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Thread: Router Plane comparison

  1. #1
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    Router Plane comparison

    Looking at buying a large Router plane.

    I know this is a popcorn question, but has anyone used both the Lie Nielsen and the Veritas ? Is this one of those, both are great things.. any real advantage to one over the other ?

    I own both Veritas and Lie Nielsen planes. Love both, nothing negative to say about either. Just usually find Veritas are a bit more clever, and Lie Nielsen are drool pretty..

  2. #2
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    Having used neither my opinion can only be drawn from the information on the two web sites.

    Veritas seems to have a wider selection of blades.

    My router is an old Sargent model. It mostly does what is expected of it. Even with a few different blades available, most of the time it uses just one.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  3. #3
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    Hi Rick

    Both the LN and the LV large router planes are quality products. I am sure that if you did not use them alongside you would not care which you owned. However there are differences and I have a preference having used both. I own the LV. It is several years since I last used the LN, which was lent to me by Thomas LN for an article I wrote in the Australian Review Magazine. The photo below shows the two before LV upgraded their depth stop.



    As Jim mentioned, LV have a wider blade range. This may or may not be important to you. LN have been promising for some years to expand their range. There is no time limit here. LV already have a wide range of blades. In addition, the LV blades fit the new medium router plane as well. Ironically (if I may describe it that way), the LN blades fit their small router - however this is a problem as far as I am concerned since it is really the other way around: blades for the small router plane are used in the large LN via an adapter. Outside this, there is only one dedicated blade, a square 1/2". The adapter is a pain to use, and blades fall out if you are not careful.

    LN ...


    LV...


    There is also an adapter for the LV that enables the use of a cutter for scoring inlay.



    The other relevant factor is the ease of blade adjustment on the LV. The blades are spring-loaded. This means that you can loosen the blade and move it up-or-down without danger of it dropping out.

    You may or may not use a fence (handy when cleaning up stopped rebates or grooves). The fences are different on the planes. LN follows the Stanley design, and it is a basic affair with limited range. LV have a outboard design that is more capable.

    I have posted a method to hone LV blades here: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Woodwor...aneBlades.html

    Regards from Perth

    Derek

  4. #4
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    Thanks Derek .. Great answer .. I think I have made a decision.

  5. #5
    LV also now has a medium router plane that uses the same blades as large one. I just received it and it is pretty nice.

  6. #6
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    Having had the veritas and now owning the lie nielsen, I would say that the veritas provides versatility while the LN is a one trick pony. The LN does the job just fine as long as you can work with the single blade size. With regard to the veritas, I never had the need to use the other blades or even the fence since I have other tools that perform similar tasks but the nice thing is always, the option is there if you need it....
    Andy
    Keep Life Simple

  7. #7
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    That is good info Andy ... I wondered about that myself.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Reinis Kanders View Post
    LV ... has a medium router plane ... I just received it and it is pretty nice.
    i'd love to hear your thoughts (or anyone's thoughts) on the Veritas Medium Router Plane. I've been considering a small router plane for a while. I had been planning to simply buy the elegant, simple Lie Nielsen small router plane, but now I look at the new Veritas medium plane, and I can't decide which is a better designed for its application (without some hands-on experience, vis-à-vis a project).

    One thing's for sure. It can be quite hard to predict which tool you would prefer just by thinkin' about it in the abstract. Case in point, when I tried the LV and LN chisel planes back-to-back, my preference was totally different than I had anticipated for reasons I'd never have anticipated. It's a great illustration http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=2290952

    Has anyone tried both?

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