planes and shooting boards.

[Vann]

The cheap planes do sound iffy when you put it like that Andy, I take it there's no fettling that can be done to bring them up to scratch?

If you're happy to spend some time fettling, rather than blow the household budget for the next 6 months, you're better off IMHO to buy an early Record or Stanley (~pre-1960 Record, or pre-1950 Stanley). The materials are better quality.

But like Andy says, you need to know what a good one is like before you can make a poor one (or in this case, a worn one) better - or at least I needed to.

Cheers, Vann.