Router plane advice

[Daniel Rode]

I'm after a large router plane and I have a few choices. My intended uses for this is fitting tenons, and cleaning up dados and grooves. I'm not convinced the large router will be useful for mortising smaller hinges, but it may get occasional use for larger hinges and such.

Here's my run down of the options.

• Vintage Stanley or similar. These will mostly come open throat with mediocre depth stop or closed throat with no depth stop. Clean complete sets are selling for upwards of $150. The remaining tools that are incomplete or rusted or both are still selling for $75 - $100. Even in perfect condition, these don't approach the precision and easy / repeatable adjustments of the new planes. Regardless, I could probably do anything I need with 1 cutter on the most basic model. At $50 I'm all over a vintage router plane but $100 for a user that will need some rehab is way too much.
• Lie Nielsen - $140 with a single 3/8" cutter and a fence. Comes open or closed throat but I'll take the closed. LN has taken the Stanley design and tried to prefect it. The only downside is getting other size cutters. With a $40 adapter, I can use the few irons from their small router plane ($35). The included fence is nice bit I'm not sure if I'll ever use it.
• Veritas from LV - $149 with a pair of 1/2" cutters but no fence. It's a unique closed throat design that doesn't borrow much from the Stanley lineage. For $10 nor or $15 later I can add a fence. They offer a number of different size cutters for under $15 each and no adapter is needed. Last but not least, the removable foot and included guide make this the easiest to sharpen. If they were all the same price, I'd choose this one.

The LN and Veritas are both beautiful, precision tools but $140+ is a lot to pay trim a tenon or clean out the bottom of a dado. I wan't to spend $50 or less. That extra $90 could go toward wood or other tools that I also need and that may get more use.

So, do I keep searching for the Unicorn router plane that costs $50 and can be cleaned up for use easily or do I spend 3x as much to get a premium tool that's probably too nice.

[Keith Mathewson]

I have all three. IMO the Lie Nielsen router plane is the worst designed tool that they make. The Veritas is very similar to a vintage Stanley and doesn't work any better. Buy an old Stanley, you can find them any day on eBay.

[maximillian arango]

I've been trying to buy a Stanley router plane (no. 71) since it is the last tool I need before trying to attempt my first project which would greatly benefit from having one. I haven't been able to win one but it is because I suffer from PCSS(poor college student syndrome) but I have come close to winning a few of them have been going for less than 40 dollars before shipping(40 is my limit including shipping). Don't give up on a 71 yet they go plenty cheap and now that you know my limit you can out bid me too.

If I don't get one soon my first project will be making a router plane, by the way have you considered that?

[Maurice Ungaro]

I went with the LV version, and it is a very solid design. Depth stop works nicely. Blades are easier to sharpen, and you don't need a dang adapter to fiddle with tiny blades. The LV also takes the standard Stanley blades as well.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I also bought the LV router plane and got the fence and inlay cutters. Very versatile and in my opinion the best option for versatility.

[Jim Ritter]

Have you thought about making one?
This is one I made just before Christmas. I bought the blade from L-N and made everything else.





Jim

[Daniel Rode]

Beautiful work, Jim. I don't want to make one myself, though. I have too many other projects to get done first.

[Jim Ritter]

I know the feeling Dan, just thought I'd throw it out there. Thanks for the comment.
Jim

[Frederick Skelly]

I bought the LV. Both are nice tools. The tie breaker for me was the ability to add on accessories for string inlay work some day.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Dan

Assuming that cost is not a factor, the pick of the bunch is the LV.

The Stanley works but is clunky compared to the precision of both the LV and LN. Either of the LV and LN would bring a smile to the face of its user.

The decision to choose either the LV and LN comes down to a few factors. The heart of a router plane is the way the plane changes blades, blade fine adjustment, and the ease of the depth stop. The LV is the easier to change and adjust blades (as the clamp is spring loaded), plus it has a wider selection of blades. LN continue to use an adapter for the small router plane blades, and this is a pain as the blades drop out. It is rumoured that they will be offered more blades in the future. In the meantime, the blades from LV cover a wide range, and are easier to hone. I have an article on sharpening router plane blades here: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Woodwor...aneBlades.html

The LV has a better fence system - it may not get used a lot but it is very useful when needed. I would either get it now, or plan on getting it later. The LN uses the Stanley design and this has less range.

You may decide that the feels of one is preferred over the other and that this decides you. They have different handles, with the LN more inboard and the LV more outboard.

Edit to add information.

The review I wrote on the LV router plane in 2006 clearly needs to be updated. Since then, LV have improved the depth stop and have added other accessories. As with the Small Plow, it is evident that the router plane can become the heart of a system. The question just remains whether the system is worth the effort?

Very recently I needed to score a double line for a slot that would morticed into a stretcher. The inlay attachment for the LV router plane did this perfectly ...




Regards from Perth

Derek

[Maurice Ungaro]

I also bought the LV router plane and got the fence and inlay cutters. Very versatile and in my opinion the best option for versatility.

What Malcolm said. I should have mentioned the versatility as well. While the fence is an additional cost versus the LN, I think the value is better in the LV.

[Derek Cox]

I have found that the router plane is one of those joinery tools that I really use a lot, much more so than a shoulder plane for instance. My main work at the moment is Japanese Carpentry joinery - you can see a thread here (just to show what I'm doing, your work may not have as greater use or need as mine). Obviously we all have price limits and no-one can tell you what you should spend, but I bought the Lee Valley version and I really like it, very precisely made, good cutters that are easy to sharpen. Their add on bits obviously give you a large growth path if you find yourself wanting to do other things with it later.

Hope this helps

Derek

[Warren Mickley]

You don't need a router plane. You don't need a router plane. I was a cabinetmaker for years before I got one.
If you want to make tenons, learn to saw right to the line, clean up with chisel if necessary. Leaving extra just so you can clean up with a router is a big time waster; lots of extra set up time and work time. If you want to clean the bottom of a dado, use a chisel and a mallet. The chisel has no set up time and is much easier to sharpen.

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Warren

Your reply raises an interesting question, which I shall take to a new thread since it is at a tangent to the topic here. I look forward to you adding your thoughts. Keep an eye out.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Greg Wease]

I have gotten a lot of use out of a Stanley #71 with a 1/2" blade from Lee Valley.