Veritas combination plane is here

[Noah Magnuson]

This is surely blasphemy, but mine has been in the cardboard shipping box since Monday. Just went into escrow on a house, so I have been busy with the 'to do' list. I will play with it this evening and see how it does with some of the #55 blades. The good news is the new garage is 100 sf bigger and if that isn't enough, I have permission to build a proper shop.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

This is surely blasphemy, but mine has been in the cardboard shipping box since Monday. Just went into escrow on a house, so I have been busy with the 'to do' list. I will play with it this evening and see how it does with some of the #55 blades. The good news is the new garage is 100 sf bigger and if that isn't enough, I have permission to build a proper shop.

100 sf bigger isn't enough. You need that proper shop.


*** NOTE: I have never seen your shop, and it may be huge, but you don't seem to know what a rarity it is to have permission like this. If she gives you permission, you build it. It doesn't really matter if you need it or not- she will change her mind tomorrow. The moment you have permission, you just do it. How soon can you break ground?

You can thank me later when she says, "You know, maybe you don't need to build that shop," and you say, "Awww, gee honey- I wish you had said that sooner- I already hired the contractor and broke ground. It's too late to turn back now."

[Patrick Chase]

I started to read about #55 on the well-known site about Stanley planes... I was waiting long time for Veritas Combination plane just because I'm not comfortable with buying vintage ones from ebay that costs so much. Stanley #55 is tempting but scary in frustration at the same time.

Yeah, I recently bought a #55 from the tool dealer that wrote the well-known site about Stanley planes. Like you I didn't want to play the "eBay lottery" so I went the dealer route instead.

IMO it's not quite as bad as its reputation, but you have to pay close attention to how a bunch of things are aligned. For example fence-to-iron parallelism, fence-to-skate parallelism, secondary- and auxiliary-fence positions w.r.t. iron, etc etc. Basically it's as good (or bad) as you are careful and methodical (or not).

[Noah Magnuson]

Lol. I have been working out of a 19' x 19' garage that shares room with everything else (lawnmowers, ladders, power tools etc.). Every time I drive by a huge steel building for lease, I joke, "There's my shop". Hopefully that has skewed her perception and 20' x 30' won't seem out of line. I'm pretty sure I could make use of the Tillamook blimp hangar though.

[Noah Magnuson]

So I cracked open the box and fiddled with it for a bit this evening. First impressions are that it is very well made with solid tolerances all around. There are a ton of knobs so you have to make sure and double check them all before you go at it. I didn't look at the instructions, but it is pretty intuitive. I have the small plow, but it is the only similar tool I have used, so I consider it pretty good when I don't have to guess what some knob does.

I threw on a random profile cutter (ogee 104) from my set of 55s, and it made a pretty nice profile on this oak scrap with little setup considering it was not even sharp (the chunks out on the backside are some shallow dados, not tearout). I showed my wife and she said, "Is that your new tool? You can use it when you make the new dining table." Gotta love her.
ogee.jpg

I'm not sure what kind of steel the nickers are made of, but the tips burred really easily at first when I was dadoing some pine until I got to a meatier part of the steel. After filing them flush again, they held up fine.

[Patrick Chase]

So I cracked open the box and fiddled with it for a bit this evening. First impressions are that it is very well made with solid tolerances all around. There are a ton of knobs so you have to make sure and double check them all before you go at it. I didn't look at the instructions, but it is pretty intuitive. I have the small plow, but it is the only similar tool I have used, so I consider it pretty good when I don't have to guess what some knob does.

I threw on a random profile cutter (ogee 104) from my set of 55s, and it made a pretty nice profile on this oak scrap with little setup considering it was not even sharp (the chunks out on the backside are some shallow dados, not tearout). I showed my wife and she said, "Is that your new tool? You can use it when you make the new dining table." Gotta love her.

How did you position the skates with that cutter? IIRC the edges of the #55 ogee cutters are at different heights (I don't have mine in front of me right now). Did you position one of the skates more towards the middle to get it to sit at the same depth as the edge?

Sounds like time to sharpen up those cutters :-)

[Noah Magnuson]

How did you position the skates with that cutter? IIRC the edges of the #55 ogee cutters are at different heights. Did you position one of the skates more towards the middle to get it to sit at the same depth as the edge?

All I did was run the leading edge of the profile just proud of the skate, then cranked it forward each pass until the whole profile cleared both skates. Then just let the depth stop handle the rest. I didn't really think about too hard. There may be a better way.

[Patrick Chase]

All I did was run the leading edge of the profile just proud of the skate, then cranked it forward each pass until the whole profile cleared both skates. Then just let the depth stop handle the rest. I didn't really think about too hard. There may be a better way.

You got somewhat lucky that the plane didn't nosedive "diagonally", since it was only riding on one skate (the one that the iron hadn't yet reached) for most of the work. Stanley would describe that as an unsupported configuration. They recommend no fewer than 3 skates engaged with the wood with that cutter.

[Noah Magnuson]

I guess I don't understand. It was still against both skates the whole time. I had them set just as wide as the blade. Nothing was unsupported where it could nosedive. I used the fence to keep it against the wood and just ran the iron out a crank at a time. It went quite smoothly.

[Patrick Chase]

I guess I don't understand. It was still against both skates the whole time. I had them set just as wide as the blade. Nothing was unsupported where it could nosedive. I used the fence to keep it against the wood and just ran the iron out a crank at a time. It went quite smoothly.

The iron may have been against both skates, but skates couldn't possibly have both been riding on the workpiece, which is what I was referring to. Sorry for not being clearer.

I have my Stanley 102, 104, and 106 irons (the 3 ogees that come with the #55) in front of me as I write. Tbe left edge of the iron as viewed from behind the plane extends further than the right edge. This means that if the right edge was cutting then the left edge must have been extended well beyond the bottom of the left skate, which in turn means that the left skate could not have been in contact with the wood. The only way to support an iron like that with both skates riding on the wood is via an adjustable-height skate like the #55's.

As I said above, Stanley's manual specifically recommends using the 55's third auxiliary skate with those particular irons, to provide 3 lines of support for the forebody of the plane.

[Noah Magnuson]

Ah. I see what you are saying. In this case, there is the fence and a single skate holding it true and the blade started way back. Since I used the blade adjuster to let the profile in a shaving at a time, it accomplishes the same thing as having the leading edge just proud of an adjustable height skate. As long as you hold it square it cant bite more than a shaving. I don't have a 55 manual, but I would think they recommend it so that it works like a proper moulding plane and controls the depth of "dig" for all three tips of the profile where you can just run it until the depth stop(s) hit rather than necessarily just support.

Anyway, an adjustable height sounds like would have made it easier and preferred since you wouldn't have to let the blade down, but I don't think there was much risk of digging in the way I was doing it. You might get some chatter on the real long ogee profiles that come to a tip. Will have to try. Glad I don't have Stanley telling me what I can't do

Oh yeah, there are a ton of little things on here that make you realize they really thought this out as far as access and adjustment. I will have to read the instructions today, lol.

Thanks Rob!

[Patrick Chase]

Ah. I see what you are saying. In this case, there is the fence and a single skate holding it true and the blade started way back. Since I used the blade adjuster to let the profile in a shaving at a time, it accomplishes the same thing as having the leading edge just proud of an adjustable height skate. As long as you hold it square it cant bite more than a shaving. I don't have a 55 manual, but I would think they recommend it so that it works like a proper moulding plane and controls the depth of "dig" for all three tips of the profile where you can just run it until the depth stop(s) hit rather than necessarily just support.

That's basically right, and what I was referring to when I mentioned "diagonal nosedive". If one of those unsupported tips digs in the whole thing can end up sort of crosseyed in short order (one end low and twisted overall).

EDIT: Now that I read more carefully I understand what you did. You used the far depth adjuster (the one on the side with the "airborn skate") as a continuously engaged auxiliary skate. Note that you can't always do that (sometimes there simply isn't a surface that adjuster can ride on) but yeah, that seems like a reasonable workaround. You don't get much support at the toe that way, but I can see how it would work with shallow cuts and careful technique.

[Jim Koepke]

Noah describes a process similar to one I have used at times. There is a bit more about it here:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...h-a-Plow-Plane

This came to me while wondering about a small percentage of Stanley #45 fences having cut outs for a blade.

It seems there were a few folks back in the day that also didn't like being told what they couldn't do.

One problem with the #45 is the blade might move laterally. One has to keep an eye on that.

BTW, my recollection is not only is this method alluded to in the #55 manual, there is a screw to place in the adjustable skate to help alleviate the problem.

jtk

[Bill Houghton]

+1 there for me too. How do you not support a company who's president takes the time to help individual customers out like this?

And not just that, but honors and clearly likes his staff?

[Patrick Chase]

FWIW, Stanley's recommended skate configurations for various complex profiles with the #55 are shown on p. 16-17 here. The Roman Ogee is fig. 64 and the Grecian Ogee is fig. 68.

In all figures the main skate (the one with the blade clamp and adjustment) is on the left, the adjustable-depth skate is on the right, and the auxiliary skate (if present) is in the middle.