Veritas Shooting Plane Tolerance

[Tony Shea]

Luckily my original shooting board that I built was wide enough to accept a stri[ of wood to make my own track with. I have been absolutely loving my LV shooting plane since getting it as an Xmas present last year. It already has payed for itself in my hand tool only shop and is sooo much more comfortable than just laying any other plane on its' side to use as a shooting plane. I highly reccomend the LV version and can even highly reccomend the LN plane after trying it out a lot at the different hand tool events that have it. I actually slightly prefer the LN one due to the extra mass, the standard angle blade is not noticable especially with the extra mass of the plane, but the LV one is not far behind.

[Andrey Kharitonkin]

I've also got this plane recently and it is such a joy of cutting end grain with it! At first I even cut too much that I needed so easy it was!

However, when I checked result for square it was quite a bit off. I know I can laterally adjust the blade to compensate for imperfections. Or I can make the shooting track slightly inclined. For now, I just attached duct tape on one side of the track to compensate for this. But I also checked sides for square. And it seems it is about half degree less than 90. See the picture below:

Shooting Plane.jpg

So, if I did the math correctly, about 1.39 mm at the far edge of the sole represent one degree of angle. The gap looks like slightly less than or almost 1 mm. Thus, angle is around 89.3 - 89.5 degree.

Is it according to tolerances and should be accepted for such expensive plane?

[Derek Cohen]

You know, I have never measured any of my shooting planes for accuracy - I have three (!): Stanley #51, LN #51, and LV Shooting Plane. They all just work as well as I could hope. There is more potential inaccuracy in the way you set the blade.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Tom M King]

One thing about setting the blade: Once you find "right", it's easy to get back there next time.

[Chris Hachet]

I bought mine when it was first released. It was dead on square. LV makes good on the tools it produces. Kudos on that!

I have had nothing but fantastic luck with them.

[Andrey Kharitonkin]

You know, I have never measured any of my shooting planes for accuracy - I have three (!)

Might be just me that is the problem. As we usually say, bad dancer thinks he has bad legs.

On the other hand, I have nothing to compare to and limited time to file a complain about faulty item to the seller. In other words, it is indecisive nightmare that I'm going through which doesn't help me sleep sometimes.

To make things worse, I've also got Veritas Skew Rabbet plane and it has fence not parallel to the sides of the plain and slightly out of square on one end. So much that nose of the plane goes 2 mm deeper from the edge of the wood than the tail.

Picture 1a.jpg
Picture 2a.jpg

[Jim Koepke]

Did the plane come from LN or LV?

They have replaced such inaccuracies for others here. The shipping might be a bit high in your case.

jtk

[Andrey Kharitonkin]

Did the plane come from LN or LV?

That is Veritas plane that was bought through one of distributors in Europe - fine-tools.com. That have not yet answered to my email, takes a day or two. Going directly to Lee Valley with this might be indeed too expensive due to shipping costs.

Also I've got twisted Veritas Variable Fence... like 3 mm twisted out of the plain on one corner. And slightly twisted Veritas aluminium straight edge. I should be totally unlucky or that seller tries to sell returns to the newbie. Package seemed to be original though. I understand that Veritas is trying to hit optimum balance between price and function. But these sort of things are easy to spot by looking briefly at it.

[Derek Cohen]

Andrey, contact LV. They will sort you out. There is nothing worse than owning tools, or any prized object that is imperfect. It takes all the pleasure away. LV understand this - very approachable.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Patrick Chase]

That is Veritas plane that was bought through one of distributors in Europe - fine-tools.com. That have not yet answered to my email, takes a day or two. Going directly to Lee Valley with this might be indeed too expensive due to shipping costs.

Also I've got twisted Veritas Variable Fence... like 3 mm twisted out of the plain on one corner. And slightly twisted Veritas aluminium straight edge. I should be totally unlucky or that seller tries to sell returns to the newbie. Package seemed to be original though. I understand that Veritas is trying to hit optimum balance between price and function. But these sort of things are easy to spot by looking briefly at it.

FWIW I have basically all of the items that you list, purchased directly from LV, and none of them are problematic. My 50" Aluminum straightedge appears to be in spec, my variable fence is dead flat, and with one exception my Veritas planes are all square and flat to within 2 mils. The vast majority of them are tighter than that, and are slightly better on average than my 3 L-Ns and much better than my 2 WoodRivers, though all are within reasonable tolerances for woodworking.

The exception is the pair of Veritas edge planes - Those had significant (~0.5 deg) angular errors between base and fence. The reason is obvious and understandable: The geometry of the plane prevents Veritas from employing their usual surface grinding. I lapped them to flat/square using PSA sandpaper on a 90 deg machined form and have been very happy with them ever since.

I've also dealt with and had good experiences with fine-tools in the past, but never for Veritas stuff (for obvious reasons - I live in the US, so Dieter Schmid only makes sense for stuff that doesn't have distribution here)

What I'm working to here is that it sounds like there's some sort of distribution channel issue with the combination of Veritas and Dieter Schmid. They're both class acts, though, so you should be able to get it resolved as others have said.

[Jim Koepke]

I've also got Veritas Skew Rabbet plane and it has fence not parallel to the sides of the plain and slightly out of square on one end.

You seem to be having all kinds of bad luck.

If these are from a walk in retailer my suggestion is to bring your squares and other measuring devices with you next time you purchase a tool from these folks.

It seems very strange that one person would get all the out of spec tools.

jtk

[Patrick Chase]

You seem to be having all kinds of bad luck.

If these are from a walk in retailer my suggestion is to bring your squares and other measuring devices with you next time you purchase a tool from these folks.

Per his previous post he bought them from Dieter Schmid a.k.a. fine-tools.com. They're reputable and I've personally had good experiences with them.

[Jim Koepke]

Per his previous post he bought them from Dieter Schmid a.k.a. fine-tools.com. They're reputable and I've personally had good experiences with them.

Yes, I saw that. I do not know if Dieter Schmid, fine-tools.com has a brick and mortar presence or not. Woodcraft.com, highlander.com are other internet vendors that do have outlets one can visit and purchase items, just like leevalley.com.

To me it seems strange to have so many items all with problems. If it were me it might shake my faith a bit.

They do have an address and show up on Google Maps:

Dieter Schmid.png

jtk

[Andrey Kharitonkin]

Thanks Derek, Jim, Patrick and all for your attention.

It takes two days for them to reply. So, hopefully tomorrow they will write something. I've got almost all my expensive hand tools from them. I think about 20 orders over last two years and just these 4 items that raised some questions.

I've also got pair of longer rods that fit other planes. I put them to Veritas Custom #7 and observed the same thing. Should be the fence fault. The fence has fittings pressed in to ductile iron and they look done unevenly. In worst case I can order separately just the fence (comes with short rods) for 60 EUR. That is my plan B that let me sleep alright again

Driving there would take me 10 hours one way, even on German highways without speed limit. And 120 EUR for diesel. Worth the price of 10 deliveries from them. Perhaps when doing vacation trip. Berlin is a nice city, almost as huge and grant as Moscow, among other European capitals. I was doing my diploma there for one year.

[Patrick Chase]

Thanks Derek, Jim, Patrick and all for your attention.

It takes two days for them to reply. So, hopefully tomorrow they will write something. I've got almost all my expensive hand tools from them. I think about 20 orders over last two years and just these 4 items that raised some questions.

I've also got pair of longer rods that fit other planes. I put them to Veritas Custom #7 and observed the same thing. Should be the fence fault. The fence has fittings pressed in to ductile iron and they look done unevenly. In worst case I can order separately just the fence (comes with short rods) for 60 EUR. That is my plan B that let me sleep alright again

Driving there would take me 10 hours one way, even on German highways without speed limit. And 120 EUR for diesel. Worth the price of 10 deliveries from them. Perhaps when doing vacation trip. Berlin is a nice city, almost as huge and grant as Moscow, among other European capitals. I was doing my diploma there for one year.

If one of the collets that holds the fence on the rod were tilted as you say then it should be almost impossible to move the fence all the way in - is that the case?