Opinion on Grant Toolworks G4 from Tilgear.

[patrick]

I have had a little time to fettle this plane. This is the extent of my toil.

Lapped the sole for about 20 minutes until flat enough for my liking, I will finish this at a later date. You will see in the pictures the matt area in the center where the sole is slightly concave.
Honed my aftermarket blade to very keen edge and polished the chipbreakers leading edge and that is all.

To take the michael I set the mouth rather small and the chipbreaker so near the irons leading edge I had to catch a reflection to see if it was still there. The result of this was quite positive. .0005" shavings in Oak, Iroko and Sapele. No tear out of the interlocked grain in the sapele and Iroko that I had deliberately torn out with another plane and not a choked mouth in sight.

I am very happy with this plane.

 

[bugbear]

I have had a little time to fettle this plane. This is the extent of my toil.

Lapped the sole for about 20 minutes until flat enough for my liking

Do you have a surface plate?

Honed my aftermarket blade to very keen edge and polished the chipbreakers leading edge and that is all.

Did you try the supplied blade?

BugBear

 

[wizer]

I'm sorry, But all it seems you have done is prove that a plane can be fettled. Not that this particular plane is a good buy. If you have to replace the blade then it makes it more expensive and how many of the people buying planes at this end of the market know how to lap a sole, or even that soles can/should be lapped?

If your going to fettle a plane to a high standard, then you might as well rescue an old booter and let this company learn that they are producing rubbish.

Hopefully most new woodworkers these days are getting on this ere interweb and learning a bit about cheap planes before they invest in tat. It seems the only way to get an affordable, but workable, plane is to fettle and old'n. IMHO

 

[wizer]

Did you try the supplied blade?

In the other thread he said the supplied iron was bowed/cupped and broke when he tried to fettle.

 

[bugbear]

Did you try the supplied blade?

In the other thread he said the supplied iron was bowed/cupped and broke when he tried to fettle.

Yes. He also said he had a surface plate!

I didn't notice the other thread before posting questions to this one

BugBear

 

[Gower]

Hello Patrick, I appreciated your efforts having trodden a similar path. I'm sure Wizer with 5000 plus posts has seen it all before so it's all becoming a bit of a bore. I bought an inexpensive block plane for £18.00, fitted a Ray Isles iron and spent a couple of hours flattening and tuning as per numerous posts on this forum (thanks to relevant members) and have a plane that suits my needs. It will never have the beauty and engineering of LN, Veritas or Clifton but it cost under £30. I have since carried out a similar exercise on a new but damaged Stanley No.7 and an old Stanley No.5. The difference in performance, even in my novice hands, brings a smile to my face.
Cheers,
Jim

 

[woodbloke]

Hello Patrick, I appreciated your efforts having trodden a similar path. I'm sure Wizer with 5000 plus posts has seen it all before so it's all becoming a bit of a bore. I bought an inexpensive block plane for £18.00, fitted a Ray Isles iron and spent a couple of hours flattening and tuning as per numerous posts on this forum (thanks to relevant members) and have a plane that suits my needs. It will never have the beauty and engineering of LN, Veritas or Clifton but it cost under £30. I have since carried out a similar exercise on a new but damaged Stanley No.7 and an old Stanley No.5. The difference in performance, even in my novice hands, brings a smile to my face.
Cheers,
Jim

Jim's right, an older Stanley or Record can be fettled and made to work really well. It's not a difficult process, just one that has to be adopted methodically, the most crucial thing being to get the sole as flat as possible, with no high spots directly in front of or behind the mouth. A thicker and better quality iron will also work wonders, but you then may run into difficulties with the 'Y' lever as it may not be long enough...however there are ways round that issue :wink: :lol: - Rob

 

[Green]

I agree with both Jim and Rob.

Patrick, thanks for taking the time to post the pictures. Looks like an OK buy, much better than the present Stanley's.

 

[patrick]

I do have a surface plate Bugbear. I reference on the plate with a feeler guage and then lap on 10mm float glass on a 40mm MDF bed. I used to use engineers blue, marker pens dial guages and all that jazz but no longer bother as I know my glass does the trick so I check on the plate and then see if my lapping corresponds to my low points and get on with it.

I have spent countless time lapping and fettling planes over the years, some that were a waste of time and that I regret ever looking at, however this is not one of them. I spent the same amount of time preparing this plane as I would on any plane regardless of cost. Planes only leave the factory ground flat and I have seen plenty of cliftons that have benefited from as much of a lapping as this plane has had. Tuning a new blade and polising a breaker are par for the course in my book.

Having spent a grand total of £105.37 on the thing I am very happy with the result. By comparison, a vintage Stanley lapped by Ray Iiles starts from £30. Add a suitable thicker after market blade and chipbreaker and the price gap starts to narrow. The heft of the G4, the fact that is is designed to take a 3mm thick blade, bedrock design and bootlegged aesthetics all made the Tilgear a winner for me. But as I said in an earlier post

Just thought I would add that I only bought this plane due to the offer price currently available, anticipating a blade change. I would not have even considered it at the original price and don't think its worth it's original asking price.

I hope Tilgear adopt the offer price for this plane.

As regards to cheap adjustment levers, lop sided machining et al, all I can say is that it works and very well indeed. Perhaps I was lucky to get a good one or more likely this is actually a rather decent plane.

 

[bugbear]

I do have a surface plate Bugbear. I reference on the plate with a feeler guage and then lap on 10mm float glass on a 40mm MDF bed. I used to use engineers blue, marker pens dial guages and all that jazz but no longer bother as I know my glass does the trick so I check on the plate and then see if my lapping corresponds to my low points and get on with it.

Chuckle. I have "strong opinions" on how to flatten planes.

http://www.geocities.com/plybench/flatten.html
http://www.geocities.com/plybench/flatten_theory.html
http://www.geocities.com/plybench/flatten_practice.html

You could certainly check the results of your glass either by blueing your surface plate, and taking a print (which gives a qualitative measure) or by doing something similar to what I show at the end of my "practice" page, involving dial test indicators and such.

If you already own a surface plate, the former test would involve no more than buying some "blue", which is cheap:

http://www.toolfastdirect.co.uk/acatalo ... rking.html

As regards to cheap adjustment levers, lop sided machining et al, all I can say is that it works and very well indeed. Perhaps I was lucky to get a good one or more likely this is actually a rather decent plane.

Yes - cheap lateral adjusts seem to work fine, but are quite often a good proxy indicator of tool quality.

BugBear

 

[ivan]

It would be interesting to hear from a pro engineer about lapping. I was under the impression that machine lapping was usally done wet, presumably to flush away swarf, although not if you use a hand lapping plate. Presumably the matrix of grooves in the hand plate prevents a build up? There's also 3M's lapping film...

 

[bugbear]

It would be interesting to hear from a pro engineer about lapping. I was under the impression that machine lapping was usally done wet, presumably to flush away swarf, although not if you use a hand lapping plate. Presumably the matrix of grooves in the hand plate prevents a build up? There's also 3M's lapping film...

There are a (very) wide range of flattening processes used in engineering, both hand, semi mechanised, and fully mechanised.

They vary (a lot) according to cost, speed, applicability w.r.t workpiece material, and precision.

BugBear

 

[matthewwh]

Keeping the purchase price in perspective, if these guys are producing a bedrock pattern plane for this kind of money, they are already a far smarter choice than anything else in their price bracket.

If they are getting the sole within 3 thou then that is even better. You would have to buy an aftermarket blade for any plane that costs 50 or 60 quid, so by not wasting money trying to come up with a decent one and making a plane that will accept 1/8" irons they are at least giving you the freedom to improve it.

OK so it's not quite a Lie Nielson, and certainly not a Clifton, but they're not asking LN money either and for once you are getting some of the features that the big boys include in a budget tool.