Thread: In love with planes again

Originally Posted by labr@

People say the US dating charts don't apply to ones made in England or Australia but this one has all the identifying features of a type 13 from 1902 - 1907. Would that mean it was made in the USA? There is no country shown on it anywhere that I can see.

Have you tried the Rexmill pictorial type study here? Type 13's were from 1925-1928, type 9's were in the 1902-1907 period. If it has a frog adjustment screw then it's later than 1907. With Stanleys if there was no "Made in England/Australia/Canada" then by default it is a US made plane.

Originally Posted by labr@

That sounds harsh - but I'll be guided by your experience and avoid them.

If you ever come across one you'll see how poorly manufactured these are. The fence holes on my 54 plough aren't even remotely co-planar with the fence face so it can only be used by attaching a wooden fence face with a wedge cross section. The sole on my carter 6 is actually twisted; eventually I'll get it flat. The worst part though was the frog; I couldn't get a tight mouth and when I looked harder I realised the frog was sitting so far back the blade was actually resting on the base casting at the back of the mouth. This was caused by the recesses around the frog hold down screws being undersized and full of crap from where the sand had shifted during casting. After half an hour with the Dremel the frog was finally adjustable but still nowhere near as user friendly as a maybe a $70 Stanley Handyman from Bunnings.

The 54 came in the same box as my Lewin combination and the 6 was a mistake right from the beginning. It was advertised as a jointer plane and the only photo of the number was so poorly lit I mistook it for an "8" which is what I was actually looking for.

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Amateur

The leap from amateur to professional requires experience which can only be gained through time; and I'm still very young!

A 'vision splendid' there Chief Tiff.

Chief Tiff - in my earlier post I quoted the wrong type number - it is a 9. Thanks for clearing up where it was made.

And as for amateur vs professional, don't forget which group built the ark and which built the Titanic.

Nathan, how are you going with the Luban - have you worked it out yet?
I'm interested in hearing other opinions on them too if anybody has one.

Originally Posted by labr@

Nathan, how are you going with the Luban - have you worked it out yet?

I can't tell if my timing is good or bad. I have no spare time because I have a 3-month-old, but I so badly needed a hobby to get me (somewhat) out of the house when I'm off-shift.

But yes, spent some time this morning pulling it apart and understanding how it works and then turned a short length of tassie oak into beautiful ribbons

Originally Posted by labr@

I'm interested in hearing other opinions on them too if anybody has one.

I have a no5 low angle luban which I can't really fault. Blade takes a nice edge and seems to last ok. Fast and easy to adjust. Blade adjustment has some but not excessive slop. Flat sole and good machining on all mating parts. Easily adjusted to take thin whisp thin shavings. Handle could do with being a little larger I suppose. If the rest of the luban planes are like the bevel up jack I would recommend them.

Certainly worlds better than an old Flacon-pope 4 1/2 I have which is lose in pretty much every machined item, even the blade depth adustment knob wobbles on it's thread.

Whoops I may have also just bought a HNT shoulder plane and the Veritas LA block.

Originally Posted by NathanaelBC

Whoops I may have also just bought a HNT shoulder plane and the Veritas LA block.

..... and down the slope we go.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Okay I think I'm good now ... but goodness me, they're amazing, beautiful tools; such a joy to use. Especially the LA jack; I just go out in the garage to use it to plane scraps of wood for fun.

The latest addition is the Luban #7 on the right ... and with that, I've now ruled out needing a planer jointer machine.

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