Earlier in 2023 Lee Valley released the Veritas Box Maker’s Plow Plane. This is a small plow plane (almost mini). It’s main use is targeted towards making grooves for drawer bottoms, box bottoms, or box lids. It is a very similar plane to the vintage Record 043 miniature plow plane.
As soon as I saw that the Box Maker’s Plow Plane was released and for sale I bought one. I have a thing for combination and plow planes, and really like the miniature ones. This was not sponsored and I’m not being compensated in any way for posting about this plane, and I bought it at full retail price with my own money. I was just excited about the plane, and like to share.
I will be doing a full overview, review, and comparison video (or series of videos depending on the length of the content). I’m excited to get to work on that, as it’s been a while since I’ve done a full in depth video like this.
Anyway, enough of me rambling on about that, more of the pictures I’m sure you’re here for…
The plane comes with the 1/4″ plane iron by standard, but the irons for the Veritas small plow plane work with this plane as well. The plane works with both the groove/rabbet irons as well as the bead irons.
The plane (and irons) are offered in both left and right hand versions. The handedness of the irons doesn’t matter for the plane, however, since they’re not skewed or using the depth adjustment notch, so if you don’t have a Veritas small plow plane, you can get whichever irons are in stock. Alternatively Stanley #45 plane irons also work in the Box Maker’s Plow Plane, and I would assume the Veritas Combination Plane irons also work, but I don’t have any on hand to test myself.
The plane has a main casting and a fence. The fence is set to determine how far from the edge the groove or bead is, or control the width of a rabbet. It comes supplied with a torrefied maple sub fence attached. There is also a thumb screw that clamps the blade against the main casting, in addition to the lever cap that holds it in place.
On the opposite side of the plane there is a depth stop that sits up in to a recess in the casting when set all the way up. This allows the plane to cut up to a depth of about 3/8″ maximum.
The Veritas is very similar in form and function to the Record 043 (foreground). A lot of the design aesthetic is largely the same, though the Veritas has been updated for ergonomics and more modern design language.
I am a big fan of my Record 043 planes (I’ve got 3 of them currently). I love their size and balance of capabilities. Don’t get me wrong; I love my larger combination planes of various makers too, as I’ve got quite a few, but the truth is the 043 (and I presume soon to be Veritas) is what I reach for 90% of the time. It’s just a good size and is comfortable in use making it hard to beat for much of the work I do with a plow plane. Adding the ability to have beading irons with the Veritas, and I’d almost argue I could probably live without larger plow/combination planes (but I won’t…).
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