Help Fixing Beginner Problems?

[MikeG.]

....... How exactly could I assess if the plane is good when I went to inspect it?

Look for obvious missing parts, big chips, breaks, deep rust or pitting, or signs of abuse. A broken handle isn't a big deal, but if you want something to use straight away it can be a nuisance. Personally, I'd be looking for something that shows signs of having been unused for a few years and just looks a little tired, rather than a plane which has been refurbished. I'd want to do that myself so that I know it's been done well, and not by some oik with a belt sander. Best to get something with lots of wear left in the blade, but don't worry if the blade is blunt or a (very) little chipped.

Post a few photos here and people will quickly give you a yay or nay.

 

[johnnyb]

I do like quangsheng there nice like better performing than lie nielsen nearly as good as veritas nice. But Ray illes ( the old toolstore ) always has a good selection of old ( nice) planes with reground soles.( The last one I brought had a samurai japanese iron! )It was £45.

 

[Daniel Troy]

Scant savings you say...
and your considering a Clifton?
Cheapest surface plate you can find more than likely is a piece of float glass
not plate glass, nor toughened.
Float glass will have a green tinge to it. get the thickest piece you can find.
try a fridge shelf and some ink to simulate Prussian blue .
Or try and find an offcut or broken piece of stone or black granite stove hearth from a stove
or ceramic shop who do fireplaces.
You will have to find a piece of dead flat something to check this, and have a flat surface to lay the glass on so it won't deflect, if you cant find granite/stone .
Rub the flat thing on the surface plate and look for where the ink rubs off, orientate the flat thing
the other way around and repeat, you should get the same result.
You will be very hard pressed to find a good tutorial about lapping planes on youtube
You can't just rub a plane on a dead flat surface plate with spotlessly clean paper and get a true
flat surface on your plane sole, as you need to have the edges perimeter of the plane proud
, otherwise you will create a rocking effect, both lengthwise and widthwise.
The most famous lifestyle woodworker has a video which you should avoid, avoid like the plague!
You need abrasive bonded to the surface plate, spray adhesive will do, lesser than the width and length of the plane, this will hold another sheet the same width secure.
and don't touch the edges of your plane with it!
The edges needs to be proud so that 5 passes will finish it off, no more!
If I were near broke I would look for the same plane as linked but waiting for auctions instead
and get one with a bit of blemishing all over for about 27 quid for a no.5 1/2 Stanley.
you should be able to get a jack, joiner and smoother for the price of what you mentioned first.
You want to see the plane not touching in the middle, propellor-ing
The plane needs to be under tension with the lever cap and blade retracted.
If you do this correctly you will see the plane pivot from the toe and the heel, as in
lightly holding the casting at the very edge with very light fingers.
pivot from the opposite end and the result should be the same.
Prussian blue is the key word you should look for, an precision engineering term, these are the guys
you should look at, as no woodworking videos display these skills on video.
No matter how convincing they sound, if they are abrading the edges of the plane, they don't know what their talking about!
Dont be fooled by high quality video production!
The plane needs a minute hollow so only the very last five passes will make the edges come down
to the same level as the middle of the sole.
Have to go now, cant be more specific
Tom

Thats amazing detail. Thanks for that. About the Clifton plane, he's selling it for a very good price. Still would be a huge stretch but I am getting notions here looking at these amazing planes!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

You should be aware that to get this level of perfection you should only use the plane on the 29th of february, dusting the sole only with the dust of blue diamondss, and lubricricating only with 1945 Pol Poger?
Intercourse me gently.

 

[Daniel Troy]

I've had a shot on a couple of Rider planes recently, nice heavy castings if you like that sort of thing, but terrible cap irons, horrible, horrible cap irons.

https://www.tooltique.co.uk/shop/vintag ... dy-to-use/

Tooltique are a good trade off between buying blind on ebay and buying new online, you know that someone's had a look at it and all the bits are there at least.

Thanks for the reply. I only started trying to find hand planes in the last few days. I have no idea what a frog is or what makes a good cap iron, lol. Can you elaborate on what you mean about the problems with the Rider cap irons?

 

[MikeG.]

........Thats amazing detail. ..........

Detailed, but only his opinion. Don't take it as gospel. It's part of a standard over-complication of simple things, particularly around planes and planing, which is all too common here. Flat soles on a plane are fine.

 

[Mr T]

My only expereince with the Rider planes is one that a student brought to a course a while ago. At first glance it looked good and the back of the blade lapped easily, but after sharpening the plane just would not cut, indicating a badly profiled chip breaker. On examination I have to say I have never seen such a badly prepared cap iron, it was rough and did not sit flat onto the back of the blade, it took us a good while to get it right. But still the cut was not good, it just about managed on poplar but gave up on oak. Checking the blade showed that it had become blunt after only a few strokes. Regrinding and honing did not change things even though I repeated this twice. In the end we swapped for a bog standard Stanley blade and the plane was cutting well. An additional problem was that the lateral adjustment lever would stop early when moved to the left, the chip breaker nut fouling against the frog. Plus the sole was out by 5 thou.

When we contacted Axminsdter they were very quick to respond and the plane was returned and a new one send to te student after he had finished the course. So hats off to them for customer service there. As far as I know he is happy with it. Of course this could have been a one off bad'n but a previous comment implies there is still a cap iron problem.

I would recommend the Quangsheng planes, they work straight from the box, but improve with a little tweeking, at least the ones I bought a few years ago did, and they are a similar price to the Rider.

Chris

 

[thomashenry]

5 1/2 is definitely my most used plane. I cover pretty much everything with that and a #4. Both mine are second hand Stanleys, I paid about £30 each for them - both were sold on ebay as "restored" - and to be fair, both were in decent shape.