Thread: Manual for setting up the Veritas Skew Rabbet Plane

Originally Posted by D.W.

I noticed something I didn't notice with the pictures in initially - the nicking iron orientation isn't right - it should be proud of the side of the plane, and somewhat considerably to allow the iron to be set at or proud of the sole, too.

When my wooden fillister plane more or less torched the LV effort by a wide margin (both in productivity using, as well as in ease of setting up - you set either the iron or the nicker to a mark and that's it), it was in long grain - cutting transition mouldings for the house from hardwood to carpet.

Had the work been cross grain, the margin would've been wider.

For what must be a monumental effort to actually create a plane pattern and produce it, it's mind boggling that time and again, LV seems to come up with designs that are overcomplicated but ultimately fall flat on their face, often for simple reasons.

To be fair, the nicking iron stood proud of the casting, most beginners would probably complain - but that's the cost of selling to beginners.

I doubt these planes ever get used much. I'd bet a lot of people, too, get 78s or record's version or whatever and struggle to be able to find a use for them on hardwoods. I went down that road, too.

Actually David, you and I are on the same page here. I pointed out that the nicker was proud of the body (for cross grain work), and offered a method (blue tape and magnet) to set it. Without the magnet it is too fiddly to extract the nicker. The blue tape simply sets a definable distance and makes it easier to do.

It is only when planing with the grain (or into the grain) where the nicker is retracted. Warren agrees with this. What he did not agree with me on was having the blade set up a smidgeon outside the body. I just find that, if you do not do this, the shoulder wall will slope. One reason I post photos is to demonstrate results of methods I offer. I use this plane a lot, and my results are reliable (otherwise I would not use it!).

With regards the “complications” on Veritas planes, I do not see it that way. What one gets are ways to set up a plane for replicating a prior setting, which minimises the messing about needed. These should be set-and-forget.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Derek in one of your earlier arcticles on your website you applied a veneer to the depth gauge. It seems from the images that this veneer is now gone?
Whats your method now?

Originally Posted by Pac man

Derek in one of your earlier arcticles on your website you applied a veneer to the depth gauge. It seems from the images that this veneer is now gone?
Whats your method now?

PC, that is correct. I added it back then to reduce marking. It works, but the downside is that is peels off eventually. As a result, I had to learn the secret to avoiding marking the surface. Three tips:

1. Keep the bottom of the depth stop clean.

2. A light hand as the blade begins to stop cutting (as the depth stop is bottoming out). You can control this by not pushing down as hard with your thumb.

3. One of the reasons I score the baseline (as well as the shoulder line) is that it is easier to sneak up on it, which enables the light hand at the end.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Derek,
thanks for the public service in providing this detailed guide.
I expect to see a link to it in the Lee Valley website?
Regards
Paul.

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Actually David, you and I are on the same page here. I pointed out that the nicker was proud of the body (for cross grain work), and offered a method (blue tape and magnet) to set it. Without the magnet it is too fiddly to extract the nicker. The blue tape simply sets a definable distance and makes it easier to do.

It is only when planing with the grain (or into the grain) where the nicker is retracted. Warren agrees with this. What he did not agree with me on was having the blade set up a smidgeon outside the body. I just find that, if you do not do this, the shoulder wall will slope. One reason I post photos is to demonstrate results of methods I offer. I use this plane a lot, and my results are reliable (otherwise I would not use it!).

With regards the “complications” on Veritas planes, I do not see it that way. What one gets are ways to set up a plane for replicating a prior setting, which minimises the messing about needed. These should be set-and-forget.

Regards from Perth

Derek

to be fair, I have five moving fillisters. At one point, i thought I might like to make them, but making the metal parts and machining as opposed to grinding doesn't have that much appeal to me, so I sold a bunch off (and still have five).

There are various cost cuts in the older planes, from lacking boxing, to having a nicker cut into the side in a dovetail (works OK, but over the head of any current hobbyist probably), to having none. the feet can be any number of things, from endgrain rounded, to loose metal to the screw type brass to screw type brass with sweated steel.

the type I'm referring to favoring is the best of everything. We are lucky they are inexpensive relatively now, but probably again, getting one set up after 100 years of sitting is probably not a reasonable expectation.

At any rate, the fairness - for folks who didn't have the cake in the pocket to afford the best, I'm sure there was plenty of marking the cut lines and using the planes after that, and probably slipping the soles with something as the corners wore.

Sometimes I am in a row over stuff like this on the LV planes because it is a fascination of mine not to get stuff that's most appealing to a market of beginners, but rather now to make something that is dominant if it is no additional effort to do so.

the amount of work LV would have to do to get a plane like this to market, it seems like a shame - but the comment stands, if the nicker was proud of the body, it's not immediately obvious why and their phones would ring off the hook about it. The style of wedges nicker on the better wooden planes and a method to affix it is probably incompatible with metal planes and budges, but fine or coarse work, there is nothing else like one of the better older planes.

to the extent that I say anything that matches or doesn't match warren, it's out of my own trials. I learned how to set these things the hard way. when I use a moving fillister, it's set for a moderate cut and the depth never changed. In most work, you can work right to the mark, but if it's really critical that something is super clean, "set it and forget it" and then use a rabbet plane to finish (especially if badly against the grain) still works better than just using the moving fillister.

Kevin Adams at Sawmill Creek suggested making a thumb knob/positioner for the removed front knob.

This took about 15 minutes on my wood lathe (I don't have a metal lathe). Tell me what you think.







I used an existing brass knob (purchased on eBay, as I recall), hollowed it, cut off the stem (so it can lie as low as possible), and tapped it for a thread matching the Skew Rabbet Plane.



It feels very natural ...



Regards from Perth

Derek

A huge improvement. Maybe it's not intuitive at first, but the whole job of the off hand is two parts, as you're aware - job one is lateral pressure (a must) and job two is downward pressure = a close second.

The handle makes it hard to get a feel for that and maybe promotes the idea that you can crank on the front knob to "help". You can't without affecting the accuracy of job 1 and 2 negatively.