is this a dovetail plane? caveat emptor part 2

[frank shic]

well, i just don't learn my lesson... bought another wooden plane on ebay the other day listed as a dovetail plane but after receiving it in the mail today, i'm not exactly sure. there's a fence that can be lowered as well as a nicker in front of the main blade and i think i can cut the male part of a sliding dovetail if i angle it right but it just looks so different than the ece or steve knight versions with the angled fence. have i been hoodwinked again?

[Johnny Kleso]

Thats a Dado Plane..

I not sure you where miss lead as much as the seller might have know a little less than you about planes.

Dado planes sell for $15-$30 if you did not pay much more I would chalk it up to a lesson learned..

I see many mistakes on ebay and I see a number of people calling rusty negelceted planes from the 1960s

Antique, Minty, Rare, Like New, Hard to Find, Ect, Ect

You have to know what your buying so ask for more pics and ask questions..

I buy a lot off eBay and get not so good deals myself when I get lazy and dont ask questions..

I trick I use is to zoom my browser in and view pics or what I did before Version 7 of Internet Explorer was to save pics to desktop and zoom in with photo viewer

Metal planes aways as if there are cracks in humps of the cheeks and any at the corners of the mouth or any other damage visable..

PS:
I just checked ebay and wow $76
You need to contact seller and Safe Harbor/ Paypal
You should be able to get your money back..

Thats a Mistake on the sellers part and I am suprised that many people bid the price up that high..

The with of the blade is a 1/2" and it has straight sides correct??
It doesnt have 10* taper any place does it???

Even if it has a 10* taper to the side it was modded and not made as a Dovetail plane and I would ask for my money back and pay shipping one way.. Two ways if I had to..

[Mike K Wenzloff]

Frank, it is and always has been a dado plane.

If Johnny looked at your auction and you paid what he wrote, it was a bit high unless the maker was rare.

If you really want to buy wood planes on eBay--or elsewhere--please consider getting Whelen's book on wood planes and educate yourself as to plane types. That book won't help as to value. But it will show you the myriad of types of planes so you know what the plane(s) are regardless of what a seller says.

Take care, Mike

[Tom Henderson2]

The auction description says " I AM NOT SURE BUT I THINK THIS IS A DOVE TAIL PLANE" so I doubt that you will get too far with a refund unless the seller is more cooperative than many.

Don't ask me how I know.

-TH

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Frank

Johnny is correct, this is a dado plane. The condition is average, not more than that (perhaps less). And Mike's advice for the future is absolutely spot on - if you want to buy planes (or anything else for that matter) you must educate yourself as to what is what. Buyer Beware and all that.

I do believe that you can make a case to the seller to get your money back. While he stated " I AM NOT SURE BUT I THINK THIS IS A DOVE TAIL PLANE", the inference was clearly that he was advertising a dovetail plane. He should have not stated what he thought it to be, and he (at the very least) has implied it was a dovetail plane, so he must bear responsibility for his own advertising.

I think that planes are just a small side line for him, and he really does not have much knowledge. You can get this information by looking at the items he has sold. It just reinforces that you cannot rely on the information provided by sellers on eBay.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[David Keller NC]

Another comment about buying either dovetail planes or dado planes (or rabbet planes, for that matter) on e-bay. I've examined a great number of antique wooden dado planes - many of them are unusable in the shop. The problem is that these planes have a sole that is cut-through to both sides of the mouth (so that both sides of the blade will cut). Without wood to support the mouth sides, a heck of a lot (maybe even the majority) of these have warped soles from humidity changes and age.

If the warp isn't too bad, the plane can be made to work by shaving off a bit of the wood on one side of the plane, but if it's out by more than about 1/16", doing so will leave an unsupported blade that will chatter badly.

Point here is that you usually have to hold the plane in your hand to determine if it's usuable - a picture isn't sufficient. For that reason, I give dado planes and other cut-through types on e-bay a pass. It's better to buy these planes through a dealer that knows the difference, or pick them up at an MWTCA swap meet where you can examine them yourself.

[frank shic]

i just emailed the seller and hope that's enough to get a refund, otherwise i'll have to go through the arbitration process. the funny thing is that i modified an old dado plane after reading derek's post a few years ago but i didn't follow it through to completion and sold it to some canadian on ebay -although i did inform him that it would still require some additional work.

i think i'll stay away from ebay for a while once this is all sorted out.

thanks for your advice everyone!

[frank shic]

good news! the seller genuinely did not know it was a dado plane and is willing to take it back. got lucky this time...

[Jim Koepke]

good news! the seller genuinely did not know it was a dado plane and is willing to take it back. got lucky this time...

Some dealers are just better than others.

jim

[Chris Padilla]

There are good honest sellers on eBay...probably just as many scum buckets, too. People are like that.... :D

[Johnny Kleso]

Frank,
What might work better that asking for full refund is I tay to make the seller a little happy..

I offer to keep plane and pay shipping and ask for a near full refund of auction price..

This way seller is not out any money and you dont haggle over who pays shipping...

The PO would be the only winner in this case...

[frank shic]

update on my latest ebay handplane saga: the owner refunded me minus the cost of shipping after receiving his newly sharpened DADO plane back. it's encouraging to see that there are still some ebay sellers with a sense of responsibility!

[eric auer]

update on my latest ebay handplane saga: the owner refunded me minus the cost of shipping after receiving his newly sharpened DADO plane back. it's encouraging to see that there are still some ebay sellers with a sense of responsibility!


Thats Good news, please ask the seller some questions the next time :):)