1 joint plane

[Raymond Stanley]

Hi all!

I'm an ultra-newbie. I've been getting very excited about doing woodwork with hand tools since I visited highland hardware last week, and then I found the old tools archive + "fine woodworking," and now sawmill creek just today!

I've pretty much figured out my arsenal for the faces and edges of boards, now I just need to figure out what equipment I need for joints!

Per Derek Cohen's review of the vertias router plane, it seems that a saw, chisel, and router plane can combine to do grooves, dados, and tenons.

Since a cross-grain rabbet is the same as a dado with no outside edge, and a with-grain rabbet is the same as a groove with no outside edge...can a router plane do these the appropriate jigs/set up?

I am just getting into this hobby and am trying to start as cheaply as possible, since I have a bad habit of switching hobbies, am living on a graduate stipend, and am getting married in a month. Was thinking I could get all my joint work done with adding only one plane to what I thought was everything I needed (measure tools, surfacing planes, chisels, and saws).

Thanks!
Ray

P.S. If anybody has a handtool-oriented shop in Atlanta, and would consider showin me the ropes, send me a PM!

[Maurice Metzger]

Welcome Raymond!

The minimal set of planes needed is a subject that's near and dear to my heart, and I look forward to what others with more experience will say.

My recommendation would actually be two planes - a rabbet plane like a Stanley 78, and a Stanley 271 small router plane. But this is based on the assumption that at first most of your grooves will be for drawer bottoms. For this you can cut 1/4" grooves with the 271. The rabbet plane would only be used for rabbets.

One problem with this recommendation is that 271's seem a bit overpriced right now, at least to me. Hopefully someone will start manufacturing a replacement.

- Maurice

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Raymond, I think using a router plane to make a rabbet requires too much extra work. The beauty of hand tools is you have a tool meant for a purpose and it does a task very well with little fuss. When you start using tools for operations other than their intended purpose you end up with jigs and jury rigs that take time and extra effort. A stanley 78 makes rabbets with no fuss and they are fairly inexpensive.

I don't even use a router plane for dados--again too many operations, saw to define the edges, chisel the waste, smooth the bottom with a router plane. A dado plane will make quick work of a dado with only one operation. Of course, you need to have a dado plane for each width dado you want to make which is a drawback.