Thread: 2nd hand planes, what to look for/ avoid

Hi Al,

Firstly, you never can really be sure when buying on *bay - you don't know whether a Plane has been cobbled or not (pieced together).
Stanleys were OK until about 1970 then they dropped off but did improve for a while but current quality is not good. Pre 1902 did not have Frog Adjusters which makes the Frog harder to set.
Early Records were OK - current not as good.
Of the Aus. Planes: Stanley, Turner, Falcon then Carter in order of diminishing quality - but be aware of die-caste frogs in Turner and Falcon as they can bend.
It is best to see the Plane, something that may be really cheap may not even be worth it due to problems.
Watch out for badly worn Soles, pitted Faces on Blades, faulty wood.
Make sure all the parts are there and that all threads are correct - quite often an original screw will be replaced with a "tek" screw (sorry, don't know how to spell that) or some other screw with incorrect thread.
If you are near Sydney, go to the TTTG Tool Sale Sun May 2nd, there will be lots of Planes there and most vendors will be happy to give good advice. Or ask opinion of one of the guys on the TTTG table.

Good Luck, feel free to send me a PM if you have any questions.

Take care and Stay Sharp,
Jim

Personally I like to handle what I am going to buy for myself as I think it is very hard to pick things up from a photo. I tend to look at places like car boot sales, swap meets and even the humble garage sale. I think any of the planes you mentioned would a good worker as long as they have or can been tuned properly. And also what Jim above said while I was writing my reply.

As Jim has already said, Ebay is a bit of a pig in a poke.
You can be lucky or you can end up with an absolute dog.
One thing that I have found impossible to detect on Ebay is the appearance of cracks in the plane body casting.
These are usually the results of the plane being dropped.
Around the mouth of the plane these are often fatal, and can seldom be fixed. There are so many old planes out there that you needn't consider any with cracks in them.
I have read somewhere that Stanley USA were producing vast quantities in their heyday - 30,000 per week was the figure I think.
As already mentioned, it is always best if you can handle and examine a plane. Markets are a good source, and I have found plenty at these.
Good luck on your search - it will be fun.
SG

If you want a good used plane, sharpened etc you could try Jim (Davey)
Cheers,
Jim

I've bought half a dozen or so from ebay and haven't had a dud, but I do ask specific questions about cracks and pitting in the sole and tell the seller that if the answers don't match the plane when it arrives I'll leave -ve feedback or take action under the buyer protection scheme.

That said, often the sellers aren't woodies and/or can't identify or describe faults accurately. With one chisel that was sposed to be rust free and wasn't, I complained to the guy and he refunded the purchase price.

PS, word of warning Al, many of these planes need more than 'a bit of restoration work', esp if you want good performance and you have to flatten the sole. There's a lot of work in that and if you did the numbers you might find you're better off taking a 2nd job pushing supermarket trolleys in order to buy a quality plane like a LN, Veritas, or one of Jim Davey's fettled numbers. If you rehab a Stanley you're likely to need an aftermarket blade and chip breaker and those will set you back in the order of $60-75 depending on size. You can however share a set btwn a Stanley 4 & 5, and another set btwn #6 and #7.

Well here's one that I'll make some comments on: click

No judgement about price obviously since it's early days. And others on this forum have much more experience than I do.

1. It's not pretty but a user doesn't have to be.
2. There doesn't appear to be a crack in the sole but I'd confirm that with a question to the seller.
3. Pitting in the sole: again, not pretty but the sole only has to be on a plane from the toe, around the mouth and to the heel.
4. Blade: as posted above, a replacement blade is nearly essential for good all round performance but if you wanted to start with what's there .... bit of guesswork really. Lots of rust twds the top, and therefore I'd bet what's exposed at the bottom, btwn the edge and the chipbreaker, will also be rusted and will have to be ground away. Under the chipbreaker on similar blades I've found the rust hasn't reached, so if this is the same your grinding will lose you a bit of blade length and that's no drama.

V. likely you'll have to flatten the blade top and that need not be longer than say 6-9mm from the edge, and even that can be a deal of work, or you could use the ruler trick and put a slight bevel on the top.

Knob and tote are cosmetic jobs by the look of them; you could tart them up and spend hours or leave them as is.

K, just my guesswork.

Hope this helps.

Wow. I was expecting a few tips, not this level of detail from so many people.
Thank you very much for the replies everyone.

As luck would have it, I live in Hornsby which is 2 minutes from the TTTG tool sale this weekend so I will definitely be there.

I'll re-read all of this info when I have some more time tonight & try to take it all in.
Thanks again.

Al

I can see there's plenty of info here already, so I won't add to it. I'll add an opinion only... For the cost concious buyer of planes a Falcon/Pope makes a good user as long as you're not afraid to give it some work. I have four of them now and they are all very fine users, especially with M2 plane irons. None of then was expensive at all.

Originally Posted by _AL_

As luck would have it, I live in Hornsby which is 2 minutes from the TTTG tool sale this weekend so I will definitely be there.
Al

Al, the TTTG Tool Sale is not this weekend but Sunday May 2nd.

Take care and Stay Sharp,
Jim

Yeah I just realized & was about to edit my post when I saw yours. First day back from holidays & my brain is still a day behind.
Thanks mate.

Al