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Thread: Un-boxing and tuneup of a $10 Harbor Freight bench plane

  1. #31
    There are two things wondering me, in regards to the Original video from the OP.

    - How the heck do they get a plane on the market for 10 dollar? It might be a piece of crap, but it still has an iron casting, someone has done some machining, there are wooden handles with some work in them, it needs to be painted, and then there is also a steel blade, needing cutting (stamping?), heat treating, grinding. And then someone must assemble it, packaging, transport it to the US, get it into shops all over the country. How do they do that? Is someone still making a bit of profit?

    - After all the work to tune the plane, it still struggles on maple and seems to be only doing fine with the grain on some poplar. It's sorely missing a double iron. And it's got a very weird adjuster.

  2. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pat Barry View Post
    I saw this previously and decided not to comment but, after due consideration, I decided to add my two cent counterpoint.

    If in fact every second is a priceless wonder, why spend those few precious moments playing around with some basically worthless scrap metal to get it into serviceable, albeit not collector quality, condition? If time is in fact that precious there must be countless other ways to better use that time. If in fact the time is that priceless then spend the $ to buy a tool that doesn't take all that much priceless time to make it functional for producing something that is more precious.

    end of 2 cent commentary
    Some of what makes those moments precious is the joy inherent in the experience of "playing around with some basically worthless scrap metal to get it into serviceable, albeit not collector quality, condition." Not only does the fettling bring me enjoyment, but every time one of my rehabbed planes is in my hands or the hands of my grandchildren being used is another enjoyable "precious" moment.

    There is also the fact that some of my efforts have paid off by selling rehabbed tools to others. In one case my "waste of time" turned less than $100 spent in to about $400 to purchase a plane and a couple of other tools not available as good users in used condition, that is how my LN #62, low angle jack was purchased.

    Sure one can sell an LN or LV for close to what they paid for it.

    With careful buying one can actually make more money than was paid for an old plane after giving it a little TLC. Some I haven't done much more than sharpening the blade and using it for a year or two before doubling my money or better.

    And that is my two cents.jpg of commentary,

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  3. #33
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    I have never worried about the time I have spent fixing up rather worthless tools and machines. Indeed,in the days before the internet,in Virginia,which is not a highly industrialized state,in the area I live,I have spent plenty of time on machines missing their whole drive system. At the time,they were the only small(my shop was small) machines I could find. I found the work educational and interesting.

  4. #34
    Join Date
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    twomiles from the "peak of Ohio
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    let's see.....

    Still have one of the Windsor #33 planes in the shop. Was converted to a scrub plane long ago. Hungry little beasty. Have also recycled the handles onto better planes. Ratty set of handles are on the #33...Still haven't dulled the 3" cambered iron enough that it need sharpened.

    Someone must be buying these planes.....they are now almost $15 each! So much for a $9 #3 plane....

    Plane seems to be a #3 sized copy of the Stanley SB4 plane Stanley was selling.

    One MIGHT be able to adapt the adjusters to a spokeshave? Seen a few that needed those style of nuts to adjust the blade. #151, maybe?

  5. #35
    I got a bee in my bonnet about this, and I ended up picking up another Stanley on Ebay. It's a #3 Type 11. Really nice. I paid a total of about $60, which is on the high side, but it's cheaper than a new Stanley that isn't as good. It had some kind of goo all over it it, with sawdust embedded in it. I tried acetone and turpentine on it, and wonder of wonders, it turned out window cleaner dissolved it without hurting the japanning.

    I used a Proxxon with a brass brush and fiber brush, 200 grit sandpaper, four diamond stones, a 1x42 belt grinder I rigged up with a treadmill motor, window cleaner, acetone, and turpentine. I cleaned off the goo and what little rust there was. I polished what needed to be polished. I took all the screws out and cleaned them. I freed up the adjusting knob with Kroil. I ground down the gap on the chipbreaker, although whoever owned this plane had already done a good job. I just finished reshaping and sharpening the iron by hand. The only thing that remains is to flatten the sole.

    I guess I'll end up putting six hours into the plane, but it's beautiful, and the edge I put on the iron looks like a machine did it. I completely understand the pleasure of taking something expensive and perfectly fettled out of the box and using it immediately, but it's also nice to look at my tools and see the improvements my hands made in them. I could never get that with a $500 plane. And I saved a 100-year-old tool that a lot of idiots would have left in a junk heap behind a barn. I see so many planes on Ebay with pits and rust a sixteenth of an inch thick. It's like people decided they were garbage as soon as power tools became popular.

    If I gave this plane to a friend or relative, every time they looked at it, they would see me.
    Cry "Havoc," and let slip the dogs of bench.

    I was socially distant before it was cool.

    A little authority corrupts a lot.

  6. #36
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    To those of you who buy old planes or cheap ones at HF....Good for you!!!! You obviously enjoy doing the tuneups and are having fun. Forget all these folks who say "I have better things to do with my time"....ya, right, like sitting around posting on the internet, building furniture that they could buy cheaper after adding up ALL the costs of having a shop, buying lumber, paying themselves a decent wage for their "precious" time.

    And don't fall for the "oh, I build better furniture than can be bought" Garbage, rubbish! Get out some bucks (less than a shop costs) and you can buy furniture way better than some guy in his shop normally builds.

    We all do this because we ENJOY doing it. Some of us get into making tools, fixing them, building jigs, organizing our shops. We LIKE doing it. Just wish those who say they have "better things to do with their time" were a little more honest and would say "I enjoy making things more than I enjoy restoring or improving tools".

  7. #37
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ted Reischl View Post
    To those of you who buy old planes or cheap ones at HF....Good for you!!!! You obviously enjoy doing the tuneups and are having fun.
    I'm one of the people who tuned up an HF for kicks, and you're right that there's a fun aspect, but if I had it to do again I would have spent the time on an old tool that has more "upside".

    The problem with the HF is that it's a fundamentally flawed design. It has no cap iron, the adjusters are clunky, the iron is a bit "questionable", etc. All of the elbow grease in the world can't make that plane perform like a classic #3 or #4.

  8. #38
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    But it will make one very hungry Scrub plane. And do that job with ease.

  9. #39
    Quote Originally Posted by Patrick Chase View Post
    The problem with the HF is that it's a fundamentally flawed design. It has no cap iron, the adjusters are clunky, the iron is a bit "questionable", etc. All of the elbow grease in the world can't make that plane perform like a classic #3 or #4.
    I only bought mine for the challenge. It seems to be capable of perfectly good work. The iron in mine is rigid and hard. It's just annoying to deal with the adjusters. I was thinking of putting it back in the box, fettled and ready to go, and returning it for a refund. Imagine the surprise the next guy would get. "I can't believe how nice this thing is!"

    I am tempted to make new adjusting nuts, just for the amusement of perfecting the plane.
    Cry "Havoc," and let slip the dogs of bench.

    I was socially distant before it was cool.

    A little authority corrupts a lot.

  10. #40
    Quote Originally Posted by Steve H Graham View Post
    I only bought mine for the challenge. It seems to be capable of perfectly good work. The iron in mine is rigid and hard. It's just annoying to deal with the adjusters. I was thinking of putting it back in the box, fettled and ready to go, and returning it for a refund. Imagine the surprise the next guy would get. "I can't believe how nice this thing is!"
    That would be really funny!

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