Reggie
Established Member
Hi all, having just bought and fettled an axminster no.5 plane to a very usable state, I'm wondering what your personal experiences of the cheap planes are?
My experience was pretty simple, I just ran through the usual things that you'd check on a 2nd hand record/stanley bench plane, the yoke was loose, easily fixed with a pair of pliers to make the ends closer together which stops it jumping out of the adjust groove, I also had to regrind the face on the chipbreaker that meets the back of the blade, it only touched on the back edge of the face on the chipbreaker leaving quite a gap at the front, as soon as you try and plane anything it jams up immediately, once the face was reground, the front edge of that face meets the back of the blade correctly and now the shavings curl up nicely as they should do
The actual brand of the axminster plane is SOBA, apparently made in india.
Mine needed a minimum amount of fettling, it's such it's a bargain for what it is. I'm hoping this thread will turn into a reasonable place to come and look for experiences on these types of planes and how to get them to a usable state.
My experience was pretty simple, I just ran through the usual things that you'd check on a 2nd hand record/stanley bench plane, the yoke was loose, easily fixed with a pair of pliers to make the ends closer together which stops it jumping out of the adjust groove, I also had to regrind the face on the chipbreaker that meets the back of the blade, it only touched on the back edge of the face on the chipbreaker leaving quite a gap at the front, as soon as you try and plane anything it jams up immediately, once the face was reground, the front edge of that face meets the back of the blade correctly and now the shavings curl up nicely as they should do
The actual brand of the axminster plane is SOBA, apparently made in india.
Mine needed a minimum amount of fettling, it's such it's a bargain for what it is. I'm hoping this thread will turn into a reasonable place to come and look for experiences on these types of planes and how to get them to a usable state.