Philipp
Established Member
Hello there!
Since summer I am a proud owner of a Veritas Low-angle jack-plane. My uncle was so kind to go to Lee Valley in Toronto and to bring it for me - together with others - when he went to Europe. I already spent some hours of happy working and planing and I am generally convinced about the quality of Lee Valley’s tools.
However, when planing 1-m-boards during the past days I felt that it was somewhat hard to achieve straight edges, since they became slightly convex. When adjusting for very thin shavings the jack took off shavings in the beginning of a stroke and at its end, when the toe of the plane already had left the board. I tried my best to receive a very thin end-to-end shaving but did not succeed. When checking what might be responsible for this phenomenon I also checked the flatness of the sole with a steel rule (what I never did before because I did not for a second doubt in the superb features of the “accurately machined” geometry of this plane). It was not flat, but slightly concave! Disbelievingly I counterchecked several times using my straightedge, my wooden jointer - and came to the same result. The concave curve between toe and heel leaves a gap of maybe half a millimetre (don’t have device to measure more accurately). As I do not really want to believe this I will have an additional check in the evening.
So, my question to you is whether some of you have seen the same inaccurateness with a LV plane and, if so, how you have dealt with it. Should I try to level the sole with sandpaper (nasty procedure with such an eye-catcher this wonderful tool definitely is) or is it worthwhile to ask Lee Valley for assistance or even replacement? If I had bought this plane from a trader here, I would get this issue solved there, but since it was a gift from Canada…
Thanks for your advice,
best regards
Philipp
Since summer I am a proud owner of a Veritas Low-angle jack-plane. My uncle was so kind to go to Lee Valley in Toronto and to bring it for me - together with others - when he went to Europe. I already spent some hours of happy working and planing and I am generally convinced about the quality of Lee Valley’s tools.
However, when planing 1-m-boards during the past days I felt that it was somewhat hard to achieve straight edges, since they became slightly convex. When adjusting for very thin shavings the jack took off shavings in the beginning of a stroke and at its end, when the toe of the plane already had left the board. I tried my best to receive a very thin end-to-end shaving but did not succeed. When checking what might be responsible for this phenomenon I also checked the flatness of the sole with a steel rule (what I never did before because I did not for a second doubt in the superb features of the “accurately machined” geometry of this plane). It was not flat, but slightly concave! Disbelievingly I counterchecked several times using my straightedge, my wooden jointer - and came to the same result. The concave curve between toe and heel leaves a gap of maybe half a millimetre (don’t have device to measure more accurately). As I do not really want to believe this I will have an additional check in the evening.
So, my question to you is whether some of you have seen the same inaccurateness with a LV plane and, if so, how you have dealt with it. Should I try to level the sole with sandpaper (nasty procedure with such an eye-catcher this wonderful tool definitely is) or is it worthwhile to ask Lee Valley for assistance or even replacement? If I had bought this plane from a trader here, I would get this issue solved there, but since it was a gift from Canada…
Thanks for your advice,
best regards
Philipp
