Your favorite router plane...

-- I've never been accused of withholding my opinion ;)-- Walter M. ~ Missouri

I like the Veritas router plane. However, I built my own using their blades and works great.

I’ve thought about building my own as well. I would love to see pics of any that LJ’s have made…maybe it will inspire me for mine. I love rosewood and brass, so I would probably incorporate that into mine somehow.

-- I've never been accused of withholding my opinion ;)-- Walter M. ~ Missouri

I’m in no position to compare, because I just received my first router plane the other day, and used it two nights ago… It’s a Lee Valley Veritas. The thing is awesome – I really like the depth adjustment system. Very fine and precise adjustments.

-- Pete

Current commercially available would be the Veritas (over the LN) or the Walke-Moore 2500 if you can afford and one is available.

Vintage, the Preston 2500 is the one to look for. It is what the Walke-Moore is based on.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Medium size would be the veritas medium router plane which uses the same cutters as the large. Small router plane is the LN 271.

There are a number of vintage small router planes I like

Preston 22
Preston 1397 (mini version of the one you posted above)
Record 271
Sargent 73
St. James Bay offers a number of models in Bronze (Stanley 271 and Sargent 73 clones)

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

If you want to make one I would start here....

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

I have the Lie Nielsen large and small router planes. Large router plane is fine. Avoid the L-N small router planes. The lack of an adjustment lever makes them a pain in the ass to use.

I would love to have the Walke-Moore…it’s based on the Preston. I’m trying to hold out until Christmas, which is approximately when they should have more available. I like that you can place the iron in three different positions based on the type of work you’re doing.

I want one so bad, that I even thought about taking up sand casting as a hobby. Lol

I’m guessing that a smaller router would be nice for cleaning the bottoms of dado cuts. I’ve always thought of them as a novelty item…looks like I might need to rethink that.

-- I've never been accused of withholding my opinion ;)-- Walter M. ~ Missouri

Most of the small routers don’t have adjustment capability. Lee Valley’s small does not for example. I like the square cutters on the LN small. Also, they offer multiple cutters (expensive). Lee Valley only offers a 1/4 cutter.

The main knock on the LN large is the cost of cutters and needing a $40 adapter for smaller cutters.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

If you want to make one I would start here....

This is gorgeous…now I definitely have to make one, even if it’s just to say I have.

- WayneC

-- I've never been accused of withholding my opinion ;)-- Walter M. ~ Missouri

I built mine based upon other projects here on LJ. I posted a blog about how I did it. For me, the most difficult part was the v-groove the it on sits in.

I built mine based upon other projects here on LJ. I posted a blog about how I did it. For me, the most difficult part was the v-groove the it on sits in.

- Redoak49

Nice. I went and found it.

http://lumberjocks.com/Redoak49/blog/104866

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

I made a simple one with a Veritas blade. Honestly I should have rounded over the maple more for the effect I wanted, but at the time I held back on being aggressive and I should have just gone for it.

I really wanted it to ‘flow’ more like this

-- -Steven Peck, http://www.blkmtn.org

Very nice.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov