Plane for Rabbets & Dados

[tzipple]

I need a plane for cleaning up (and sometimes widening/deepening) rabbets & dados. Any recommendations on a good, easy to use plane?

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Lee Valley of course. They have a beauty of a shoulder plane.

can buy the Stanley cheaper than the Veritas but you will spend a lot of time getting it tuned up. I bought the Stanley before the Veritas was available. I'd not buy another.

[Bob]

I'm not sure one plane would be effective for widening and deepening. I'd recommend the Lee Valley shoulder planes for deepening and cleaning up. They could also be used for widening a rabbet. But I think they would be inappropriate for widening a Dado. For widening, there's the specialty side rabbet planes from Lie Nielson.

Bob

[George]

One won't do all, that's for sure. Deepen dado with router plane, widen with side rabbet plane.

With one side open, rabbets present no problem with any the others have mentioned.

[Andy Dingley]

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 20:14:25 -0600, tzipple wrote:

All depends on the size. If you're a timber framer then the only one that works is a #10 - big enough to do it, cheap enough (unlike a #10

1/2 or #10 1/4) to not mind too much when you break the mouth off it. This is one of the few rebate planes that can be used for cutting yards of big rebates without stopping every minute to clear shavings out of the mouth.

At a smaller scale, which is all that most furniture makers ever need, the Stanley #78 will cut rebates pretty well. The Record #778 is better though, because the two bars on the guide fence mean the fence doesn't wobble or break so easily. Still planes for relatively big jobs though - more use for garden furniture than jewellery boxes.

All of the above have huge great mouths, which means they're not useful for cross-grain work (although some #10 variants have cross-grain spurs). If you are working cross-grain rebates, then you might prefer the #289. As it has a skewed iron, it works a bit better. Shame abut the rarity and the price though.

the ideal plane for small cross-grain rebates on the bench is the Stanley #140 This is a block plane with a skewed iron, so it works for cross or end grain, and it has a removable side so you can use it for rebates too. It's not perfect; no fence, no adjustable mouth, and it's another rarity with collectors fighting for them. So leave it alone, and get the modern Lie-Nielsen instead. This has a low angle iron and a fence, so it's great for cross-grain rebates. also make a rebate block plane like the #10, with "arched" sides rather than a single removable side plate. This has the advantage of ambidexterity, but it's an idea that's better suited IMHO, to the larger planes like the #10 than these small blocks. I'd go with the #140. of these planes will cut dadoes or grooves. They're just too wide. The biggest dado that you need to cut at all regularly is 3/4" and the Stanley #92 will do this for you. This is a useful plane. It cuts 3/4" dadoes, so long as you poke the shaving out on every pass. It's also a competent rebate plane (although I prefer the others above). Best of all, it's cheap, commonplace and it will do a passing imitation of a shoulder plane for much less money. It's _not_ a shoulder plane, and it's not a great plane for end grain. But you can have one of these, and you probably can't afford a real shoulder plane (Lee Valley, Clifton, Record 311). As with all the #90 series, the US-made planes are junk (the castings are bananas) and the English-made Stanleys are far better behaved.

If you need a 1/2" dado, then look for a wooden rebate plane, ideally skewed. Not easy to find, but narrow ones are out there.

If you're narrow cutting grooves _with_ the grain, then things are easier. The iron-bodied "open mouth" planes, multiplanes and combination planes will work here. They're not great, but then for dadoes they _really_ don't work well. A #50 or #45 in usable condition (all the bits but tatty) is dirt cheap, considering how much you get, simply because people hate them. More useful IMHO is a much simpler #43 or #44, which has all the bits you really need to put the grooves in for a drawer bottom.