Veritas Veritas Plunge Base for Rotary Tool

 I moved my earlier writeup to this spot.

https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/power-tool-accessories/router-accessories/73720-veritas-plunge-base-for-rotary-tools?item=05J6507

I needed to cut some 1/32" grooves for stringing on legs of a federal style piece.  This involves curves at the top and bottoms, and I was seeking a radius cutter shown in an article, which I never found.  I have the Dremel plunge base for the rotary tool, but it is a disappointment, being too flimsy and creating much angst in use.   In researching, I looked into the Stewmac plunge base, and the Veritas device.  I decided on the Veritas for several reasons; one being bang for buck - the Veritas set includes accessories to enable many more functions, for about the same price as the basic Stewmac base and edge guide - $199.  

The base is very sturdy aluminum with zero sloppiness in the plunge function.  The fence attaches to the base with very nice knurled screws (all the screws are nicely knurled; I like that).  Once the lower piece is attached, the screws visible facing you in the second photo can be removed and replaced with a pair with half-round heads (visible in the box) for following an outside curve on a template.  There is a 1/4" pin for a center for circle routing, as well as a sharp pin - really sharp, my thumb got ripped!  The aluminum disc is a pivot that can be attached to the workpiece with double face tape when the surface cannot be subjected to damage.  All these fit into a hole in the triangular adapter shown in the box.  Really creative thinking.

Now that I have used it for the cellarette, I like it even better.  It is rock solid.  I used it for 1/16" stringing on the legs, and 1 mm on the case and drawer front; I wanted those to appear less prominent and not detract from the overall appearance.  The 1 mm carbide bits used for the 1/32" stringing, which are really brittle - I broke 3, but had purchased a pack of 10 - and any sloppiness would have resulted in a lot of breaks.

Note that I had a problem; a tiny retaining ring on the adjustment screw on the precision adjuster was missing, thus it would only move in one direction.  An email to Lee Valley and I had the ring by Fed Ex in 2 days.

 This is one of those instances where a new tool is like Christmas for a 6 year old.