Veritas shooting plane and track issue (damage)

[Noho12C]

I was cleaning my shooting plane tonight and realised that the track has damaged the sole of the plane, leaving some grooves on it. Im very suprised about it, as the track is aluminium, so quite softer than the plane. The side of the track has a pretty rough surface, which caused this grooving on the plane.

Did someone have the same issue ? Considering to send an email to Veritas/Lee Valley. It doesnt seem to impact the performance of the plane, so I might just be a bit picky here, but consireing the price of the plane and track, that's quite annoying/disappointing.

 

[D_W]

I vowed not to comment here for a bit, so hopefully nobody is offended I'll keep that pledge after this.

But your issue is likely (if the track is aluminum) embedded metal or grit in aluminum.

Aluminum is an ideal medium for a harder embedded grit or metal shard to embed and basically become a lapping plate (grooving in this case). I'd locate the grit, pick it out and continue to use the plane. It's cosmetic only and should you ever decide to sell the plane, it's not going to affect value much.

As to how this occurs mechanically? think of taking a small stone , a piece of metal and a piece of wood. Assume the stone is harder than the metal. now, run the two over each other with some pressure - what will happen? The stone will mar the wood some but eventually get pushed into it until only a bit of the tip of the stone sticks out and that tip will then scratch the metal as they move back and forth. lapping wafers and faceting plates use this principle to facet stones (grit as hard or harder than both, and then a wafer that's softer than the stone being faceted so that the grit embeds in the soft wafer and then its exposed "tooth", or millions of them, polish the gemstone).

 

[paulrbarnard]

I don’t run the edge of my plane sole against the Aluminium. I have it undercut into the wood of the shooting board so the plane sole runs against the wood not the Aluminium. I have the LN plane rather than the Vertitas but assume the plane doesn’t cut to the edge of the sole.
my guide track also came with Pte tape to stick to the rail which also stops metal on metal abrasion.

 

[Jacob]

Several "high end" planes LV, Clifton etc are made with "malleable" steel which is quite scratchable but less breakable if dropped.
I'd just replace the aluminium runner with a bit of hardwood and carry on regardless.

 

[thetyreman]

what about using something like acrylic perspex instead? it doesn't move and probably won't wear it down as much.

 

[thetyreman]

but don't loose perspextive...

 

[Noho12C]

I vowed not to comment here for a bit, so hopefully nobody is offended I'll keep that pledge after this.

But your issue is likely (if the track is aluminum) embedded metal or grit in aluminum.

Aluminum is an ideal medium for a harder embedded grit or metal shard to embed and basically become a lapping plate (grooving in this case). I'd locate the grit, pick it out and continue to use the plane. It's cosmetic only and should you ever decide to sell the plane, it's not going to affect value much.

it's what i suspected, and clean the track carefully to remove any potential contaminant.

I think i'll add some low friction tape to limit this from happening again. Quite a bummer though..