Last week Lee Valley released several very cool new tools. Among them was the Veritas Planing Stop, a small unassuming piece of extruded aluminum that I fear fell under the shadow of the much flashier Jack Rabbet plane, PMV11 chisels, and inlay tools. I was fortunate to be given one of these planning stops a while back for evaluation, and after a few months of use can’t imagine my bench without it.
Though I’m more than happy to spout off my opinion about most things, I don’t usually like to review things that I have been given for evaluation, simply because I feel that my opinion will be (or be taken as) biased. However, I wanted to make a point to do a quick review of this tool for several reasons. Not just because I really, really like it, but also because, if I hadn’t been sent one these, there’s a good chance that I would have completely disregarded it upon its release. After all its easy enough to make a planning stop by simply butting a scrap of wood against a couple of dogs, and I’m not usually one to get behind buying things that one can fairly quickly and easily make oneself. In this case, however, I feel as though the small investment is a definite improvement over the shop made alternative.
To me the biggest advantage is that it stays securely in place on its own. I don’t need to clamp anything in my vice or use brass bench dogs (of which I only have a couple) to keep it in place. This means that it can live on my bench – and unless I’m working on a long piece of lumber that requires every inch of my bench, the stop never leaves the two dog holes at the front of my bench. The secure attachment method also means that the stop never goes flying off my bench during heavy planning. When using a piece of wood butted about against dogs as a stop I have often had it flip up over the dogs when I hit a knot or grain reversal and need to power through the stroke – not so with this, it is rock solid.
I also really like that it can easily be moved to any location on my bench where there are two dog holes less than about 10” apart. The posts seem to be very slightly undersized making it easier to pull in and out of ¾” then standard bench dogs, and it is very easy adjust the post spacing by simply sliding them in the t-track by which they attach to the stop itself.
I use this thing (and/or some type of planning stop in general) every time I’m at the bench; not just for planing but for sawing and chiseling joinery as well. For example, I just hand cut a bunch of dados for some bookcases last weekend. Setting the stops up lengthwise I essentially converted my bench into a giant benchhook, which was so much easier then trying to clamp down the 7' by 11" board I was working on. This also involved one of my favorite uses for these stops, which is butting the workpiece up against them when I use my router plane. With a height of only ¼”, the stops sit below the depth of the joinery so there is not danger of hitting the router plane blade on them. They allow you to put a lot of force behind the router plane and there are no clamps to get in the way of the plane.
Using a bench stop in the ways I’ve described is obviously nothing new, and at the end of the day the Veritas Planing Stop will serve the same purpose as a piece of scrap and a couple bench dogs. BUT, it is a great new take on an old idea that, to me, is preferable to the shop made alternative – for less than $25 I think it’s a really worthwhile purchase – highly recommended!
(Sorry for the lack of pics, since the move I haven’t been able to find my camera – I suppose I should unpack the last of these boxes one of these days)
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Originally Posted by Igor Petrenko
