Thread: Melbourne Tool Company

Originally Posted by auscab

It could have been done using a drill press for a mill, rushing the job and a sloppy set up as well.

As a point of interest - how difficult would it be to have a competent machinist re-mill that surface?

Originally Posted by Mobyturns

As a point of interest - how difficult would it be to have a competent machinist re-mill that surface?

Easy. Its just time and $. And finding the guy with the machinery who would do it for you. Fit such a job in.

Its such a small thing you could possibly do it yourself. A drill press . A well set up cross slide vice and a flat bottomed tungsten router bit would do a fine job of it if it was taken very slowly. Or it may end up just as bad. Or worse?

Ive milled the bottom of Carbatec 3 point lathe steady's to fit my wood lathe just the same way . But on a larger machine that runs faster than a drill press. To fast for the tungsten but it worked ok. The Cast iron on them was like cheese to mill. The speed of the drill would have been better . My cross slide vice couldn't of held those Carbatec lathe steady's though.

Hardly worth it though because I bet the plane works just fine as it is . Maybe just grinding a flat end on a file to scrape the bed to check there are no high spots holding the blade a touch off the bed on some pimple high points would be better and faster?

I just watched the top one of these. https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...na+drill+press
The Impossible one . AvE, Funny guy . He goes to some trouble then just does it with the Jacobs chuck in the end.
Ill go back and watch his second one now.

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...na+drill+press

Thanks for that link Rob - an amusing as well as informative watch...

But you really don't need to start modifying your DP and buying expensive chucks & bits, and for goodness sake spend a couple more dollars on a cast-iron cross-slide vise if you do. I have one of those Al things like in the video & there is way too much deflection in it for machining anything tougher than a marshmallow!

You don't need to make a blade-bed look perfect, I doubt it would be feasible on that plane without altering the bed angle more than would be prudent. As Rob said, all you really need is sound contact along the first few mm at the toe. It's preferable, imo, that it be dead-flat from the mouth edge to where the toe of the LC bears on the blade, but you may not be able to achieve that without removing a lot of metal. From the picture above, it looks like the first 5mm or so is machined accurately so if it proves to be so, & the bed behind that isn't making contact in random spots & lifting the blade off that true portion across the toe, I'd leave it alone. The obvious first step as I said before would be to check the flatness of the blade, ink it up & rub it over the bed to see where the high spots are. If you get 90% transfer over that area that looks ok, best leave it be...

Filing & scraping a surface dead flat isn't super-difficult, but if you've not done it before it does take bit of practice. The way our arms are built tends to cause a circular motion as we file, rounding the surface by a couple of thou instead of making it dead flat, which is the opposite of what you want to achieve. It takes practice & concentration to avoid that - damhik!
7 rust cleaned.jpg

Cheers,

Another look at these planes, this time including the jack plane.

Melbourne Tool Company Hand Planes: A Novice's First Look at the Low-Angle Jack Plane & Block Planes - YouTube

Hmmm... still not a meaningful review that tests the plane's capabilities or offers a comparison to it's contemporaries.

I wonder if MTC would be interested in supplying a pair of planes for a review?

I can only ask I guess....

Yeah a pass-around would be the go.
Another forum I've been a member of for many years did these regularly at one stage, where interested members used the tool in question for a defined period, made a post or review of their thoughts and then shipped the tool on to the next member on the list.
I reckon Timbecon could only benefit from the exposure.

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

Hmmm... still not a meaningful review that tests the plane's capabilities or offers a comparison to it's contemporaries.

At least he’s upfront about his lack of knowledge on hand planes.

Originally Posted by Colin62

At least he’s upfront about his lack of knowledge on hand planes.

I shouldn't be critical because I could not watch the whole thing, about halfway through I'd had enough. I could not see what he was actually attempting to do other than tell us how little he knows about hand-planes (& confirm it). If he achieved a shaving or two by the end, well that's fine, but a plane would have to be a complete piece of garbage not to be able to make a shaving, so that doesn't mean much. As the Chief says, a review is meaningless unless it includes some sort of comparison with some sort of standard. Maybe I should've looked on it as entertainment, but I couldn't help feeling it was simply a waste of time....

Harumph, mumble, mumble....

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

Hmmm... still not a meaningful review that tests the plane's capabilities or offers a comparison to it's contemporaries.

I wonder if MTC would be interested in supplying a pair of planes for a review?

I can only ask I guess....

If MTC are viewing this, I reckon we have zero, to the power of nothing, of getting a plane to review [emoji6][emoji6][emoji6].

Originally Posted by Simplicity

If MTC are viewing this, I reckon we have zero, to the power of nothing, of getting a plane to review [emoji6][emoji6][emoji6].

Ummm… so when I wrote to them earlier this evening you think perhaps I shouldn’t have included a link?

Originally Posted by IanW

Maybe I should've looked on it as entertainment, but I couldn't help feeling it was simply a waste of time....

I didn’t find it all that entertaining, and I have no idea what his other videos are like but I also couldn’t work out what the point of that was.

Originally Posted by Colin62

I didn’t find it all that entertaining, and I have no idea what his other videos are like but I also couldn’t work out what the point of that was.

Col me lad, never underestimate what the masses find 'entertaining'. If you are anything like myself, you'll find 99% of what's on phweh-tube to be something less than entertaining, but 'twould seem a large proportion of the world's population doesn't agree....

Matt, if Timbecon IS reading this thread, then the least they can do would be to take a good look at the product they're pushing & make sure it's up to an acceptable standard before posting. I curbed my impatience & watched the rest of the video to see if he shows the blade beds of his plane, & he does. He waves the things about so it's hard to get a good look at the beds, but the beds this time appeared to be pretty clean, certainly no obvious erratic mill marks like the one in the first review. That's sort of comforting, but does it mean it's a lottery as to what you'll receive in the mail??

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

Col me lad, never underestimate what the masses find 'entertaining'. If you are anything like myself, you'll find 99% of what's on phweh-tube to be something less than entertaining, but 'twould seem a large proportion of the world's population doesn't agree....

Matt, if Timbecon IS reading this thread, then the least they can do would be to take a good look at the product they're pushing & make sure it's up to an acceptable standard before posting. I curbed my impatience & watched the rest of the video to see if he shows the blade beds of his plane, & he does. He waves the things about so it's hard to get a good look at the beds, but the beds this time appeared to be pretty clean, certainly no obvious erratic mill marks like the one in the first review. That's sort of comforting, but does it mean it's a lottery as to what you'll receive in the mail??

Cheers,

Ian,
I too did watch most of video(I had to push the fast forward button a few times too stop me killing my self).
But I think we need too remember most off us here know a thing or two about hand planes, more some than others.

But the gentleman(New Wiggles person ??)
Is in a different group, he’s appealing to a different class of woodworkers, the complete newbies the Weekend warriors with Bunny land gift cards.
He was just showing them that yes the product works, an it does work.
It there training wheels hand plane.

I see it’s kind like the Ferrari car club giving a review on a LADA , it’s just not going to be a great review.

It may be also that MTC is just making some $$ with there Mk 1 version of the planes, fully wanting to get user feedback(There got heaps here[emoji6][emoji6]).
So as to improve the next model.

Car company’s do that all the time, that’s why it’s advisable not to by the first “NEW” model am wait for the “Updated” models.

Cheers Matt.
Sorry to be rude, but we are mostly Tool snobs here,
I go get my shield now[emoji854].

Originally Posted by Simplicity

..... it’s kind like the Ferrari car club giving a review on a LADA ......

More like the Trabant club reviewing a Lada in this case, I suggest....

Originally Posted by Simplicity

..... Sorry to be rude, but we are mostly Tool snobs here.....

Connoisseurs, Matt, connoisseurs, not snobs.....

Cheers,