Popular Woodworking 2007-08 № 163, страница 18
Tool Test by the popular woodworking staff Bridge City's Variable-pitch Plane A unique tool that allows you to plane at high or low angles, with a bit of a steep learning curve. s. ay what you will about a handplane that costs $1,500, the variable-pitch plane from Bridge City Tool Works is so well made and engineered that its mere existence is an impressive feat. Unlike other handplanes, the VP-60 has a frog that tilts forward and back, and this allows you to set the cutter at any angle between 30° and 90° to the sole of the tool. As a result, you can set the tool to really low cutting angles (great for end grain and softwoods) or to an ultra-high scraping angle to produce tear-out free cuts in difficult woods. We borrowed a VP-60 from Bridge City for a couple months and found that the tool performed exactly as advertised. But this isn't a tool that you should expect to master the first day. The tool has parts that will be unfamiliar, and it takes time to understand them, set them properly and master their subtleties. Let's start with the frog. By loosening a hex-head knob behind the frog, you can adjust the frog angle anywhere between 30° and 60° to the plane's sole. This allows you to set the Pick an angle, any angle. The frog moves forward and back to change the tool's angle of attack. tool to any of these planing angles with the bevel of the cutter facing down. By flipping the cutter over so the bevel faces up, you can achieve the higher scraping angles. The depth adj uster is among the most precise I've ever used, with little backlash in the mechanism. The way you laterally adjust the iron to center the cutting edge in the mouth is unusual and took some getting used to. There are two wide wheels on either side of the frog, and you snug them up against the sides of the cutter. These adjust and hold its position to prevent it from skewing. The lever cap is actually the most unusual piece of the tool. It articulates and folds to accommodate all the different planing angles, which is cool to watch. At the end of the lever cap is an adjustable steel "pressure bar," which is quite interesting. You adjust the bar so it's close to the cutting edge of the tool. When you cinch down the lever cap, this bar bends the cutter a bit, pre-loading the cutting edge against planing forces. A couple other unusual features: The plane has two sole plates, one in front of the mouth and one behind, so you can close things up as tight as necessary. And the cutter is cryogeni-cally treated A2 steel and optically polished on the unbeveled face. It's ready to go out of the box. All of these unusual parts add up Bridge City Tool Works ■ 800-253-3332 or bridgecitytools.com Street price ■ $1,500 For more information, circle #147 on Free information Card. to a tool that commands your full attention when adjusting it. Changing the plane's angles takes time at first because you have to switch around several settings. However, once set, the plane does do an excellent j ob and works at all the angles. After trying the VP-60 at a bunch of unusual settings, however, my favorite angle for the VP-60 was 45° - the standard angle of attack for Stanley planes. Old habits die hard, I guess. As we went to press, Bridge City told us there is a forthcoming VP-55 version of the plane that will be less expensive. — Christopher Schwarz Sole of a new machine. The VP-60 has two sole plates to close up the mouth for any planing situation. 26 ■ Popular Woodworking August 2007 photos by al parrish |
