Alumo planes?

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I saw one of these "Alumo" branded planes at an antique store; looking online hasn't found me anything more than a few eBay auctions. The one I saw looks similar to a Stanley 248 or 39, but with main casting made of aluminum. It had a full length depth stop that moved on two slotted screwholes, and a second piece screwed to the body to sort of wrap around the open side of the blade and also stiffen up the body. The cutter was similar to a plow plane, with the groove that mates with the skate towards the bottom of the cutter. It was marked Alumo 1B or something like that. No signs of a missing fence (i.e., nowhere a fence would attach) and I'm not sure where you'd actually but up a batten to the thing to make sure you started square.

It was just an interesting plane, I'm wondering if anyone knew anything about them (was Alumo the company, or did someone else make them?) or if anyone had seen a mention of them in any book.

[Jim Koepke]

Aluminum was like a miracle metal for many years.

It was used for all kinds of things. Many of those things proved it was better to use copper, steel or cast iron to make.

Collectors can have all of these they want, most users find them useless.

If collectors were paying X for these and one was seen for a fraction of X, then it might get my consideration as something to sell and buy a good tool.

jtk

[george wilson]

I still have a Craftsman aluminum smooth plane with a 4 sided blade that I got as a teenager. I was highly impressed by having 4 cutting edges that could be used. Now I think it is a real piece of junk. It must have come out about 1957.

[Tony Zaffuto]

I've seen an "Alumo #78" clone at a Chambersburg, PA antique mall ever since I first set foot in the place, about 10 years go. It's priced at $30.00 and is in a tool guy's display, so I'm sure other tool guys have seen it and apparently no one thinks it is worth the price.

I have a Stanley A4, A5, A6 & A18, as collector pieces. Got each pretty cheap. The main wear on aluminum planes is corrosion from sitting in a damp place or tool box, as most were shelved by the owners after trying them a few times. Even in pristine condition they don't bring much as compared to other collectable Stanley planes.

[James Taglienti]

They made a few different kinds of rabbet plane, some had different widths, maybe a weatherstripping plane, etc. None of them are of much collector value but id lime to hear how they work if anyone has used one.

[William Adams]

They made a few different kinds of rabbet plane, some had different widths, maybe a weatherstripping plane, etc. None of them are of much collector value but id lime to hear how they work if anyone has used one.

I just got a 1A from eBay for $9.99 + s/h --- figured worst case the cutter was worth that and I could recycle the aluminum.

It works, but isn't very pleasant to use --- I'll have to try for a better edge on the iron.

No depth stop and the guides are over a quarter inch too high for me (I need to make a 3/16" deep groove) and the non-adjustable fence puts the groove a quarter of an inch or so from the edge of the piece (I need it a strong eighth). Either I need to adjust or replace those pieces or I'll have to make a jig or a wood-bodied plane using the iron.

William

[William Adams]

I bolted on one piece of wood to serve as a depth stop and taped on a second for the lateral adjustment and it's working pretty well except for the shavings binding up in the depth stop piece.

[William Adams]

Reworked that to a single piece of wood and it works quite well.

[Mark Dorman]

Found this http://www.sydnassloot.com/P28.HTM might help a little.

[Peter Pedisich]

I don't know much about aluminum planes, but a little about aluminum castings and extrusions, and I would think without a hard anodized surface it could leave gray/black marks on wood. I very well could be wrong, though.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I ended up buying one - it's an 1/8 inch blade and works well for small grooves for little drawers or boxes. Got it cheap, and the blade is nice enough I figure it's worth what I payed for the blade, I could repurpose that to something else if I ever got curious.

All the "bearing surfaces" are steel, so it's a little better suited than like an aluminum sole block plane.

I usually either use the depth stop skate (as seen in the Sydnas Sloot link) fully down as sort of a fence to move it in a from the edge, or take it off completely and run it against a board as a fence. At least, I think that moveable piece was originally designed as a depth stop. As mentioned on the link at Moss's site, these were weatherstripping planes, or something of the like. So I imagine they weren't going for perfect grooves with these things. At least, they were rough carpentry planes, not fine joinery planes. I think there was three or four of them altogether; Patrick Leach had a full set on his tool list one month not too long ago. I haven't found much more out about them; I figure if I searched around long enough maybe I could find some ads or something. They turn up on eBay enough that they can't be too rare. Haven't really gotten that curious yet.

Not amazing, but it's a handy little thing every now and then. I haven't had any problems with shavings clogging up in mine, but I haven't taken too much

The one I have doesn't leave marks on the wood, but I think it's because it's old enough it's oxidized enough to be sort of equivalent to anodization, and that most of the bits that bear against the wood are steel. I'm surprised that mine hasn't been more victim to the corrosion you often see with dissimilar metals. I know I made some pedals for my guitar rig with aluminum plate and steel fastners and at the intersection of the two it turned a mess where I didn't use stainless. Of course, that got all sorts of beer and sweat spilled on it (rock'n'roll bands - that stuff happens, I guess?)

Anyway - rambling aside - in all I remember was I payed less than 10 dollars and it's made itself up for that since then. Owning one, in my opinion - If you've got a proper, decent plow plane, no you don't need one. If you make enough of one type of groove that it's worth having a dedicated plane, making a drawer bottom plane like that article in Fine Woodworking not to long ago, or picking up half a tongue and groove plane set is probably better. I mean, I guess I would only seek this out if I was looking for a set of a few planes to make the rabbets and grooves for weatherstripping to carry around in a toolchest, and also I was a person who did a lot of that. That said, if you come across one and the price is right, they aren't a terrible plane for what they are. Certainly, being aluminum, they'd be easy enough to work if you wanted to add something to them.

I can take photos of mine if that's helpful to anyone.

[Dave Hartunian]

Most of them I have seen are junk.