I needed a scrub plane to do do a “hand planed” surface for a antique repro. Cheapest thing I could find was a wooden one for $62 plus frt…Soooo… since this was a tool not used evey day,(at least by me), I stopped at Harbor Frt, (ooooh…)
Anyway they had a “smoothing plane” for $9.95, Bought it, and with 10 minutes of grinding, the blade was sharp and rounded, and did the job…
Can’t believe anyone could do anything like that for $10, shipped from India, with profit for HF….
Bud
Replies
Mine was free! I chain saw lots of local wood into turning blanks and even some into boards (lota work for a little board, but they're beautiful). The chain saw doesn't leave a very flat surface, especially used at the limit of its length in big rounds. But, it has to be flat to take a face plate or resaw into boards. Not having a lie Nielson budget, I made a scrub plane the same way from an old craftsman plane. I also had to grind the mouth open a bit to accomodate the big shavings.
Works great. Cost only a handfull of 110 volt electrons and some work that I like anyway.
I've always wondered about the wisdom of spending a lot of $$ on a scrub plane... it's a SCRUB plane, not a smoother.
Check the Feburary issue of "Popular Woodworking", a great article on the very same topic. I made one with a wood body, now I wonder why I went to the trouble!
I have a Stanley #40 but I found that a #5 with a crowned bevel on the iron works better. Since I only have a 6" jointer it gets used a lot. I have to agree that a dedicated scrub plane body makes less sense than a dedicated scrub iron for a bench plane.
It doesn't have to be much of a body, but for a bench plane to work well as a scrub you will want to have the frog set as far back as possible for chip clearance. But for smoothing or jointing you want the mouth quite a bit tighter to reduce tear-out. So avoid the hassle of adjusting the frog get a dedicated body.
Hello seb,
I am going to do the same thing as you with my £5 plane and I am wondering if you left the chip-breaker in when you were planing, the proper scrub planes just have a blade.
Excellent Idea,
Sawdust.
'It's not a mistake It's a design feature'
<<<I am wondering if you left the chip-breaker in Yes, however, it needs a bit of grinding so it holds down the blade and has clearance for chips..Bud
ok...cheers.
Sawdust.'It's not a mistake It's a design feature'
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled