer made is to avoid competition with the Scraper planes they now make. I have one and once you get it adjusted, it seems to work fine. I believe David Charlsworth uses one.

cheers, Paul

[Gary Miller]

I've had mine for some years now and regually use it. I also got the extra heavy blade for different uses.

[Eddie Darby]

I can safely say that Lee Valley Tools has never made anything that doesn't work. It is just that some work better than others.

I have the insert you listed and I am very happy with it. I use it for curly maple. I eventually didn't like having to swap it in and out of the plane all the time, so I bought an inexpensive Stanley plane for the unit to stay in. If you pick-up a good deal on a cheap second hand plane, then this is a good way to go about it, but if you have to buy a new plane, then I would get a dedicated scraper plane in the first place. Also of course if you are looking at a nice new high end plane to replace an old Jack or Smoother, then you now have an excuse to buy!

The staff at Lee Valley Tools use to be fairly knowledgeable, I say use to, because for some reason, I find more and more, in recent years, that the staff are getting watered down somewhat, so perhaps this is why the person did not know about this unit. It is still listed on the web-page, so I would have to say that it should be around at least until the next major catalogue change.

If you go to the store and look around, you will see some things that aren't in the catalogue, but that are in the store, such as Dremel and Foredom power units. I still have recieved great support from Lee Valley Tools with the Dremel I bought from them years ago, even though it probably has been a decade since they listed them in the main catalogue! You can't say that about everyone you can buy tools from.

[Pam Niedermayer]

I don't know specifically about LV and their catalog relationship with manufacurers; but in the software business we had to pay, and pay big, to get in the printed catalogs. So being included in a catalog is normally not the deciding factor in whether an item is sold by a retailer.

Pam