Options for buying a 'ready to go' #4 plane
I've come to the conclusion recently that I'm not really interested in fixing up old tools to make them work. I don't have much woodworking time and I've wasted most of the last couple of years fiddling around trying to fix up flea market 'treasures' without really achieving anything useful.
So I've decided that I will buy tools that are already 'ready to use', learn how to maintain them, sharpen them etc, and get on with making stuff. However, I also don't have much money, so I have to be careful.
I'm ok with saws, I have a few that are ok, including the fabulous Veritas dovetail saw, and a few others which I might replace as time goes on, but I can live with. My father's sending my his chisels, so should be ok there. I have a great Stanley 78 and a 71 (both in working condition from forumites) and a matched tongue and groove pair of woodies which are fine for drawer grooves etc.
I have an ok 601/2 and a crap 9 1/2, 2 crap 4's, and an ok 5, as well as a 4 1/2 which I've never done anything to.
So, options:
1) Save up and buy new tools from Veritas, Lie Neilsen etc at around $3-400 a tool, but still might have to do a little tuning when they arrive.
2) Buy old, fettled and sharp old tools, such as Jim Davey's #4 on this page for $150.
3) Send my tools off to someone (another forumite has offered at a reasonable price). Problem with this is I don't know if what I have is rubbish or not. Cost could be $50 -100.
I really don't want to spend much time fixing up tools, but I do want to spend a (reasonable) amount of money.
At the moment, I'm thinking of buying Jim's #4 for $150 and a replacement blade for the #5 for $50, and living with the 60 1/2 for now. That would probably keep me going for a year or so, and then there'd be another birthday to get something else.
Any other ideas?