Yet another newbie plane question

[patl]

Hi everyone,

Having lurked for a little while now, I've appreciated all the advice I've found so far, but I'm still in a bit of a quandary.

First, I guess a little background may be in order. As seems to be fairly typical around here, I did a fair amount of woodworking before I left home, but after the better part of 20 years living in small flats, I've finally moved into a house with enough space for a workshop, so I'm re-introducing myself to woodwork when more brutal DIY doesn't get in the way.

After picking up Axminster's cheap groz bench & block plane set, I'm still finding planing to be about as painful as exerience as it was when I was younger, even with razor sharp blades (I hope there's only a small element of a bad workman blaming his tools here...). So I'm hoping if I move up the scale a little it may become a slightly more pleasurable experience, with that in mind, and all the good advice that's come from the archives, I've got a reconditioned no 5 1/2 coming from ray Iles and I plan on a veritas apron plane as a general purpose block plane.
However, I'm now wondering what to do on the shoulder plane (or some kind of plane for planing up to an edge) front. Since my budget at this stage is around 50-60 for each plane, I'm thinking about a new stanley no 062 but are there any other/better options without breaking the bank, or should I just accept that I'm going to have to spend more serious money on this plane?

Although I take the inevitable and good point that getting an old one and fettling it is a better/cheaper way to go. My problem is that without a well setup one to use as a reference, my best efforts at fettling (bar blade sharpening) are likely to be at best pointless. So I'm really looking for something which I only need to sharpen the blade to get to a reasonable tool.

Anyway, thanks for helping to grease the slide...

Pat.

 

[Lord Nibbo]

Hi everyone,

Having lurked for a little while now, I've appreciated all the advice I've found so far, but I'm still in a bit of a quandary.

First, I guess a little background may be in order. As seems to be fairly typical around here, I did a fair amount of woodworking before I left home, but after the better part of 20 years living in small flats, I've finally moved into a house with enough space for a workshop, so I'm re-introducing myself to woodwork when more brutal DIY doesn't get in the way.

After picking up Axminster's cheap groz bench & block plane set, I'm still finding planing to be about as painful as exerience as it was when I was younger, even with razor sharp blades (I hope there's only a small element of a bad workman blaming his tools here...). So I'm hoping if I move up the scale a little it may become a slightly more pleasurable experience, with that in mind, and all the good advice that's come from the archives, I've got a reconditioned no 5 1/2 coming from ray Iles and I plan on a veritas apron plane as a general purpose block plane.
However, I'm now wondering what to do on the shoulder plane (or some kind of plane for planing up to an edge) front. Since my budget at this stage is around 50-60 for each plane, I'm thinking about a new stanley no 062 but are there any other/better options without breaking the bank, or should I just accept that I'm going to have to spend more serious money on this plane?

Although I take the inevitable and good point that getting an old one and fettling it is a better/cheaper way to go. My problem is that without a well setup one to use as a reference, my best efforts at fettling (bar blade sharpening) are likely to be at best pointless. So I'm really looking for something which I only need to sharpen the blade to get to a reasonable tool.

Anyway, thanks for helping to grease the slide...

Pat.

Hi Patl, Welcome to the madhouse

Can you buy a new Stanley 062? Am I right in thinking this is a low angle bevel up plane? If it is I would save up and buy a Veritas LA BUS (Low angle Bevel up Smoother) the blade in this will only need a little honing and you are set, the Stanley may need a lot of fettling before you can use it, it may even need a better blade.

 

[Alf]

Welcome to the forum, Pat.

Unfortunately any shoulder plane is going to be spendy whether new or old. You can achieve the handy planing-right-into-the-corner facility with cheaper planes such as rebates (metal or wooden), but they're not always as effective in some situations. Probably a wooden skew rebate is the most useful, but finding one in good order and ready to go may not necessarily be easy, albeit cheap if you do.

Cheers, Alf

 

[patl]

Sorry, got my numbers wrong, I meant a stanley #92 shoulder plane as in http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=10113

Pat.

 

[bugbear]

However, I'm now wondering what to do on the shoulder plane (or some kind of plane for planing up to an edge) front.

Can you expand/clarify your requirment here?

BugBear

 

[patl]

So far every time I clean up tenons, rebates and dados with a rasp I end up thinking, I wish I had a plane that would help me with this. Whether a shoulder plane is actually the answer to the wavy lines I end up with I'm not sure though...

Thanks,

Pat.

 

[woodbloke]

I've read that lots of people say that a shoulder plane is one of the 'must have' pieces of kit but in all the years I've been doing this woody stuff I've never had to use one or seen the need to use one. I clean up shoulders on tenons (the main use for them) with a chisel. That said, I was in Penny Farthing Tools this morning and was eyeing up the rather dainty Clifton shoulder plane :tool: in the cabinet......but I resisted, the 'Slope' hasn't got me in its grasp yet, tho' I was tempted - Rob

 

[Alf]

Well my argument is the beginner will probably get more use from one than an experienced user. Not least because when you're starting you find you need to fettle up your joint cutting a bit more, and also because tweaking things with a chisel is that much trickier when you're starting out. Reduces the learning curve a bit, IMO.

Cheers, Alf

 

[JesseM]

The last time I cleaned up some shoulders I used a LN 140 and found it pretty worthwhile. Being a newbie at this myself I tend to like the skewed blades because they cut easier. One thing I thought about while using it was that using the 140 with the fence you are referencing off a known flat surface, whereas with a shoulder plane you are referencing off the tenon which should be square and flat, but might not be depending how much of a newbie you are :sign3: But I don't know, my knowledge of all this stuff is still pretty weak.

 

[Modernist]

I'd go along with the LN 140 (Left hand Iron in my case). I have found the left hend version is more suited to right handed uyse for tenon trimming and other jobs particularly shooting small sections. Another alternative would be the LN rebating block plane which has many uses including trimming tenons, shoulders etc

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Modernist

Welcome to the forum.

Cheers
Neil.

 

[bugbear]

Well my argument is the beginner will probably get more use from one than an experienced user. Not least because when you're starting you find you need to fettle up your joint cutting a bit more, and also because tweaking things with a chisel is that much trickier when you're starting out. Reduces the learning curve a bit, IMO.

Cheers, Alf

Of course, the easiest (and extremely accurate) way to tweak a tenon cheek is a hand router with a spacer block; even a OWT will suffice.

BugBear

 

[Alf]

Well there are other joints. Not that I could ever get on with that router thing. Jolly slow way to go about it and I'm slow enough as it is. :roll:

Cheers, Alf