Walkthrough of manufacturing for new Veritas skew rabbet

[Chris Friesen]

Haven't seen it mentioned here yet, but if you go to Woodworking Australia's "Woodwork Forums" and search for a thread called "A walk through the shop..." you might find something interesting.

I'd post the link, but that's against the rules...

[Richard Magbanua]

Man, that was awesome!! Thanks for posting that. My credit card is already shaking in my pocket.

[mike holden]

Thanks for the heads up!
BTW, it is easier to search for Veritas and then it pops up.
Mike

[Richard Magbanua]

Just found it on the website for sale. $299 each or $399 for both (limited time only). Can't wait for a review.

[Rob Lee]

Hi -

Instead of bouncing to the other site - I'll cross-post it here too...

Cheers -

Rob
--------------------------

Actually, a quick walk through the machine shop…

As you walk through the doors of our manufacturing facility, the first area you enter is actually our assembly area. Here, there are rolling carts with finished assemblies:

Pic1 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/C4.jpg)

Stationary shelving with assemblies to undergo final inspection:

Pic2 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/C5.jpg)

And even bodies that still have the QC tags attached. Each plane body has a checklist that travels with it through each of our manufacturing processes:

Pic3 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/C1.jpg)

We use a lot of carpeting and cardboard to keep parts separate:

Pic4 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/C10.jpg)
Pic5 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/P13.jpg)
Pic6 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/C8.jpg)
Pic7 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/P1.jpg)

It’s often the wooden parts that get put on last in this area:

Pic8 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/P2.jpg)

Stepping out of the assembly area (and putting on our safety glasses!) we head into the surface grinding area. Here you can see various bodies with QC sheets:

Pic9 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/C11.jpg)

…as well as some unique bodies being ground..

Pic10 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/T1.jpg)

It’s also in this area where we have some of our largest mills – each holding up to 60 different tools, and capable of some pretty complex operations. Here’s a tombstone with plane bodies mounted at all sorts of weird angles for some reason….

Pic11 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/T3.jpg)

Each face of the tombstone can hold multiple fixtures, or pieces of tooling. While not necessarily much to look at – these are executed in very hard steels, at high tolerances, and are the foundations for accurate and repeatable milling:

Pic12 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/T2.jpg)

Mounting a part in different orientations lets us use one milled surface as the reference face for a subsequent operation – as well as positioning the casting so as to allow for machining operation on a different axis:

Pic13 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/T4.jpg)


Of course, each step in the mill is choreographed, and can be easily seen by numbering the steps (and the tool used) on a casting…

Pic14 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/T5.jpg)

At the very back of the building is where the real high-tech equipment is..
Here’s an automatic lathe turning out some sort of specialized part:

Pic15 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/P11.jpg)


And, on a nearby desk, there are a few more! What’s interesting here – is that the green tag part can be seen! It’s the first part made in the run – 100% in tolerance and fully inspected by our QC department…

Pic16 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/P12.jpg)


Here are a few other boxes of parts, with one shown after milling, and the first off’s lying nearby…

Pic17 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/P4.jpg)
Pic18 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/P9.jpg)
Pic19 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/P7.jpg)
Pic20 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/P5.jpg)

Darn – just noticed we spelled traveler incorrectly on that control form:

Pic21 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/P8.jpg)

Another box of odds and end lying next to a small mill…

Pic22 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/P3.jpg)

Back into the QC shop, we can see that the part being evaluated here is obviously being used for setup only…as it’s not painted. Why waste the additional cost painting a casting that being used to setup production.

Pic23 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/Q1.jpg)

And there are sure a lot of tolerances to check on some parts! A quick glance at the drawing shows lots of point of interest. Tacked up the wall by the CMM (a three dimensional measurement machine) there appears to be a drawing being used to set up inspection procedures…

Pic24 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/Q3.jpg)

Of course, QC is also checked at almost ever stage of assembly too:

Pic25 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/C9.jpg)

What really kind of neat is seeing all of the parts come together at once. All of the shots in this post were taken over a period of about 40 minutes…. It not often that there are so many parts running through the machine shop all at once. You should be able to recognize many of them in the pictures of some finished planes below…

Pic26 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/C12.jpg)
Pic27 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/K1.jpg)
Pic28 (http://www.leevalley.com/home/temprl/Aus/C13.jpg)

Cheers –

Rob

[Verne Mattson]

They look sweet. Richard had a typo...the website lists each plane at $249, $399 for the pair, going up to $449 for the pair after October 15.

Hope I got it right! Not sure if I'll go for the pair or simply stick my toe in the water with one...

[Glenn Clabo]

Thanks Rob! I thought I was going to have to beg.;)

[Jack Camillo]

Way to go, Mr Rob! I'm liking the looks of those new skew wabbits!

[John Schreiber]

So that's what it looks like inside of Santa's factory. What beautiful toys - and made with such care.

[John Sanford]

awww man, y'all are harshin' me. The Blue & Orange Zoomy Dudes (FedEx, not to be confused with the Brown Dudes) just dropped off my new Side Rabbet Plane last night. I wanted to get it before the intro pricing went away, so I've delayed getting a medium shoulder plane. Now here comes another even more beautiful plane (albeit not as critical, since I do have a Record Rebate/Rabbet/Whatever) with intro pricing...

Between Veritas and FastTracks (www.handlaidtrack.com), you clever Canucks are going to be getting all of my tool money for some time!!

oh, the agony, the inhumanity of it all!! :eek:

[Jack Camillo]

I am in agony myself, and LV is sole culprit. I've been wanting to buy a plow plane for box bottoms I make; a router plane as well; and, the Mark II power sharpener. Now these planes come along.

[Doug Shepard]

Man!:mad: - those Canucks first get you hooked on their Labatts, then Rob Lee comes along and takes what's left of your cash with those hard-to-pass-up introductory deals. I think we invaded the wrong county:D

[Gary Herrmann]

Dang it, Rob. Give a guy some notice. My LV package just arrived last week.

Hm. My anniversary is coming up...

[Richard Magbanua]

Hey, if Veritas had a magazine this would be this month's centerfold?:D Hmm... sounds like I just made up a new magazine!:rolleyes:

[Will Blick]

Rob, you sure have a knack of producing high quality and very attractive looking tools.... You also seem to find the right price point for most hobbiest..... not cheap, but certainly not over priced.... Kudos again for a job well done...

[lowell holmes]

I ordered a pair about 30 minutes ago. :-)

[Mark Stutz]

Thank for the eye candy, Rob. I just may have to relegate the 289 to the display case:D

Mark

[Will Blick]

When smooting down dadoes, I use a shoulder plane. When getting rid of machine marks on a rabbet I use a shoulder plane. So what are the uses this new plane performs that a set of shoulder planes will not perform? As I see it?

1) a hand cut rabbet with no power tool intervention

2) cleaning up rabbets which are wider than your largest shoulder plane can handle.

What else? I am not sure, but I might be trying to justify a purchase, so be careful :-)

[Mark Stutz]

Will,
Just go ahead...they look great...what other justification do you need?:D;) Seriously, the biggest advantage as I see it , is the skewed blade. Cross grain rabbets would be a piece of cake. If you are just cleaning up/tweaking machine cut rabbets, then a shoulder plane would work. For small jobs I can cut a rabbet with my 778 clone faster than changing to a dado set, making all the test cuts, etc., and still need to clean up with a plane. What is harder to do now is the cross grain one...mark, cut with a saw or chisel it out and usually clean up with a router plane. These would be much simpler...and yes, I think one needs a right and left version!:D:D

Mark

[Will Blick]

Mark, i was hoping I missed something :-)

It's always a price / performance decision for me.... yes, l/r, and an extra blade for each so you don't have to re-sharpen in the middle of a job, all of sudden, $500.... that's some serious coinage, even though the price is well justified for that amount of toolage.


I cut rabbets on a TS, its simple, fast and not too hard to set up. When doing many rabbets, the TS would still be my preferred method.... I guess the skew plane comes in handy when you need to cut one or two.... otherwise, the shoulder planes do a great job cleaning up.... hurry, the offer ends soon....

[Rod Sheridan]

Man!:mad: - those Canucks first get you hooked on their Labatts, then Rob Lee comes along and takes what's left of your cash with those hard-to-pass-up introductory deals. I think we invaded the wrong county:D

Actually you did invade Canada and burned York (Toronto), then we invaded Washington and torched the President's mansion.

Later we all went home and became friends.........Just what I like, a happy ending to a story!

regards, Rod.

[Mark Maleski]

For small jobs I can cut a rabbet with my 778 clone faster than changing to a dado set, making all the test cuts, etc., and still need to clean up with a plane. What is harder to do now is the cross grain one...mark, cut with a saw or chisel it out and usually clean up with a router plane. These would be much simpler...and yes, I think one needs a right and left version!:D:D


Mark, can you explain why you don't use your 778 to cut cross-grain rabbets? I thought that was the point of having a nicker. Is the quality of the cut so poor as to not be worthwhile? I'm very interested to hear how big an improvement you see from the skew on the Veritas.

Also, why do you feel the left version is important? Isn't the 778 essentially a right-hand tool as well, with the nicker on the right and fence on the left? Have you found that limiting in your use of the 778 (or is it that you believe the skew will make it a bigger issue)?

I've not ever used a rabbet plane, but my next project does have several rabbets...and I much prefer shavings to dust.

Mark Maleski

[Mike Cutler]

Actually you did invade Canada and burned York (Toronto), then we invaded Washington and torched the President's mansion.

Later we all went home and became friends.........Just what I like, a happy ending to a story!

regards, Rod.

What's a little arson amongst friends? eh. Let's just just call it "Urban Renewal". :D,;)

Now to stay on topic.
This looks like a nice plane that LV has. I see the same performance advantages that Mark (Stutz) sees. The skewed blade would be an aid in the cross grain situation.
I don't own any LV planes yet, but,,,,;).

[Mark Stutz]

Mark,
Sorry not to have replied sooner. Haven't been able to spend much time here for a while. I have used the 778 to do cross grain rabbets, but depending on the wood, I've not been happy with the results. Too rough and too much tear out for me. I suppose they would do for some applications, and maybe I'm too fussy.
A single version would probably work for cross grain rabbetts, but if your doing long grain ones, you may find yourself planing against the grain. I usually have mine set for a pretty thick shaving so it doesn't take all day and wouldn't want to try to go against the grain, as well as the surface it may leave.
Remeber, I've not used these, so this is speculation based on my 78 and 778 experience. Maybe somone that has used them can chime in...Derek?:D

Mark