Advice on Stanley planes

[denmen]

Anyone tell me the best Stanley to get for planing doors/tables etc

 

[Ttrees]

No.5 1/2 is my preference. Find a nice one, as in one advertised with photos of the plane looking from the front and the back of it, to see a hefty even casting thickness, not lapped by an oaf, along with the mouth photo I.e not chipped. Should find one with some left in the cutting iron, rust wouldn't bother me that much. If you intend to lap it then the same rules as stopped shavings apply with wood, scribble sole with marker and stay away from the edges whilst lapping leaving the ink visible around the perimeter of your sole.unfortunately no video demonstrates this with everyones advice is incorrect in Regards to lapping,as theyre creating a convex surface . Don't trust them if they don't get the feelers out at the end. Leave the sole alone, probably hard to believe someone on a forum disagreeing with a glut of folks on youtube, some big names giving incorrect advice. Youre probably gonna work with timber with reversing grain so you should look up David Weavers advice about setting the cap iron, David W on youtube. Only about five folks on youtube using the close set cap iron which is essential if working tear out prone timbers. Tom

 

[Osvaldd]

ditto no 5 1/2. but no 5 will do the same thing and it’ll be cheaper and easier to find.. stanley or record - whichever you can find first, no difference.

 

[thetyreman]

I would go with a no7 plane

 

[thomashenry]

5 1/2, 4, 7. I'd aquire them in that order.

 

[ED65]

An old one.

 

[thetyreman]

An old one.

+1 but also expect to do quite a bit of work on it, including flattening the sole, lapping the blade and fine tuning.

 

[memzey]

An old one.

+1 but also expect to do quite a bit of work on it, including flattening the sole, lapping the blade and fine tuning.

Expect to? No, I disagree. Be prepared to do a bit of work yes but expecting to do all that just because the plane is a bit old? Not really. I’d start by knocking off any loose rust and properly sharpening the iron. Set it for a light shaving with the cap iron close and if that works for you stop there; you are done. If you have specific problems then diagnose and remedy those as they come up (most likely the need to fettle the cap iron). It’s definitely not the case that all old Stanleys are lemons that need a project plan doing to them before they can take a shaving. Far from it.

 

[thetyreman]

An old one.

+1 but also expect to do quite a bit of work on it, including flattening the sole, lapping the blade and fine tuning.

Expect to? No, I disagree. Be prepared to do a bit of work yes but expecting to do all that just because the plane is a bit old? Not really. I’d start by knocking off any loose rust and properly sharpening the iron. Set it for a light shaving with the cap iron close and if that works for you stop there; you are done. If you have specific problems then diagnose and remedy those as they come up (most likely the need to fettle the cap iron). It’s definitely not the case that all old Stanleys are lemons that need a project plan doing to them before they can take a shaving. Far from it.

you certainly took that out context, obviously measure the plane first, I've yet to find one anywhere near flat, all of my vintage ones needed work before they were how I wanted them to perform.

 

[memzey]

+1 but also expect to do quite a bit of work on it, including flattening the sole, lapping the blade and fine tuning.

Expect to? No, I disagree. Be prepared to do a bit of work yes but expecting to do all that just because the plane is a bit old? Not really. I’d start by knocking off any loose rust and properly sharpening the iron. Set it for a light shaving with the cap iron close and if that works for you stop there; you are done. If you have specific problems then diagnose and remedy those as they come up (most likely the need to fettle the cap iron). It’s definitely not the case that all old Stanleys are lemons that need a project plan doing to them before they can take a shaving. Far from it.

you certainly took that out context, obviously measure the plane first, I've yet to find one anywhere near flat, all of my vintage ones needed work before they were how I wanted them to perform.

Out of context; how? You stated that the OP should expect to do “quite a bit of work, including flattening the sole, lapping the blade” etc. and I disagreed that’s all. I’m simply pointing out that not all (or even most I’d say) vintage Stanley planes need “quite a bit of work” in order to perform. Some might need a bit, of course and a few might be complete lemons requiring serious attention but most vintage Stanleys are eminently useable with the minimum of work and most of the rest are quite close to that standard with a little bit more attention. Only the real lemons need a complete strip down and rebuild IMO and as decent old planes are still fairly common, the smart thing to do would be not to buy the lemon and pick another plane! Just don’t be put off of decent old planes by horror stories of the necessity to lap and flatten all these surfaces etc before they can be used to trim a door or smooth a surface. That’s not remotely accurate in my experience.

 

[ED65]

An old one.

+1 but also expect to do quite a bit of work on it, including flattening the sole, lapping the blade and fine tuning.

Have to disagree as well, sorry. Especially about flattening the sole, but that's one of my personal bugbears

Putting aide the obvious thing that the original condition of the plane determines how much work is needed overall, I'd say it's true that most planes found in the wild don't need work on the sole. I usually don't even check the sole for flatness, instead I check how the plane works and if it does (which I've found to be the norm, even on smoothers) then I call it good.

I don't lap the flats of chisels or plane irons routinely either. I concentrate effort near the tip – generally the only thing that matters and definitely the only thing that matters on plane irons – and this shortens the time needed by an incredible amount (to judge by how long many say it takes them to prep a vintage iron). I always informally keep track of the time spent in my head but to have actual numbers I have put a stopwatch to this a few times and for irons in okay shape it usually takes about 10 seconds to raise a burr over the majority of the edge; one of the last times I did it it took exactly six strokes, or three seconds.

 

[thetyreman]

An old one.

+1 but also expect to do quite a bit of work on it, including flattening the sole, lapping the blade and fine tuning.

Have to disagree as well, sorry. Especially about flattening the sole, but that's one of my personal bugbears

Putting aide the obvious thing that the original condition of the plane determines how much work is needed overall, I'd say it's true that most planes found in the wild don't need work on the sole. I usually don't even check the sole for flatness, instead I check how the plane works and if it does (which I've found to be the norm, even on smoothers) then I call it good.

I don't lap the flats of chisels or plane irons routinely either. I concentrate effort near the tip – generally the only thing that matters and definitely the only thing that matters on plane irons – and this shortens the time needed by an incredible amount (to judge by how long many say it takes them to prep a vintage iron). I always informally keep track of the time spent in my head but to have actual numbers I have put a stopwatch to this a few times and for irons in okay shape it usually takes about 10 seconds to raise a burr over the majority of the edge; one of the last times I did it it took exactly six strokes, or three seconds.

fair enough, I must of been very unlucky then with my plane soles not being flat, it was not supposed to put anyone off buying one.

 

[Benchwayze]

It's all a matter of how far you want to go. David Savage recommended flattening the sole of a brand new Lie Nielsen 5-1/2. That I felt was overkill. Totally unnecessary. All I ever had to do to my LN was put a bevel on the blade, and keep it adjusted, sharp and rust free.

I did buy a Record 5-1/2 off eBay, and that proved to be a fine apparently unused, older plane, which also did not need flattening; just sharpening and adjusting. I use it alongside the LN.

Luck of the draw maybe...

John (hammer)