Why do you want a plough for tongue and groove? The Stanley #48 and/or #49 make it painless to do T&G, and have a depth stop and fence built in. Either should be under $100. They're not metric, but the 5/16" irons on the 48 are ~8 mm wide (though I really don't think this matters…my wooden plough's irons are only approximate in width, and it's not a problem).
My tendency would be to pass on the Anant plane. I have no experience with them, but I have seen some of he modern plane shaped objects that some are trying to market to the unsuspecting.
Currently there are some Stanley 45s on ebay at less than $100 at buy it now prices with shipping.
They do not have blades, but those are usually easy to find.
I have not evaluated any of the currently available offerings so it is buyer beware, but it isn't that hard of a task to give them a look see.
Here is a little information on the Stanley 45:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...04#post1176704
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Adam, that's a fine idea! I wasn't really aware of those planes before, despite them both preceding the #50 on the Blood and Gore page, which I've used as a reference quite a few times. I like the reversible fence, which allows one cutter to perform both tongue cutting and groove cutting. The only thing I'm unsure about is this bit:
"...it is designed to work stock from 3/4" to 1 1/4" in thickness (the groove centers on stock 7/8")."
So, it appears that the groove and tongue will only be centered on boards that are 7/8" thick, the fence is not adjustable? That simplifies things nicely, but I plan to use this tool in ways that may expose the ends of the boards I join, and I'm not sure the stickler in me can live with an off-center tongue and groove. Also, in general, I like the idea of buying a plane which might do some other jobs in the future as needed, though tongue and groove is the only thing I definitely have in mind for it.
I'll have to do some looking. Maybe there's a plane similar to the #48/#49 that has an adjustable fence?
Not that I'm aware of; traditionally, match planes come in a specific size, and are used ±1/8" of the nominal size. I have a #49, which centers a groove on 1/2" (IIRC), and I mainly use it for 3/8"-ish cabinet backs. A recent acquisition of mine is a pair of wooden 3/8" match planes, and I've long had a pair of wooden 7/8" match planes. These work well, but can be more finicky than the Stanleys.
I'm all in favor of having a plough as a general purpose tool! Although I have the matching irons for my Stanley #45 and #46, I've never actually tried them. As long as you don't have to adjust the fence when swapping irons, it's probably a perfectly adequate solution.
I've wondered about shimming the fence on the Stanley match plane, and I _think_ that would work as long as you added the same thickness shim to both sides of the fence. Maybe someday I'll try that with my spare Franken49 .