To turn or not to turn..

[Jacob]

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Anyone have any tips/go-to videos/resources to help with using and properly adjusting a plane?.......

I see you are not far away in Notts. You are welcome to drop in over here with your plane for a set-up, demo, etc. (mid Derbyshire).

 

[ED65]

I have a bench hook, I made out of 18mm hardwood ply. Is this an okay material to use?

Perfect. You can make a decent, usable bench hook from softwood or MDF so anything better than this is fine.

I think I’m all set to start the mallet I just need to get a spokeshave...

You can make many a mallet without a spokeshave.

And also how to properly sha**en tools...

Yes, absolutely cornerstone skill.

Anyone have any tips/go-to videos/resources to help with using and properly adjusting a plane?

This is a bit of a minefield (not quite as much as the sha**ening thing). Once you've read a few guides and watched some vids you could get all the help you'd need here on any remaining questions or points of confusion; do not be surprised if you have them as there's conflicting advice on everything!

Paul Sellers has a couple of videos I think showing plane setting and use which are fine as far as they go and might provide the ideal easily digested starting point. Just don't rely on him for advice on using the cap iron. For that it's possibly simplest to get input here, but I'll précis it for you.

You set the cap iron well back for rougher work where you basically want it to get out of the way, closer than this for flattening/smoothing operations in easy-planing woods, closer still where the wood has a tendency to tear out, and "as close as you dare" for wood that's really troublesome. These correspond to: 2-3mm, 1-2mm, 0.5-1mm, >0.3mm.

 

[Jacob]

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You set the cap iron well back for rougher work where you basically want it to get out of the way, closer than this for flattening/smoothing operations in easy-planing woods, closer still where the wood has a tendency to tear out, and "as close as you dare" for wood that's really troublesome. These correspond to: 2-3mm, 1-2mm, 0.5-1mm, >0.3mm.

:lol:
Advice you can safely ignore - set the cap iron about 2mm back from the edge and get stuck into planing. Once you've got it (give it a few years) you can look at dubious 'finer points' but most people don't bother - it's simpler than they'd have you believe.
To work at all well plane irons need a camber, which makes very close setting of cap irons impossible.
Nothing to stop you fiddling about with straight edges and fine adjustment, if you've got nothing better to do, but I certainly wouldn't do it with a plane you hope to use often.
PS it's not really a 'minefield' there's a simple base level of how to set and sharpen, which has served millions of skilled woodworkers over the ages, but nowadays we have big following of 'enthusiasts" full of brilliant but conflicting ideas about how to improve things.
n.b. I haven't seen Paul Sellers on the topic but he tends to be a reliable and no nonsense sort of person.