Veritas Shooting Board question

[Greg Parrish]

I ordered and received the Veritas shooting board to go along with the Veritas Shooting Plane I purchased here on the forum a few weeks ago. The pre-made board is a beauty but it isn't flat. I haven't pulled out the feeler gauges and straight edge yet, but it's out of flat enough to rock back and forth on my bench (and my cast iron saw stop top). As this is my first shooting plane, I wasn't sure but my mind says this should be dead flat. Am I correct in this thinking? Making sure before I reach out to LV.

Thanks,

Greg

[Tony Wilkins]

I would think it should be but the key flatness has to be the track. As long as you can have the board be 90* (or whatever you set it for) to the track, I think it would be fine. I’d still reach out to LV though to see what they think.

[Jim Koepke]

I would put a shim under the corner that stopped the rocking and give it a try.

I would also investigate to find out exactly what is the reason for not lying flat on the bench. Most of the time my shooting boards are held in a vise so any out of flat isn't even noticed.

It is the results that count.

jtk

[Greg Parrish]

UPDATE

I emailed Lee Valley last night at around 8:30pm and to my surprise their customer service replied at around 9:40pm indicating that they would pull and inspect another shooting board and would be sending me a replacement. They asked that once received that I return the current one with a provided USPS postage paid label.

Talk about customer service.
> Sending me a replacement before current one is returned
> Indicating they will inspect the replacement to insure its quality before sending
> Responded to my email inquiry at 9:40pm at night, on a Sunday, and on a holiday weekend (Canadian and USA holidays anyway)

I’m thoroughly impressed. I continue to shop with Lee Valley for top notch products, but service like this keeps one coming back for sure. It’s nice when a vendor goes out of their way to “Have your back”. Should get the new board in about a week or so.

[Rob Lee]

Wood.....crappy material to manufacture things in.....

[Keegan Shields]

Haha you could use phenolic plywood and charge $500 like a red tool competitor

[Greg Parrish]

UPDATE:

Received the replacement shooting board. I could tell that it had been opened and repackaged which means they did inspect it as they said they would. The board is pretty much dead flat on my cast iron saw top so I can not ask for more than that. It was very obvious that the first one had an issue.

Once I received the replacement, the process to return the defective one could not have been easier. Lee Valley provided a link to click that took me to a USPS page that allowed me to type out info for the return label. It even included the order number and details so they know what and why I'm shipping it back. I dropped the return at USPS yesterday and it is headed home.

Overall, I can only say how impressed I am with Lee Valley for jumping all over this and going above and beyond to get me a replacement, insure my happiness and exercise outstanding customer service. To be honest, I would have continued buying from Lee Valley regardless because they have outstanding, high quality products and the Veritas line is just amazing, but this level of customer service leaves me never questioning a purchase and knowing that they are there for any issues that arise. This can be very important in our remote, online shopping world where you don't always get to lay hands on an item before deciding on a purchase.

Thanks again Rob and Lee Valley!!

[Joel Gelman]

Glad it worked out. I recently purchased a Veritas Shooting board and wish I could use it for a kitchen island baseboard that is over 5 inches tall with a lot of miters to be made. I am aware of shooting boards for box miters where the bottom of the plane is 45 degrees with the wood horizontal along with options like in the attached picture (not my jig). That would work for my baseboard and other projects.

Since the topic is the Veritas Shooting board and the issue of the product was resolved, I figure I would use this thread to ask if anyone has modified this shooting board to add a bolt option something similar to what is shown in the picture. I figure if I make something like that, I can save on space, not have to start from scratch and take advantage of the nice shooting track

Screenshot 2023-07-11 at 1.41.09 PM.jpg

[Jim Koepke]

Hi Joel, mine isn't a Veritas shooting board but it does use clamp on attachments for doing angles:

Shooting Guide Face.jpg

This board is ambidextrous and so is the attachment:

Shooting Fence.jpg

There are other attachments for different angles.

jtk

[John Roth]

Similar experience when I was send the wrong item. Lee Valley shipped out the correct item literally the next day, with a label included to ship back the misdelivered item. Mistakes happen; how a company reacts to that speaks volumes.

[Bob Jones 5443]

I always like reading about the world-class customer service from Lee Valley.

[Joel Gelman]

I just finished my jig for the Veritas shooting board. See pictures. It connects with a knob that goes into a threaded insert. The hole was a bit wide so the jig can move enough to be tightened against the fence. So far so good. Always interested in suggestions for improvement.

Jig 1.jpgJig 2.jpg

[Rob Luter]

UPDATE:

Received the replacement shooting board. I could tell that it had been opened and repackaged which means they did inspect it as they said they would. The board is pretty much dead flat on my cast iron saw top so I can not ask for more than that. It was very obvious that the first one had an issue.

Once I received the replacement, the process to return the defective one could not have been easier. Lee Valley provided a link to click that took me to a USPS page that allowed me to type out info for the return label. It even included the order number and details so they know what and why I'm shipping it back. I dropped the return at USPS yesterday and it is headed home.

Overall, I can only say how impressed I am with Lee Valley for jumping all over this and going above and beyond to get me a replacement, insure my happiness and exercise outstanding customer service. To be honest, I would have continued buying from Lee Valley regardless because they have outstanding, high quality products and the Veritas line is just amazing, but this level of customer service leaves me never questioning a purchase and knowing that they are there for any issues that arise. This can be very important in our remote, online shopping world where you don't always get to lay hands on an item before deciding on a purchase.

Thanks again Rob and Lee Valley!!

I've had a similar experience with them. They're a good bunch to do business with.

[glenn bradley]

UPDATE

I emailed Lee Valley last night at around 8:30pm and to my surprise their customer service replied at around 9:40pm indicating that they would pull and inspect another shooting board and would be sending me a replacement. They asked that once received that I return the current one with a provided USPS postage paid label.

Talk about customer service.

Typical of Lee Valley service in my experience. If there is even a hint that you are not happy they will go the distance to assure that you are. I even buy things through LV that I can get domestically just because of their service reputation.

P.s. IMHO that shooting board is made from ply and has no reason not to be flat. My Veritas Domino Joinery Table also had a pretty rough fit and finish that required a bit of in-shop attention considering the $300+ price tag. I'm not sure that the folks doing LV's CNC work are quite up to the level of other Veritas tools

[David Glauser]

Twice, over the years, Lee Valley has sent me a check out of the blue, when something I bought was later offered for a lower price. Once, it was for $90 or so, and a good three months after I received the item. Hard to fault that service!