If you’re thinking of getting the Veritas Medium Router plane, here’s a simple and honest review to help you make up your mind. This post is not sponsored by Veritas, nor do I have any affiliation with them. I am merely a regular woodworker trying to upgrade his tools.
This is the middle-sized router plane from Veritas, with the large version equivalent to the Stanley 71 in size. They have a small router plane and a miniature router plane.
The Veritas router plane was packaged in a sturdy cardboard box. The included instructions were perfectly clear, although to be honest I only glanced through it.
Here are the details of the plane:
- Measures about 3 1/2″ wide by 3″ deep
- Ductile cast iron body machined and ground flat & treated with rust preventative
- Stainless steel depth-stop collar with knurled brass knob
- Make cuts up to 1″ deep with the depth stop installed
- Make cuts up to 1 3/4″ deep without the depth stop
- Sold with or without a 1/4″ wide blade
- Blades are available separately in five metric and five imperial sizes
- The blade can be positioned inboard or outboard (see below)
I also got a 1/8″ blade for cleaning up my Bosch table saw cuts. The blades were packaged separately as you can see from the picture above.
Broken down, you can see the stainless steel blade clamp, brass knob, depth stop, and wave washers that hold the blade secure. All the parts were high quality, and perfectly machined.
You can even see two divets, which I assume are there in case you want to drill out holes and attach a base, but I doubt I will ever be doing that anytime soon.
I wouldn’t want to mess with a tool that cost $129 CAD!
Why The Medium Sized Version?
I own an old Stanley 71 router plane, which I got from eBay and restored. However, I’ve always found it a bit too large for box-making, where I needed to route out small areas for box hinges.
Plus, I was limited by the width of blades I could find for that classic.
The reason I went with the medium and not the small is because the medium version shares the same blades with the large router plane, and these blades fit somewhat perfectly on my Stanley 71 router plane as well.
It is just the right size for smaller work.
Plus, I’ve heard a lot of good stuff about the PMV-11 steel they use, although it will cost you more than the regular A2 steel. Besides that, Veritas has the widest blade sizes.
Veritas Medium Router Plane Review
Firstly, you need to understand that this is the most premium plane I have to date. I’ve only purchased used planes from eBay and restored them. I also purchased a brand new Taytools plane (#5 Jack plane), but that was about as new and premium as I got.
The quality of this Veritas medium Router plane was was above anything I own. No sharp edges, no imperfections, no flaws. I guess this is why they say you should invest in high-quality tools!
But does it perform great?
Unfortunately, as I am writing this it is the third lockdown in Malaysia. Although I built my mini balcony workbench specifically for these lockdowns, this time I didn’t manage to get most of my tools from my main workshop in time.
All I had was a small Ryoba saw, some scrap Southern Yellow Pine, the Veritas medium router plane, and the Veritas medium shoulder plane. That being said, the plane worked beautifully.
The blade clamp held the PMV-11 blade securely in place even for deeper cuts, and the depth stop was accurate in getting to the final depth I had set. The size of the Veritas medium router plane was just right, and the shape meant that using it in both forward and reverse directions was a pleasure.
I used the same depth setting on both the dado and the rabbet. It even performed superbly in severely knotted parts of the wood. However, it did work better when I skewed the plane slightly when cutting the dado.
I am absolutely happy I decided to spend the extra money on the Veritas medium router plane. You can get a decent Taytools router plane for just $40, the blade choice and the fact that the blades are compatible with my Stanley 71 really means a lot.
If you need a solid tool for dadoes, rabbets and grooves, the Veritas medium router plane definitely fits the bill.
