My new router plane.

[tiredofspam]

I have wanted a router plane for a while now. I decided on the Veritas over Lie Nielsen, and am I impressed. I bought the fence and all the blades with it. I stayed with SAE, I like to work in metric, but I felt more comfortable with the SAE irons.

This is an extremely well made router plane. I can see doing cleanup work with it and quick hinge mortises. I now want the small router plane , I think this thing rocks. I can rough out with chisels and finish with the router faster than setting up my powered router for small one or 2 off items.

The spear shaped tool that comes with the tool is fantastic for grooving. Finish it off with the straight iron... It just makes pushing the router through so much easier.

Having been buying both Lie Nielsen and Lee Valley Veritas, I think both are great, but I have to give the edge lately to Veritas. Their engineering shows a lot of thought into what the negative features are, and they do a lot to correct, or make it more usable. Both are quality companies, with quality products.

[Bill]

Thanks for posting your review. I already have one on my "want list", but I don't mind the encouragement! So far, I haven't been fussy about the particular one I haven't bought yet--but I'd take vintage or any other. I don't recall the prices, but vintage might even be gotten for less.

[Steve Turner]

Router planes are supremely cool and incredibly useful. I have a vintage Stanley No. 71 and it works great, and while I've drooled over the Veritas version many times (and someday when I have an extra $150 to throw around I WILL have one!), I would not "while away" precious time ignoring the vintage Stanley models (which can be had on eBay for $25 or less) while waiting for the "right time" to drop the big bucks on the Veritas. I would suggest that a simple router plane is an indispensable tool for any woodworker, and even the simplest and crudest of the old Stanleys will serve you well. It's hard to picture how useful these little babies can be until you have one on hand and you realize what it can do. And like that single bandsaw that almost never has the blade mounted that you really need, it doesn't hurt to have more than one on hand, so by all means pick up an old Stanley (or two) to complement that state of the art Veritas.

[Father Haskell]

My 271 is great for touching up dado bottoms +/- a few thou, but a bit small to really get a grip on for heavier work. A 71 isn't cheap, but a shopmade approximation doesn't look too hard to make from a block of scrap and an Allen wrench or offset screwdriver: