if i only buy one plane...what should it be

"Rush" wrote in news:3f9dbbb5$1 snipped-for-privacy@newspeer2.tds.net:

If you're not familiar with planes, I'd suggest buying from one of the dealers - Pat Leach or Tom Bruce or one of those folks. That way you'll at least be sure someone knowledgable has looked at the plane & verified all the pieces are there, etc.

Patrick Leach is at

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Tom Bruce is at
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could email either with your question and I'm sure they'd have suggestions & advice.

John

Reply to
John McCoy
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Subject: if i only buy one plane...what should it be Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2003 17:46:38 -0600 From: "Rush" Organization: TDS.NET Internet Services

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Newsgroups: rec.woodworking

Rush asked: I'm a newbie with a miniscule budget who needs a good all-purpose plane. Yes I know that no such things exists, but if it did, what type (smooth, jack, bench, jointer)and brand would it be? Something for under $50 would be perfect

---------- You've gotten a lot of answers, many of which go way beyond the $50 limit. The unanswered questions are: Do you own a grinder? How are you set for sandpaper or whetstones? Do you have any experience with sharpening, knives or anything else? WHERE DO YOU LIVE - important because antiques are priced differently indifferent places. How big a person are you? A hand that's comfortable with a #6 may be cramped on a block plane.

A well tuned bench plane can be used for many things a block plane is often used for, a block or #4 just isn't big enough to do many of the things a larger bench plane can. If you want to talk off-line, e-mail me.

Dave in Fairfax

Reply to
dave

I suppose if you're set up, you could get a plane for about $50 by buying a decent blade and making a wooden plane body. About half the money will get the blade, most of the rest for the book on making wooden planes and some wood.

Mike

Reply to
Michael Daly

Spot on John. If you consider the surface of your wood to be a series of miniscule hills and valleys, a long plane will bridge the valleys and only ride on the tops of the hills. It will not smooth the valleys until the hills have been levelled. Ashort plane will tend to follow the terrain better and smooth the hills and valleys at the same time.

Given a perfectly flat surface to start with in the first place, both long and short planes will smooth equally well.

Cheers

Frank

Reply to
Frank McVey

If you can only buy one plane, buy the best. I would go for the Concorde. I expect used ones (the only kind you can get since they're out of production) to start showing up on eBay pretty soon.

Reply to
Roy Smith

You're got a lot of ideas for starter planes write down a list, check the Thursday or Friday Papers for yard sales and Flea Markets, Get there "EARLY" and pick some up. At yard sales you might find five or six planes, at a Flea market 2 or 3 for your $50. INSPECT CAREFULLY, but quickly, don't spend a lot of time at one table. Don't buy anything that the metal is cracked or repaired. There are enough good cheap planes out there.

Try this link for tactics on Flea Marketing

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you read it, at the bottom hit the "BACK TO GALOOT" link and bookmaark the Home page.

Kevin

Reply to
Kevin French

Hitch wrote in news:bnm72l$12rr9e$1@ID-

211916.news.uni-berlin.de:

No! Very bad advice here. The 10-1/4 is a rather odd plane, and a bit of a pain to use. Plus, Stanley 10-1/4 are rare and collectable (and expensive).

Now, if you ran into a plain ordinary #10 Jack Rabbet, it might not be a bad choice (being careful that the bed isn't cracked). But the 10-1/4, with the tilting handles, isn't something a newbie plane user would want.

John

Reply to
John McCoy

I'm pretty new to planes...and also on a tight budget. So I'll offer what I've done...which has worked well for me. None of this is high-end stuff -- but has done the job quite well for me.

First, you didn't say if you had a separate budget for sharpening supplies or for education (books)...you'll need both.

  1. Lee's "Complete Guide To Sharpening" +shipping - amazon
  2. double-sided rough stone (~100/250 grit) - harbor freight
  3. King combination stone (1000/6000) (sale) - woodcraft.com
  4. chisel/plane sharpening guide - woodcraft

Lets see....that's $49 in supplies, so I guess I won't make your budget...it's hard to imagine getting buy any cheaper than that - even sandpaper-based sharpening will get you close to $20, once you buy 4 grits. You could skip the book and find good sharpening info online.

As for the plane itself - I've picked up some good deals on eBay by getting 'package' deals. Many buyers don't want to pick up something they already have, so they avoid these auctions. I got three Stanley block planes for $39 (9 1/4, 9 1/2 and 60 1/2) -- all in good working order.

Depending on your time schedule, you might be able to get a small block plane and a smoother (#4) for well under $50 -- which would be my recommendation. This, of course depends on what you intend to use planes for. I use the #4 to prepare the surface of my stock (usually after I've planed it by machine) -- as a replacement for sanding. I use the block planes for cleaning up joints, fitting miters and cleaning up the surface of more difficult wood or small areas. And rounding/beveling corners, of course.

As a beginner, I see no reason to go with a high-end tool...the middle-of-the-road stanleys work well for most tasks - and you'll feel better learning to sharpen on your eBay special than on a shiny new $120 LN.

good luck!

Reply to
Chris Merrill

Yes. What do you want for it?

Reply to
CW

If I was to buy an "all purpose" plane, it would probably be a Cessna 172 with Nav I or a Piper Archer. I've always been partial to low wing planes. Ed

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

I think the Cessna's are high wing planes! You probably want a nice Piper...

Tim

Reply to
The Guy

I'm thinking a nice Lear 45. Or a Gulf-stream G-4.

Reply to
Mark & Juanita

Reply to
Lawrence A. Ramsey

Not by much. I rent an Aztec for $60/hour.

The Lear is probably a budget buster though. Ed

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Here's the thing Rush, if you're going to use hand planes you need a few, at least a #5, a #4 and a low angle block plane for end grain work.

If you're schrewd you can get all 3 for around the $50 mark but you'll spend more time and effort getting up to speed with sharpening and tuning which are precursor skills. Look into scary sharp for an economical entry to sharepning. Rob Lee has a good book out on sharpening in general which I don't own but seems a worthwhile leg up for the money.

If you're not really a hand plane person get a block plane and a belt sander.

I think what you'll find is that most folks use hand planes because they're ejoyable to use and they dode over their plane more than any other tools in the shop. Why, well when you get that first crisp shaving to come through your well tuned plane it's a little like getting all of a good golf shot, which is to say that it's a bit addictive. :)

Good Luck

David

Reply to
Bannerstone

You may be a little late, but check out the garage/estate sales. I bet you could pickup 5-10 planes for $50. Then, just do like the rest of us and go to the library and check a sharpening/hand tool book out. Each author has there own preference but most fettling tips are similar. Once you learn the process, it's like riding a bike...

Totally addictive!!! Now the hand plane "it's really called a frog?" phase. Next is the "sharpen everything in your shop, cut your hand open, and use it more carefully" phase.

Used stanley #4 and block plane $10 Combination 800g/4000g stone $40 Learning fettling and the basics of sharpening from a book at the library, priceless (pun intended) For everything else there is a tool you can buy to make it easier

PS-Get your hands on a buffing setup with jewelers rouge as soon as you can :-) SS

Reply to
Sam Schmenk

How do you flatten the iron back?

I was beating my head on the wall trying to flatten the backs of tool blades with water stones. I recently learned that water stones are usually not flat enough themselves to flatten a plane iron or wide chisel well.

After putting together a Scary Sharp sandpaper on glass flattening setup, I'm getting much better results.

My inexpensive sharpening setup has grown to this:

$150 for 250, 1000, 4000 grit Japanese water stones $100 for a Shapton 8000 grit stone $ 40 for a Shapton base / lapping plate $ 50 for (5) 1/4 sheet glass strips, 220-320-400-600-1200 wet dry sandpaper, and 3M 77 I attached the glass to MDF strips to protect the edges and allow the strips to be held with a vise and dogs.

I do the backs on the sandpaper. The edges then go 1000-4000-8000 on the stones and the back gets a final pass on the 8000 to finish. I usually don't have to ever touch the back again, except for that last

8000 pass.

For scrapers, I added: $160 for (2) double sided DMT diamond plates (for lapping scraper edges which will quickly destroy a soft water stone surface) DAMHIKT $100 for a Veritas file jointer fence, burnishing tool, angle gauge, and sharpening guide $ 10 for a good new large mill file A jointer push block (for lapping scraper sides) A 2x2 hardwood block with 2 faces jointed a perfect 90 degrees (for lapping the scraper edge).

I also picked up a grinder and a Veritas grinder rest for renewing hollow grinds.

I'm shocked at the quality of edges I can get with the right stuff. I also have a continually hairless left wrist and forearm. You could do all of it with sandpaper, but I find it quicker and easier to use other stuff for tasks like scraper edges.

Barry

Reply to
B a r r y B u r k e J r .

Yes, but that's not within his budget!

Edw>>Yes I know that no such things exists, but if it did, what type

Reply to
James T. Kirby

Barry, We are your friends. We want the best for you. We want you to be happy. However, we notice you have some "issues" with sharpening things. You may suffer from SAD. Sharpening Aquisition Disorder. When was the last time you had hair on on your hand? Is your wife afraid to use her kitchen knives because she knows you sharpen them? Do you drool at the thought of a 16,000 grit water stone? ;)

I am totally envious of your setup! I'm a hobbyist with a some success in sharpening irons and chisels. I understand your concern with water stones not being flat. For my purposes, the stone works good. If I were a pro, I'm sure it would be different.

BTW - with as much success you have with sharpening scrapers, do you ever use sandpaper on the flat surfaces of your projects?

SS

Reply to
Sam Schmenk

It has been a while...

Shapton makes a "competition" 30,000 grit stone!

Check out the bottom of:

Only to cut finishes, as in 320-400 grit. FWIW, I now have CURVED scrapers! I will NEVER sand wood again now that I've learned how to correctly scrape, and of, course, sharpen the darn thing.

Scraping, including sharpening, is faster, easier and cheaper than sanding, once you get the hang of it. No changing grits, no wondering if the sandpaper is worn, and no buying sandpaper! Not to mention the side effect of _crystal clear_ figure, with no scratch marks.

Barry

Reply to
B a r r y B u r k e J r .

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