Question for other owners of the Veritas (large) scraper plane.....

**IanW** · 9th December 2012, 09:55 PM

I had a small problem with mine, viz., the lever cap screw. It was ok when I got the plane (quite a few years ago, now), or at least I didn't notice any problem, but at some point in the last year or two, I first noticed it was only barely applying enough pressure to lock the blade as the screw runs out of thread. This is demonstrated in the pic:

The problem.jpg

Although it looks like there is still about 0.5mm gap, it has actually run out of thread, yet it's only putting light pressure on the blade. I studied the thing for some time, to see if the lever cap had bent, or if I'd done something stupid, but it seems fine, and in any case, it's a pretty robust casting, and highly unlikely to give under the finger-pressure tension of the screw, which is all it has ever had to tolerate. I'm using the standard "thin" blade, btw, not the thicker one available.

I tried using a brass shim under the screw, which helped, but it is a PITA to have to hold it there while setting the blade. So, after some thought, I decided to make a new screw, & give it about 3 extra turns of thread compared with the original. I plan to replace with the thicker blade, someday, in which case the original screw would probably be fine again. In the meantime, making a new screw was no big deal, and tha task was made much easier by Veritas's habit of using common everyday thread sizes & pitches on their tools (thank you Veritas!). This one is bog standard 5/16" NC, so it took but a few minutes to make a new screw. Here it is, compared against the original:

Solution.jpg

You'll notice the head is a bit smaller diameter - the original screw is about 7/8", but the nearest bit of brass rod I had on hand was 3/4", so that set the head diameter. It's plenty big enough to allow it to be tightened with little effort, and it now stands a couple of full turns clear of the lever cap when snugged up. Problem solved.

New screw.jpg

My question is, has any other owner noticed a similar problem? I can't think of any way I caused this, but maybe I did - any suggestions welcome - I don't want to have to make a new screw everey 5 years.....

Cheers,

**mic-d** · 9th December 2012, 10:06 PM

Hi Ian,
Mine has 14 turns I would say, so it looks as long as your fabricated screw. Had mine a couple or three years now.

Cheers
Michael

**IanW** · 10th December 2012, 08:11 AM

Originally Posted by mic-d

Hi Ian,
Mine has 14 turns I would say, so it looks as long as your fabricated screw. Had mine a couple or three years now.

Cheers
Michael

That's interesting, Michael, thanks. I hadn't counted the threads on the original screw, but you can do that on the pic above, and it comes to ~12. So it looks like Veritas increased the length of the screw a couple of turns, sometime betweeen the making of mine & yours? I should simply consult LV and see what they say, but I wanted to canvass some other opinions, in case there is something blindingly obvious to all but me. I can't see how I could have caused it other than by forcing the screw & bending the lever cap, which seems unlikely. I have never used anything but fingers to tighten the screw, and it doesn't need a lot of force to hold, in any case....

Cheers,

**mic-d** · 10th December 2012, 08:29 AM

Originally Posted by IanW

That's interesting, Michael, thanks. I hadn't counted the threads on the original screw, but you can do that on the pic above, and it comes to ~12. So it looks like Veritas increased the length of the screw a couple of turns, sometime betweeen the making of mine & yours? I should simply consult LV and see what they say, but I wanted to canvass some other opinions, in case there is something blindingly obvious to all but me. I can't see how I could have caused it other than by forcing the screw & bending the lever cap, which seems unlikely. I have never used anything but fingers to tighten the screw, and it doesn't need a lot of force to hold, in any case....

Cheers,

A change of specs is my guess Ian. It wouldn't be an easy task to bend anything with finger pressure and it seems to me that the two screws - the other being the one that bends the blade and which is held captive by the tilt mechanism - are unlikely to have been inadvertently swapped.

Perhaps you have swapped a screw from another in your huge arsenal of Veritas planes?

**IanW** · 10th December 2012, 08:49 AM

Originally Posted by mic-d

A change of specs is my guess Ian. It wouldn't be an easy task to bend anything with finger pressure and it seems to me that the two screws - the other being the one that bends the blade and which is held captive by the tilt mechanism - are unlikely to have been inadvertently swapped.

Perhaps you have swapped a screw from another in your huge arsenal of Veritas planes?

I have 4 Veritas planes, Michael, and only the scraper has 5/16" screws. You're right, the blade-bowing screw is much shorter, so you couldn't inadvertanly switch that for the lockng-screw. I think I'll settle for your first suggestion - change of specs.

Cheers,

Addendum: On the strength of Michael's observation, I emailed LV to see what they say - I'll update with any reply.....

**IanW** · 11th December 2012, 07:39 AM

True to form, LV responded very quickly, and this is their answer:

<Thank you for your e-mail. We have not received any similar reports since first introducing the Veritas® scraping plane to our product line. After contacting Veritas®, they advised us that the issue you experienced could simply be a combination of tolerances in the knob, lever cap and frog that made this particular knob a little short. They are aware of your situation and will keep an eye out for any other similar issues experienced by others.>

So it seems I must have hit an unlucky but rare combination of extremes in the tolerance ranges of the parts involved. A couple of extra turns of thread has fixed the problem, and with any luck at all, it should remain fixed.

Cheers,

**mic-d** · 11th December 2012, 08:27 AM

Perhaps the only remaining question is why the problem wasn't apparent for the first few years...

I'm surprised that the tolerance in the screw length is so large.

**IanW** · 11th December 2012, 09:28 PM

Originally Posted by mic-d

Perhaps the only remaining question is why the problem wasn't apparent for the first few years...

I'm surprised that the tolerance in the screw length is so large.

It was sort of apparent. Michael, in that the screw always went very close to the lever cap on tightening, but it did tighten ok. However, with a teeny bit of wear in the pivot bushes, and some wear on the tip of the screw, I finally ran out of thread.

I agree the tolerances do seem a bit wide. The difference between your screw & mine is two full turns. At a thread pitch of 20 tpi, that's 2.5mm, near enough, or 10% of the length of the screw. In biology, that's not a huge range, but I thought engineers worked to much finer levels....

I guess I was just unlucky to get an extreme end of the range, and if the customer service folks are telling the truth. it must be a very rare event....

Cheers,

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