Hand plane or planer for Christmas
Things are really tight financially for my family and will remain so for quite some time. So I’m able to buy tools once a year at Christmas and that’s pretty much it. I live in Houston and work in a garage and typically build furniture employing frame and panel construction. Humidity swings are horrendous and though I get my wood jointed and planed at the mill, it begins to warp as soon as I bring it home. This is means my rails are usually slightly curved, my panels are never completely flat, etc. It’s driving me nuts. I already own a 6″ jointer. Should I buy several tools that I really need and satisfy my surface planing needs with a jack plane? Or should I save up my bucks for a bench top planer? And in regards to a jack plane, will I be able to get sastifactory results from an English-made Stanley or go for something like a Veritas?
Replies
Hi, I was in the same stop you are in about 10 years ago, two small children, cash was tight , but I was interested in woodworking. I went for the hand plane, I got an old Stanley #4 from my Dad, and from there the journey began. I got books on hand tools to learn how to use these things, when you get a hand plane they need to be tuned, sharpen, and how you go about planeing a board. I took it on and I haven't looked back, hand planes, moulding planes , Stanley 45, 55. Stanley 5 6 7 8. I like to get old WW1 planes, made in the USA of course!! There great fun and when you get good at them sometimes there quicker than electric, for small thing that is, no noise, another bonus. That my two cents Good Luck, and things get better, the best is still ahead of us Tim
Andy
I was discussing this the other day over at Knots. If the choice is between hand or power tools to use for preparation of raw stock (jointing, thicknessing and edge jointing) where you're doing low volume production, personally I'd go with hand tools every time. For the price of a decent thicknesser, you can get a good scrub plane and a low angle jack. Add the cost of the dust collector and that range expands to a jointing plane as well as a smoother.
Given that the budget is real tight, I'd steer clear of all modern Record or Stanley tools (their current lack of build quality and quality control mean they're passing defects onto you that render the tool worse than useless straight outa the box), looking instead at either Lie Nielsen or Veritas.
A scrub plane is the hand tool equivalent of a thicknesser, in that it'll scrub off the worst of the material that needs to be removed in a hurry; use it initially to cut some shape into the board (removing the worst of the high spots) before gradually working the face down to slightly over the desired thickness.
From there on in, armed with a low angle jack and a range of spare blades, you can bring the face from "in the rough" to finish smooth real quickly. Those spare blades can each be honed at slightly different angles and / or cambers, letting you use the plane as both a course jack and a large smoother (I believe Lie Nielsen also offer a toothing blade that basically does the job of the scrub, only not quite as quickly). The adjustable mouth let you set the blade any way you want, adjusting the mouth accordingly to negate any potential towards tear out.
If all this sounds a bit too good to be true.. in a way it is.. it's not going to be the ideal tool to flatten a long board easily, but it can still be done provided you stop to check your work frequently with a good long straight edge and a pair of winding sticks. It's a fine excuse to stop and get your breath back too btw.... ;)
Your 6" jointer will give you one good face, and should be able to joint your edges too (if the beds are long enough). A scrub and low angle jack can take care of the opposite face quite easily. That said, if you're still in the same situation this time next year, start looking to jointing planes; they're well worth their cost.
One last note; it may be better for your stock to leave it slightly over finished thickness, and stickered while in storage until you're just about to use it. Take it down to final thickness by removing roughly equal amounts of material from each side of the board in order to balance the release of any internal stresses in the board.
I hope things work out for you; I've had my share of boards flexing wildly with humidity.
Mike Wallace
Stay safe....Have fun
Andy
neither.
Get some 2x4, some heavy duty plastic sheeting, a dehumidifier and a drain pipe. AND build yourself a constant humidy enclosure within which you can store your wood between when you bring it home from teh mill and when it is assembled into a project where further movement will not be a problem.
Ian
An older Stanley #5 ( 1940s or older) will work well for you. You can usually purchase one on eBay for less than $30.00. Take the thin Stanley iron that will come with the plane and regrind it convex to use the #5 as a scrub plane. Purchase either a Lie-Neilson or Hock 2" iron and chipbreaker for the plane (about $60). Use this iron for smoothing work. Also look at Fine Woodworking issue #172 September/October 2004 FW at the "Handplane Tune-up" article. Carefully follow these steps and the plane will give you the results you are looking for. Personally, I prefer the WWII versions of the Stanley Bailey pattern. The WWII castings are thicker, resulting in a heavier plane.
Thanks. The general concensus has been to go with hand tools. This really makes sense as right now I only have time to make about 2-3 pieces a year. I read the article in Fine Woodworking and tuned up a #4 record plane I bought last year. It works fine though getting the blade sharpened right has been a little bit of a bear. It still leaves pretty obvious lines in the boards from the blade edges.
Andy... this might help...
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-knots/messages?msg=20244.12Mike Wallace
Stay safe....Have fun
Ok, I've got a Veritas honing guide. One more question. Do I try and put a convex edge on the main bevel or just the micro-bevel?
Andy
Andy
You only need to tune the secondry bevel; makes things a lot easier come sharpening time. Mike Wallace
Stay safe....Have fun
Andy,
I had the same problem with a new smoothing plane from Lie-Nielsen. It's not really a problem but rather what is to be expected of a good straight blade. I rounded off the two corners very slightly on a 4000 water stone. A made a few passes on the stone then checked the results on the wood until I had it just right. The LN smoother is a great tool. I am a beginner and was told that I would probably have to do this by the nice folks at Lie-Nielsen. BTW, I learned a lesson in the process: I first tried to do the "round-off" using my the 8000 side of my combination stone. Not a good idea because the stone is so soft that it was easily gouged when I angled the blade too severely. A quick lapping on 220 w/d sandpaper got rid of the hole in the stone - but I learned a lesson.
Good luck,
Andy
Andy, you should spend another $45 and get a Veritas cabinet scraper. I just bought one, and you can remove plane nicks and all sorts of other things. This tool was a great investment. And it performs beautiful.
Yes, I saw that in their new catalogue. I was wondering if it would have a problem with chatter, but I guess not.
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