I came across your video long after the fact, I've had that shooting plane and board for a while now. I encountered the exact same conditions you had with your second one, so it seems to be an (intentional?) manufacturing defect.
It is a very good scale model, but not as useful as the miniature router plane. For small pieces, a block plane with a matching shooting board would be more useful.
Trimming the fence would seem to be an ideal first use for the shooting plane. I was thinking of buying this plane but after your review I will pass. I have the big one, and just thought it would be a kick to have the small plane.
I somehow missed this... Anthony's link brought me to it. 😎 I have the other miniatures, the shoulder plane is very useful. The fence on a ply shooting board is sacrificial and upon first use should be shaved square itself by the plane. This gives a square and zero tolerance fit. Depending on how out it is during manufacture, you may need to loosen or remove the hold-down screws for the first few cuts to slowly shave this to spec. and then refit for the last shaves. After that it will be fine. How are the castings? 😂😜 I won't be buying one unless they make a lefthand version though... probably not going to happen. 💕 Excellent review as always Chester...😎
Hi Chet, Great Video! I have been working with miniatures and this is very helpful. Looks to be better than using a sanding block like I have been doing. Hope you are well!
Thank you Bill. Good to hear from you. The nicest thing about using these over sandpaper is the finish you will get. Rather than scratching the surface these will slice and leave much smoother surfaces. Glad to hear from you. If you ever get up to Asheville, give me a call.
I'll probably just stick with my low angle jack for shooting endgrain, even on small boards. it has that momentum you need to cleanly take shavings off the tip. excellent review by the way! oh! and I also forgot to ask, I know you did your little showcase on the miniature plow in the full set vid, but how useful do you think it would be? how big is the iron?
Mr. Spier, is there a way of sending to you a few pictures of a wooden ball-type handscrew vise in an effort to see whether you can possibly help identify its' specific purpose?
Excellent review! I recently bought this pair of miniatures from Lee Valley and found some of the same issues. The fence on the shooting board I received also overhung the track. I trimmed it with the plane itself once I got the plane working. It would probably have been easier to do it with a chisel as Mr. Spier did. The little plane doesn't trim plywood very well. But it's OK. The handle is cute but useless. Worse than useless, actually. It just gets in the way. I removed it and wear a glove to reduce the discomfort of using the plane. I have very big hands and I just couldn't get the plane iron and Norris adjuster properly seated, so I use a small rubber band to hold the iron and adjuster together as a single unit and insert it that way. Then I snip the rubber band and tug it out. In order to let the plane iron move smoothly without hanging up, I had to gently file the grooves in the plane body and the edges of the ends of the mouth. Not a big deal if you're careful and have the right miniature files, but not something you'd expect to have to do with a new western plane. After tweaking, the set works well for shaving and trimming many, but not all, small workpieces. As Mr. Spier found, planing teak with this little tool is not going to be any fun. I also realized that I shouldn't expect it to perform well using the rapid back-and-forth motion we typically use with larger planes and shooting boards. It just doesn't have the mass for that. Instead, I've adopted a slower, more focused and more forceful pushing motion. It works much better. This is a charming little set. It's absolutely worth the price as a collector's item or as a gift for a woodworker to display on a shelf or mantel. It can also work well for a fairly narrow range of uses with small workpieces. For that, though, you should probably expect to do some careful preparation of both products.
It’s apparent that these miniatures are collector items and are only intended to those who are Veritas fans or model builders of doll house furniture. I am a dedicated Veritas fan but would rather spend the coin on standard sized tool. You are correct in saying that customer service at Lee Valley is exceptional at handling complaints and resolving customer issues. My problem is that going down the Veritas “rabbit hole” is a deep one if the budget allows. LN is the same. 🇨🇦👨🦳👍
For endgrain on peices of wood that small I just use my regular low angle block plane on my usual shooting board.
I came across your video long after the fact, I've had that shooting plane and board for a while now. I encountered the exact same conditions you had with your second one, so it seems to be an (intentional?) manufacturing defect.
It is a very good scale model, but not as useful as the miniature router plane. For small pieces, a block plane with a matching shooting board would be more useful.
I like the router it can be really handy with the stringing and inlay work I like to do
Trimming the fence would seem to be an ideal first use for the shooting plane.
I was thinking of buying this plane but after your review I will pass. I have the big one, and just thought it would be a kick to have the small plane.
I somehow missed this... Anthony's link brought me to it. 😎
I have the other miniatures, the shoulder plane is very useful.
The fence on a ply shooting board is sacrificial and upon first use should be shaved square itself by the plane. This gives a square and zero tolerance fit. Depending on how out it is during manufacture, you may need to loosen or remove the hold-down screws for the first few cuts to slowly shave this to spec. and then refit for the last shaves. After that it will be fine.
How are the castings? 😂😜
I won't be buying one unless they make a lefthand version though... probably not going to happen. 💕
Excellent review as always Chester...😎
Hi Chet, Great Video! I have been working with miniatures and this is very helpful. Looks to be better than using a sanding block like I have been doing. Hope you are well!
Thank you Bill. Good to hear from you. The nicest thing about using these over sandpaper is the finish you will get. Rather than scratching the surface these will slice and leave much smoother surfaces. Glad to hear from you. If you ever get up to Asheville, give me a call.
@@ChetSpier Likewise, if you are ever in Maine, give us call. I hope we can get back to NC one of these days. All the best.
I didn't know Sean Connery took to woodworking :D All jokes aside, thank you for this great review!
I'll probably just stick with my low angle jack for shooting endgrain, even on small boards. it has that momentum you need to cleanly take shavings off the tip. excellent review by the way!
oh! and I also forgot to ask, I know you did your little showcase on the miniature plow in the full set vid, but how useful do you think it would be? how big is the iron?
HI Chester. I just picked this up. Thanks for your overview. How did you find sharpening it? Did you just go with a micro bevel?
Try a couple of band aids across the end of your thumb. It helped a lot for me.
What's the maximum depth of cut you find it to be capable of working with?
I thought this miniatures were meant as decorations...
They are working, but more than that I know of one manufacturer who uses the rebate planes in a special application tool for canoe making
Mr. Spier, is there a way of sending to you a few pictures of a wooden ball-type handscrew vise in an effort to see whether you can possibly help identify its' specific purpose?
You can send them to Spier1@aol.com
Excellent review! I recently bought this pair of miniatures from Lee Valley and found some of the same issues.
The fence on the shooting board I received also overhung the track. I trimmed it with the plane itself once I got the plane working. It would probably have been easier to do it with a chisel as Mr. Spier did. The little plane doesn't trim plywood very well. But it's OK.
The handle is cute but useless. Worse than useless, actually. It just gets in the way. I removed it and wear a glove to reduce the discomfort of using the plane.
I have very big hands and I just couldn't get the plane iron and Norris adjuster properly seated, so I use a small rubber band to hold the iron and adjuster together as a single unit and insert it that way. Then I snip the rubber band and tug it out.
In order to let the plane iron move smoothly without hanging up, I had to gently file the grooves in the plane body and the edges of the ends of the mouth. Not a big deal if you're careful and have the right miniature files, but not something you'd expect to have to do with a new western plane.
After tweaking, the set works well for shaving and trimming many, but not all, small workpieces. As Mr. Spier found, planing teak with this little tool is not going to be any fun. I also realized that I shouldn't expect it to perform well using the rapid back-and-forth motion we typically use with larger planes and shooting boards. It just doesn't have the mass for that. Instead, I've adopted a slower, more focused and more forceful pushing motion. It works much better.
This is a charming little set. It's absolutely worth the price as a collector's item or as a gift for a woodworker to display on a shelf or mantel. It can also work well for a fairly narrow range of uses with small workpieces. For that, though, you should probably expect to do some careful preparation of both products.
Очень лучше 👍🇹🇷
It’s apparent that these miniatures are collector items and are only intended to those who are Veritas fans or model builders of doll house furniture. I am a dedicated Veritas fan but would rather spend the coin on standard sized tool. You are correct in saying that customer service at Lee Valley is exceptional at handling complaints and resolving customer issues. My problem is that going down the Veritas “rabbit hole” is a deep one if the budget allows. LN is the same. 🇨🇦👨🦳👍