Anyone got a new LV Custom Plane?

[G S Haydon]

Interested in any feedback! I saw a video today of the cap iron set up and it looked a bit of a fiddle and you need to keep a small allen key to hand to make adjustments. Clearly well made but my initial reaction was how does this make anything better?

[ChetlovesMer]

Hey Graham,

I'm probably the biggest LV fan (well, the biggest in the U.S. anyway.) I prefer their plans to LN.

Having said that, I thought the same thing.

 

I might not be the best person to ask however, as their current product line fits my hands so well, I wouldn't need to order and of the other sized totes or knobs.

[skiback46]

I don't have one, but one benefit I see to the blade carrier, would be that you spend a lot less time fussing with getting the chipbreaker on perfect.  Once you get the breaker where you want it, you wouldn't need to remove the blade carrier from the blade each time you sharper, so you can just pop the chip breaker back on.  

[derekcohen]

Josh is correct about the blade carrier and chip breaker. It is easier to use than one imagines when first seeing it.

 

I have the jointer and a variety of options.

 

What I have is a 50 degree frog, which can be used with- or without a chip breaker. There is a 40 degree frog, and ditto. (One of the aspects that interested me was to see how well the jointer would control tear out in reversing grain with the latter). There are standard and Stanley-type handles, tall and short knobs. 

At some stage I will write up my observations to act as a guide for those wanting to understand the various options. 

What I will say for now is that the BD and BU jointers initially felt very different in the hand. The BU jointer is an incredibly easy plane to use as it has such a low centre of gravity, and it sucks down onto the wood. The BD jointer has a medium centre of gravity, feels solid and offers more feedback that I recall from my Stanley #7. Both the BU and BD planes feel taut and balanced.

Below is the LA Jointer with a Bill Rittner replacement handle and knob. The BD Jointer has the LV Stanley-type handle ...

 

I'm not going to write much more at this stage other than to suggest that you try, if you can, using the BD with the standard (more upright) handle. It will surprise you how right it feels. The Stanley-type handle may better suit the shorter smoothers. Your mileage may vary, however.

 

Regards from Perth

 

Derek

[G S Haydon]

Cheers Chet, so good to see you posting again  . You're a fan with good reason, 'tis blooming good stuff! On the new concept I could just see myself loosing the allen key and two screws within a week although that most likely says more about me than the concept. The screws also seem really small and my experience with using small screws in tooling is they do tend to round in time.

I've also reverted to using the lever cap to remove the cap iron screws on my planes. Most folks I know do it but I stopped for a while thinking I was being a bad boy. Reality is the lever cap is ideal for the task!

 

Thanks also Josh & Derek, all good points. It'll be interesting to see how things pan out.

[ChetlovesMer]

Thanks Graham,
It's good to be back.
According to the doc I'm as healthy as a ... hmm.... healthy as a .... uh .... let's see... dang... what's something that's really healthy? I hate when I start a metaphor and can't figure out how to finish it. ... or is that a simile? ... Darn, those Chicago Public Schools... I'm totally unprepared for the real world here!