Plane for squaring boards

[lukeuk]

I need to buy a plane(s) for squaring boards. I was trying to live with a budget jack plane no 6 but it was difficult to setup and eventually fall apart. I like to think it wasn't my fault but I can't be sure

I'm a beginner and from what I've read/seen on YT I ought to go for a high quality (=expensive) plane. Learning how to plane was (and still is) a very frustrating process. I could never achieve something I would be 100% happy with and I don't know if a £200 plane would change much. Unfortunately I don't have an access to such an equipment so I'm unable to assess.

Set of good planes is a quite an investment so my question is would it be better to get a thicknesser instead? I can image I doesn't need much practice and one can get reasonable results "out of the box".

On the other hand if a good plane is must have what brand should I select to not spend too much on it?

 

[deema]

A Thicknesser will not get your boards flat a true. It will thickness the boards to a set highly fro. The bottom surf e, so if this is warped or bent, this will be transferred to the planed surface. You would need a planer / Thicknesser. Using a planer is like most things easy when you know how. There is a lot of difference between a good machine and lower quality machine. There is also a massive difference between a machine that is correctly setup and one that isn't.

Don't dispair, if you can afford a good P/T go for it, the forum will help you resolve the problems you will encounter. My advise would be is to buy a really good old second hand machine such as a Wadin, Robinson, Wilson, Multico or a modern day Sedwick. They are all solid machines which can all be set up fairly easily and will outlast your requirements. The one thing they all have in common is that the planner tables do not lift up. This makes the tables solid, dependable and unlikely to move much. These qualities are what differentiate a good P/T and a lower quality machine that needs constant adjustment to work correctly.

 

[custard]

Set of good planes is a quite an investment so my question is would it be better to get a thicknesser instead? I can image I doesn't need much practice and one can get reasonable results "out of the box".

On the other hand if a good plane is must have what brand should I select to not spend too much on it?

Hello Luke

Even if you have a workshop stuffed with machinery you'll still need one decent bench plane. Planer/Thicknessers aren't great for timber shorter than about 300mm for example. The good news is a number five or number six is all you need, just the one, the not so good news is that even though there's some excellent older examples on EBay it's a lottery if you'll get a good one or a dog. You might want to look at the Quangsheng range at Workshop Heaven, more expensive than a second hand Record or Stanley, but you're guaranteed to get a good tool that'll last a lifetime.

 

[rafezetter]

A Thicknesser will not get your boards flat or true. It will thickness the boards to a set height from the bottom surface, so if this is warped or bent, this will be transferred to the planed surface.

(ive corrected the start of the quote to something more like english )

Luke, I bought P/T with this in mind and can confirm if the board is twisted it will transfer the twist during machine planing. - so now I plane up one side and one edge then use that as reference for the thicknesser, and I do the planing by hand. (yes it's a planer too but I want to learn the hand way first before doing the shortcut way)

I have a #5.5 (£20), #4 (£25) and a cheap faithfull block plane and they get the job done easily. Only this last saturday I planed up 4x bench legs for my bench build - almost 4 x 4's 80cm long in a few hours.

 

[Karl]

It doesn't need to be "expensive". If I were you i'd go for a Stanley premium low angle jack plane - I bought one and have been super impressed by it. Around £90 if you shop around.

Cheers

Karl

 

[matthewwh]

The best advice I can offer would be to spend the first £20 of your budget on this:

David Charlesworth DVD 2 Hand Planing

It may be possible to rent a copy, but it's nice to be able to refer back to the lesson after you have practiced, so in this instance you would probably be better off owning it.

Review here.

Taster here.

 

[mtr1]

and eventually fall apart. I like to think it wasn't my fault but I can't be sure

If you cannot be sure it wasn't your fault, I wouldn't buy anything until you know your way around a plane. Look for a local cabinet maker/joiner and beg/pay for an hour of his time, to explain where you are going wrong. Perhaps practice on an old record if you must buy something. It's a pity you aren't closer to me, I wouldn't mind sparing an hour or two on a Saturday to help.

 

[bugbear]

It doesn't need to be "expensive". If I were you i'd go for a Stanley premium low angle jack plane - I bought one and have been super impressed by it. Around £90 if you shop around.

Cheers

Karl

Graham did a review:

http://thewoodhaven.co.uk/phpBB3/viewto ... f=4&t=4251

Summary - good design, useable performance (with a few caveats) poor quality control in manufacture.

BugBear

 

[Jacob]

What you should do is buy a plane. If it works thats brilliant, if not you have to find out why. It may entail buying another plane. You find out on the hoof just like everybody else.

 

[lukeuk]

First of all thank you for your advices.

Just for the record the unfortunate plane was Silverline No 5 (not 6) http://www.transtools.co.uk/hand-tools/ ... plane-no-5. The issues I'm having with the plane are:
- knob fall off (I can't screw it back)
- lever cap jumps out (again, screw to blame)
- something happened to chipbreaker or blade (due to an incorrect sharpening?) and wood gets between those elements making planning impossible after a short while

I'm happy to buy one plane up to £100 but should it be No 5 or No 6?

I also agree that I need to invest in knowledge. I'm feeling that the problem is not only with planing per say but everything related to the DIY ecosystem. All my live was dedicated to computer science and this is frankly the first time I'm trying to do something outside of this domain. It's a new world full of surprises but the thrill of bringing real items to live is a great motivation.

Finding somebody to teach might be quite tricky but I will check the DVD for sure.

 

[Noggsy]

If you want to learn how to fettle a plane (a very useful skill) then go to a car boot sale and pick up an old Stanley or Record 4 1/2, 5, or 5 1/2 for about £10-20 and have a play with it. You'll learn a lot from taking it apart, cleaning it and then sharpening the blade. A plane needs a sharp blade to work well and so you will need to spend some time learning that skill or any plane you buy, of any quality, will eventually drop in performance. Please, please, please don't ask the best way to sharpen on this thread, or WW3 will erupt

I would suggest that Silverline are not a good place to start and your experience bears that out. Perhaps someone used to fettling may get it in some kind of order, but I'd start with one of the above and, err, set that one aside.

If you don't want to learn to fettle, then you would have to go a long way to beat this QS low-angle jack from WSH;

http://www.workshopheaven.com/tools/Qua ... irons.html

It's showing as out of stock at the mo and is over your budget but it is adjustable and very good quality (have a look for some reviews) and will function as both a jack plane (for removing lots of stock) or as a finishing plane with the mouth closed tight (for giving a fine surface finish). I've got that one and the number 7 and they are both superb quality planes.

Whatever you choose to do, there's no substitute for getting the experience of trial and error, so get a plane, get some reasonable wood and crack on. Whichever plane you buy this month, you'll be buying another next, so prepare yourself (and your significant other) for the slippery slope =D>

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

That'll be from Silverline's Landfill range!

 

[sdjp]

Just for the record the unfortunate plane was Silverline No 5 (not 6) http://www.transtools.co.uk/hand-tools/ ... plane-no-5. The issues I'm having with the plane are:
- knob fall off (I can't screw it back)
- lever cap jumps out (again, screw to blame)
- something happened to chipbreaker or blade (due to an incorrect sharpening?) and wood gets between those elements making planning impossible after a short while

I've ended up with a an extremely cheap No 4, which has all of the above issues, and more (It's also not flat, not square, the mouth is not square, and so on). I view it not as a woodworking tool, but a metalwork project!

I'm happy to buy one plane up to £100 but should it be No 5 or No 6?

Opinion might be split on that, but I find a number 5 to be a good all round plane - it makes a passible jointer for boards that are not too large, and a smoother when adjusted to fine cutting.

My No 5 is a vintage Stanley, got for £20 delivered of the fleabay. That can be a bit random as to the end quality, but a bit of cleaning, sharpening and it was good to go (a thirty minute job) in this case. Generally speaking, the vintage planes are better made than the modern ones, when comparing the same price points.

Most of what one pays for in the more expensive modern planes is being in good fettle out of the box, and maintaining that good state for longer (no tool works forever without _some_ maintenance). On a budget a vintage plane, where it can take more initial work, can be a good trade off.

 

[Karl]

Graham did a review:

http://thewoodhaven.co.uk/phpBB3/viewto ... f=4&t=4251

Summary - good design, useable performance (with a few caveats) poor quality control in manufacture.

BugBear

Think i'd describe it as more than "useable". It's as good at planing a piece of wood as any other (bevel up or not) plane i've used.

As for QC, Stanley would soon get the message if people started sending back poorly machined items. Having said that, mine doesn't exhibit the problems show in Graham's model.

Karl

 

[bugbear]

As for QC, Stanley would soon get the message if people started sending back poorly machined items. Having said that, mine doesn't exhibit the problems show in Graham's model.

Inconsistency is what bad QA/QC is all about.

BugBear

 

[Benchwayze]

and eventually fall apart. I like to think it wasn't my fault but I can't be sure

If you cannot be sure it wasn't your fault, I wouldn't buy anything until you know your way around a plane. Look for a local cabinet maker/joiner and beg/pay for an hour of his time, to explain where you are going wrong. Perhaps practice on an old record if you must buy something. It's a pity you aren't closer to me, I wouldn't mind sparing an hour or two on a Saturday to help.

It's probably down to personal preferences, but I think old Record planes that are good, are better than any other in their class. Once you set one up properly, you might not want anything else. (Although, some posh planes are still nice!)

 

[mtr1]

and eventually fall apart. I like to think it wasn't my fault but I can't be sure

If you cannot be sure it wasn't your fault, I wouldn't buy anything until you know your way around a plane. Look for a local cabinet maker/joiner and beg/pay for an hour of his time, to explain where you are going wrong. Perhaps practice on an old record if you must buy something. It's a pity you aren't closer to me, I wouldn't mind sparing an hour or two on a Saturday to help.

It's probably down to personal preferences, but I think old Record planes that are good, are better than any other in their class. Once you set one up properly, you might not want anything else. (Although, some posh planes are still nice!)

Record would be my preference also, which was why I advised one. Great planes, and I think their irons are far better than a lot of the modern Irons, well except the T10 irons they are very nice also. I have mostly got records, with a few lie nielsens which now have the T10s in.....

My advise for what's it worth to OP would be, if you can't find someone to show you how to use a plane/set up, buy a reasonable record to practice with until you feel comfortable with that. By all means buy a new plane, if you wish, but you will miss the learning curve that makes learning become knowledge.

 

[Jacob]

Yes to Record.
Have to say (reluctantly) that if you are anxious to get going then the various expensive bevel up planes work very well outa da box and are almost silly person proof. Just so amazingly pricy! But get some cheap old ones too and get your hand in with them. You can get 10 old Records for the price of one novelty american plane.
What I've done in the past is to treat myself to one or other of LV/LN etc for the sake of the experience, and then sold them on. Now entirely Record/Stanley and one Clifton (plus all sorts of odd woodies).

 

[MMUK]

FWIW seeing as I have limited experience in "professional" woodworking (as opposed to hobbyism).......

I have an ever increasing collection of hand planes, all of which have been bought on a tight budget compared to what some will spend for the sake of a name. I do have a couple of cheap Silverline and Faithfull planes as well as Stanley and Record.

#3 Faithfull Smoothing (I have two of these, cost £12.49 each new - one set up for general smoothing on small pieces and one I've set for end grain)
#4 Stanley Smoothing (again two of these, one was my grandfather's and the other was free from another member here)
#4 Record Smoothing (free from member here and yet to be fettled)
#4 1/2 Stanley Bailey (£20 from another member, yet to be used)
#5 Spinney (my grandfather's and is a narrow blade, only 1 3/4")
#5 Stanley Jack (two of these, one £30 new from Toolman in Yardley about 15 years ago and the other free with the #4s - one in regular use and one yet to be sorted)
#6 Silverline Jointer (£17.65 new from Amazon)
Plus a couple of block planes that were given to me by a couple of members here and a #7 I'm in the process of purchasing here.


The #5 Jack and #3 smoothing are the ones most used at the moment, the #4s aren't in fettled form. The #6 is pretty good for what it cost but I'm not doing much large work at the moment.

I took about an hour to set up each of the #3s and I'm really impressed with the quality, the one I set for end grain work has been used pretty much constantly over the last two weeks on hard and soft woods and the blade still doesn't need a tickle, it still cuts like new.


Anyway, my point is that if you have the time and skill (for want of a better word), there's no need to spend a fortune or restrict yourself to premium brands. I've found the finish of my #3 Faithfulls is as good as any other premium brand I've tried, all for the sake of about an hour manual labour to set it up properly and get the blade good and sharp.

HTH

 

[Benchwayze]

Yes to Record.

They are also a very pretty shade of blue, that does alter over time... :lol:

John