Thread: Plane Advice

• BUS - bevel-up smoother - shares irons with your LAJ;
• knob and tote (or ball) for your LABP - low angle block;
• Skew rabbet (RH or LH).

And if my second choice doesn't count as a plane then add the BUJ - bevel-up jointer, which also shares irons with your LAJ.

Cheers, Vann

Lucky you.
I would think that Vann is on the money as far as general cabinetmaking goes.
I would get the pair of left and right skew rabbets and the bevel up smoother.
Woo hoo!
SG

I was going to post earlier and had to go out, but it seems my answer has been taken anyway

1) Bevel up Jointer
I'd go with the bevel up jointer as my number one choice, given your current collection. They are great to handle and work a treat. It's an obvious gap in terms of what you have now and will greatly expand your capabilities in that you will be able to joint and smooth large surfaces. With these planes sandpaper and electric sander usage drops severalfold.

2) Bevel up smoother. This plane accepts the same blades as the bevel up jointer and is so much better at the job of smoothing than a stanley number 4 that it's like night and day. I used my mate's on a highly figured panel with all sorts of cranky grain the other day. Aside from the fact that it went over that gnarly grain without a murmer and cleaned up all the tearout from the thicknesser, it brought the grain up so sharp that it appeared to shine.

3) A pair of the skew rabbet planes.
I played with one last year and if I'd had the cash it would have come home with me. This is one of those tools that just works so much better than anything else on the market. Having used a Stanely #78 and various electron burners it was a revelation to pick one of these up and have it just work so well. If you don't get them while you're there you probably never will because they are very expensive over here and I'd guess postage costs would be high.

As an aside (and slightly off-topic) I've often wondered which are Veritas' best selling and worst selling planes.

I'd guess their Low Angle Jack would be their top seller, with it's siblings the Bevel Up Smoother & Bevel Up Jointer competing for second place. I suspect their BD planes (the 4, 4½, 5¼ & 6) would be their worst sellers. I wonder how the DX60 compares to the Low Angle Block Plane sales-wise?

Are you out there Rob Lee?

Cheers, Vann.

I reckon getting away from bench planes I would look at:

1. the Veritas Side rebate plane is worth looking at really useful for smoothing the wall of a rebate or widening a groove;
2. a Veritas plough (they spell it plow) plane - a plane to make grooves and dadoes (or even rebates ) is very worthwhile, especially wen you don't want to kill electrons
3. a Veritas or LN router plane - these guys are useful in all sorts of situations where you want to smooth the bottom of a piece of joinery (I really like using it to ensure that half-laps are actually the same depth) - of course these are great candidates for making youself - Derek Cohen made an Old Widow's tooth plane using an Allen key for the blade.

But what I'm wondering is why you are restricting yourself to only 3 tools (sounds like pact made with the devil - or SWMBO)

Originally Posted by BobL

I'm residing in Canada for the next few months and as it so happens I'm just down the road from a very nice Lee Valley store and of course I cannot leave here without making a few purchases. Im thinking planes.

My current plane rack has the following in working order
- LN low angle jack (my favorite plane by far)
- A standard #4 stanley
- Veritas low angle block
- Stanley #60 1/2 block plane
- HNT gordon 1" shoulder plane
- a 3/4" and a 1/2" home made shoulder planes

OK - based on the above, which 3 planes in decreasing order of importance would you recommend purchasing next. In terms of my proposed activities I lets say general cabinet making. I haven't worked that much with larger pieces of timber but those of you who know my milling activities will know I have plenty of big pieces of timber to play with.

why ask us?
go down to the store and try them all out

Me, I'd be looking at a LA jointer and having a play with all the choices before making a purchase

also don't miss the instore seminars, if you're in Edmonton look at Edmonton In-Store Seminars - Lee Valley Tools - Woodworking Tools, Gardening Tools, Hardware Supplies
if Calgary look at Calgary In-Store Seminars - Lee Valley Tools - Woodworking Tools, Gardening Tools, Hardware Supplies

Sorry BobL, I just noticed that your LAJ is Lie-Nielsen, so it won't share irons with anything you get from LV. But the BUS and the BUJ will share irons if those are your choices.

Cheers, Vann.

Thanks fellas - all good food for thought.
The limit is gonna be what my suit cases can hold and what I can afford to send home.

I have the LV LAJ, the Stanley customised #4 and a Noris A2, LN Rabbit Block, a Millers Falls LA 52 with a LN blade, a couple of scraper planes and a LN #7. If I could swap anything as much as I find it a fantastic plane I would swap the #7 to a LA jointer.
So from me I would say the LA jointer should be your next trinket.

In no order:
LA jointer - joint all that big timber
Edge trimming planes - to sort out board edge's
routers - inlays, and all the other things you use routers for.

Well after several visits to Lee Valley in Calgary to drool and fondle and lots of "umming and ahhing" here you can see my final purchases.
Attachment 145519

The final price for these was ~$20 less than the tax free threshold so I figured I saved just over 30%.

Interestingly the small suitcase these were packed in were inspected by both US and AUS customs. Probably the weight of the suitcase drew attention to itself.

I missed the Perth wood working show again this year but I guess these are reasonable compensation.

I missed the Perth wood working show again this year but I guess these are reasonable compensation.

I missed the Perth woodworking show too.....what do I get?


Very nice. I like the shaves, are they good to go from the box like the planes are said to be?

Hi Bob,

Nice little haul there. Well done. Like the big low angle jointer. Am sure all these will wait patiently for your hand to heal.

Cheers
Pops

Originally Posted by seanz

I missed the Perth woodworking show too.....what do I get?

You get to look at mine

Very nice. I like the shaves, are they good to go from the box like the planes are said to be?

All these tools were good to go out of the box, no wait, not good, GREAT!

Originally Posted by Pops

Hi Bob,
Nice little haul there. Well done. Like the big low angle jointer. Am sure all these will wait patiently for your hand to heal.

Actually I can use these already in a light weight way and have already done so. I found out if you are brining back tools and use (ie get some work marks on and some shavings in them) the tools before you ship them - they then become used tools and customs will generally deem their value discounted by ~ 20%. This means you can import 20% more than you otherwise would be able to without incurring the 10% GST charge.

Cheers