New Router Plane

[G S Haydon]

Although targeting the US this Router Plane that showed up on YouTube is shipped internationally. So, I was curious. I don't need one, but is anyone looking for one and are they considering this model?

It looks inspired by Veritas but with a different mechanism fixed on the top.

 

[rogxwhit]

A lot of the uses for this that they suggest in their promotional material (I nearly called it 'literature', but that would be too dignifying) are spurious. "How to cure incompetence & achieve a perfect life? Buy this gizmo!"

Of course there's a place in things for a hand router, but maybe it would be nicer to have one that eschewed some of those fancy gubbins in its superstructure. But it's a sales thing. They want your money! I didn't look at the price, but I'm not taken in.

 

[G S Haydon]

I think it's a shade under 200 USD. Too many bits and bobs perhaps, but I guess if it's effective for him.

 

[deema]

Looks a nice tool. I have the Veritas and it appears to have some better features. Setting / small adjustments on the blade height isn’t I find that precise with the LV. In the video he claims zero backlash……well that’s not going to be true with what looks like a standard thread On the adjuster / the wobble it had when it was unclamped. But, for woodworking it will be fine.
The only downside I can see is swelling the blade from the front to back location required the removal of screws.
Would I buy one? Probably not, and the reason is that for the same money I’d buy either the LN or LV as I know that when I come to sell them / pass them on, they will have kept / increased in value. Now, that might be true for this plane in a few years if they build up the brand recognition, but I’m a bit risk adverse.

 

[Fitzroy]

On the site it outlines why the tool is so awesome, giving you 7 examples of how to use it, which is the 7 ways I use my 60yr old Stanley 71. I think many folks have never heard of a router plane only a power router, so perhaps an unexploited market segment.

 

[Ttrees]

Only half watched it, was expecting/hoping to be slightly miffed, even if there might be a good idea in some form or another.
but sure hasn't screamed out this is the design I've to copy.

Although I've never used one, I've watched plenty of demos, and near every one of them overshooting the mark, and that's only taking one tenon into account!

Seems one could either have a pair of them, or some way of backing up a skosh,
whats seemingly a lot easier/handier/or more sureworthy, than any maker has made yet.
Do some regard these as a tool you're best needing a pair of?
I've never heard of the suggestion, surely some do this.

 

[thetyreman]

looks awfully similar to the veritas one!

 

[D_W]

I couldn't pay attention to the video - there's something not genuine about that guy to me - just my opinion. He showed up out of nowhere on YT and I haven't seen him referenced except for when someone wants to suggest buying an apron - was he the guy who claimed that an apron could be useful as kickback protection?

Second, did he say that veritas provided the castings, or did he just send a veritas casting somewhere and have it copied?

I had the veritas router plane at one point - all of the promised extra features and "precision" sent me back to using the stanley 71 (which I already had) and I sold it.

 

[D_W]

OK, I spent admittedly only about 3 minutes, but I couldn't find anything about the guy's site that says "woodworker" vs. "business that makes it look like the business owner is a woodworker".

Copies some of the sort of cues from paul sellers and some from cosman and some from stumpy nubs.

So there must be fanboys somewhere.

For a contrast to this kind of alternate world of "learning woodworking", check out lonnie bird's page, his portfolio and even his students' portfolio.

I think Lonnie probably shows his students how to make things, and probably doesn't tell them that router plane #3 is the one that will make them better.

https://www.lonniebird.com/furniture-gallery-lonnies-work/

 

[rob1693]

Already have a type 4 71 and a type 8 and prefer finding vintage tools cheap and restoring to use

 

[Jorny]

Made on China by Hongdui the website says. Cheaper to buy a Lie Nielsen or Veritas from a Swedish retailer for me if I ever start lusting for a router plane. In fact it is cheaper for me to get the LN or veritas rather than a used Stanley from the UK.

However I do not have the knowledge to say anything about the quality or usability of the tool having never used a router plane.

 

[D_W]

Made on China by Hongdui the website says. Cheaper to buy a Lie Nielsen or Veritas from a Swedish retailer for me if I ever start lusting for a router plane. In fact it is cheaper for me to get the LN or veritas rather than a used Stanley from the UK.

However I do not have the knowledge to say anything about the quality or usability of the tool having never used a router plane.

$190 for a chinese made router plane is a presumptuous ask to say the least. But that's the business model of anyone coming into woodworking, trying to build a big subscriber base with no real qualifications, dancing around ever talking about that to begin with and putting up touchy feely stuff, and then flat out farming the subscribers.

I don't generally watch the guys that do that, but a lot of them use the word "friends".

It's obnoxious - casting copy and all, copying the work of a respectable company.

I'm disgusted by all of it because it is a complete distraction from actually making things and I think if people can only get interested in the channels that farm beginners, they might as well skip making things and move on to another hobby rather than end up with a shop full of expensive stuff that will be a pain to unload.

All just my opinion. The copying of the casting is just super distasteful, though, leaving that contingent on the outside chance that some of the design pays a license fee back to LV. Typically, no such arrangement exists.

 

[G S Haydon]

Good feedback! Most people have raised issues that I had noticed. I think in a way it's a little bit of a missed opportunity. The casting didn't need to look like the Veritas offering and a switch to a different handle material like walnut or beech would of further created a separate identity.

I have a hunch this might be more aimed at people who use power tools. I'm finding it hard enough to give a metal marking gauge a try! A wooden gauge glides over the work, nicely sized, tap it on the bench to get it just right. The "dialling in" process of this router feels more like a milling machine process.

I appreciate it's subjective but I'm not sure Hongdui is the greatest tool maker of our time, could be, but I'm not convinced.

Resale value is a great shout. Lie-Nielsen is almost worth more after you buy it! I would like to see someone using one and report back.

 

[IWW]

A router plane doesn't really need any gizmos, imo, the "old woman's tooth" (didn't old men have distorted teeth a coupleof centuries ago??) style does a perfectly adequate job & you can make one for yourself with a base or bases to suit your own needs.

Years & years ago I picked up a 71 at a garage sale for a pittance. I just could not get along with it. I know why now - the blade that came with it was in very poor shape & I lacked the skill & understanding to sharpen it properly. I ended up passing it on for the same pittance (which I regretted when their value skyrocketed! ).

A few years back Derek Cohen posted a home-made version which intrigued me, so I whipped up a shameless copy (more or less) & discovered it was a very handy little device, despite its raw simplicity (I'd learnt much about sharp edges in the interim!):


The pic was taken before I realised a depth collar was obligatory for repeat work, but that was easily attended to as an afterthought.

While a simple OWT may lack the refinements of its metal-bodied descendants, I can't think of anything they can do that mine can't. And given how infrequently they are needed in most routine cabinetry, I reckon mine is a better bang for the bucks....

Cheers,
Ian

 

[D_W]

I have a hunch this might be more aimed at people who use power tools.

Best market for oddball tools - marking gadgets, marking knives, expensive squares - is going to be power tool woodworkers and engineers who migrate to woodworking. They'll never really use the tools. This sounds like snark, but one of the best things you can do as a maker is sell a stylish reputation to people who will do little with what you sell.

I asked a tool dealer years ago to pick me usable H&R pairs, or that could at least be matched and reconditioned, as he was selling moulding planes per plane.

He said "gahh.....a user. I usually sell these to woodworkers who think they'll look good as a decoration. it's a lot more work to pick out the user planes".

I chatted with him a bit, and then he said "I can pick them out for you" and he ended up including six dado planes with the moulders.

I have made good use of those. I sold the moulding planes to someone else years ago, though - made a fair bit of my own and then bought a full set of griffiths skewed moulders and a large set of slipped beads.

I can make those types of planes easily, but I still have an attachment to using the old ones, and mine sit idle. Neither works any better than the other, but it's like hitting baseballs with a bat used by someone in the early 1900s if you could do such a thing. It feels more real.

 

[Ttrees]

The pic was taken before I realised a depth collar was obligatory for repeat work, but that was easily attended to as an afterthought.


Cheers,
Ian

Did you make just the one?

 

[Orraloon]

It looks nice and shiney with plenty of twiddly bits. It likely works as well as any router plane but I cant see it being any better as there is only so much a router plane will do. I will stick with my old stanley. That has 3 blades by the way not 2 so for something that supposedly does everything why short change on a blade. His sales pitch video is not all that inspiring. I guess you could clean up a rebate with it if you had nothing else but I have never used a router plane for that. Never used the fence either but perhaps one day who knows. 200 USD is a tad much for something that will not do any more than the home made job that Ian has posted.
Regards
John

 

[Jacob]

I had the Stanley model for years but hardly ever used it. Just for bottoms of oilstone boxes.
Sold it on when they started fetching silly prices.
Actually I wondered about it recently when I made, guess what, another oil stone box! No prob though, didn't really need it.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

A router plane doesn't really need any gizmos, imo, the "old woman's tooth" (didn't old men have distorted teeth a coupleof centuries ago??)

They were a granny's tooth around here.

 

[G S Haydon]

Always seems to be seems to be named after a woman low on teeth. Curious.