Hi and Groz plane

[Todd Keesal]

Hi all, new here and a fairly new woodworker. Mostly my hobby is working on cars but winter (and no garage) forced me indoors and recent diy home remodeling brought out an interest in working with wood. My dad always has (but can't even change his oil, hehe), but sadly putting a nail through my foot at age 7 ended my being allowed in his woodshop (mom ruled with an iron fist), and put him in the doghouse for a week for leaving a board with a nail in it face up.

Anyway the wife has been very kind in allowing me to get tools, assuming prices don't make her faint. Actually she made me a small present today of a Groz low angle, 60 1/2 style, see I do know something. It adds to the recently picked up No 5 type 11, #80 (new), No 4 newish English Bailey actually had this one about 3 years but never used it much, I know people don't like the new ones but it works pretty well for me.

Huh what was I talking about, oh right the Groz..... Well needless to say I'm probably not the best person to review this one, but since it seems like no one else has, I'll give it a shot.

Casting is rough in lots of spots, jappaning seems to cover the places it should, and a bit into where it shouldn't, but not excessivly. Sole is flatish and mostly square but really needs to be lapped, I started on that but more later on that.

The adjustable mouth is nice and snug and locks into place well. The depth adjuster is stamped sheet metal and seems a bit cheezy but does the job fine. The lateral adjuster is the same way cheezy but works.
Knowing it would need work I felt the best thing to do was spend hours lapping the sole, flattening the blade, honing, etc. NOT!!
Right out of the box it actually cut wood, fairly poorly but shavings were made, nothing slipped out of place, chattering was not unbearable.

Ok so I figure its gonna work, so I start flattening the blade, give it a small micro bevel and get ready to get to work on the sole. Then I notice disaster (such drama) the mouth is gouged on one side. For some reason the blade sits too close to the left (from the top) side and has gouged the mouth and started a small crack (1/32 inch or so) lateral adjustment only makes it worse.

Figuring I already put in too much time to give up now, I toss the blade back in and cut some more shavings. Now I'm actually prettty impressed, popular is pretty soft but it gives nice thin shavings on the edge and smooths up the end fairly nicely. The end grain did take some work and some chatter was involved, probably in no small part due to my lack of any apparent technique.

Anyway I'm fairly impressed, the question I have is should I take it back and try to get one that the blade is straight on, or can I file the mouth wider on that side and be fine with it?
I hate to put any more work into it until I solve this problem, but overall I'm pretty happy with how it works

[Mike Cutler]

Todd. Welcome to SawMill Creek.
If the plane is new I'd return it. Better to put your effort into one that was cast correctly to begin with. Once again Welcome to SawMill Creek.

[Tyler Howell]

Welcome Todd!

I'd take it back and leave it. There is a lot of good old iron out there that is about the same price, and the medium to high buck stuff can't be beat.
Good hunting.

PS: For future gift Ideas provide your "talented and lovely" with a Lee Valley catalogue and their web site;) .

[Todd Keesal]

Thanks for the welcome, wife was ticked it was "broke" and exchanged it. She knew I was looking for an old 60 1/2 but went to get a new one and was told this was the "same thing":rolleyes: Anyway the new one she got was actually worse so its going back and shes been shown the Lie Nelson and the new Stanley 60 1/2 at a different places catalog (left dogeared and circled catalog out;) for her, my birthday is next week so we'll see) Whichever she gets, if either, is gonna have to be GREAT for me either way or shes never gonna buy me tools again!

The second Groz had about 85% Japanning when I got it, I did try to flatten the sole a touch which knocked off another 10% or so. The blade was super thin but did scary sharpen up some. However the entire mechanism jammed up when trying to adjust the blade depth. It would jam on the lateral adjuster and need to be taken apart and have the adjuster pryed out to get it to move.

Oddly enough the casting was very different on the two planes, the first one had supports cast into the underside of the adjustable mouth piece and the second one did not. There were other small but noticable differences as well.

Obviously I can't recomend this plane, maybe someone with more experience could get it to work well, but it hardly seems worth it.

[Ed Hardin]

Todd, I haven't been into planes for long but I've got to tell you, let the new Stanly go. LOOK really hard at the lie-neilson. I bought the 102 before Christmas as a present for me and man I'm in love. That little block plane put me on the slippery slope for good. It saves me so much time from sanding etc. that it's hard to describe. Now having said that, there are a lot of old planes out there (pre WWII) that are bargains. You may even purchase one cleaned up, tuned up, sharp and ready to go from some of the guys on these forums. I have done so and have yet to be disappointed. Old planes from knowledgeable people are one of the best kept secrets in the woodworking world.

[Todd Keesal]

What I'm really looking for is something to clean up ends of boards either from the yard or after I cut them them. Sometimes sadly, this is fairly rough stuff. I have a Stanly block plane you know the cheapest no adjuster type that looks like the LN102 but with out the adjusting knob and I refer to it as a doorstop because it simply does nothing for me. The LN 102 kinda scares me for this as I know it would be easier to adjust but still the mouth is fixed. The LN is a low angle yes? Which might make it easier to use/ work better..... The price isn't so much more than the Stanley I just wonder if its enough plane for the job.

Thoughts?

BTW I should mention that I'm mostly using softer woods, poplar, pine, fir,etc. I plan to use more hardwoods as skill increases and need demands

[Maurice Ungaro]

Todd,
As far as the inexpensive block planes go, Stanley still makes the 60 1/2, albeit not what it used to be, but still a good user. If you want a step up, and in the opinions of some, the best deal out there, check out the line from Lee Valley: http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=48940&cat=1,41182

I'm not associated the company, but a loyal customer of Lee Valley, and never seem to cease marveling at some of their innovations. Their planes do rather well, and outperform some LN models.

Maurice