I know that this subject has be broached a number of times but think that deciding on a first plane can come down to what you're trying to do rather than a catch all "first plane has to be a #4!". I've considered myself a "builder" for quite some time but really just figured things out as I went along without much guidance or instruction. Over the last year or so I've tried to become more of a "woodworker" and tried to learn as much as I can. With that, I'd like to start getting some planes that are useful to what I'm doing. Primarily I have been working on learning different joinery and a friend has asked me to build them a dining room table when they move into their house in a month. I think using all hand tools on a dining room table is a bit much for me to bite off at this point so I'll probably be relying on my joiner and planer for a bulk of the smoothing for that project but I would like to throw in some mortise and tenons on it if that's something they are wanting. I initially had in mind the medium Veritas Shoulder Plane but then heard about the Lie-Nielsen rabbet block plane which then lead me to the Veritas Jack Rabbet. With the Jack Rabbet, my line of thinking was that I could get a plane that would be a plane to handle multiple different jobs instead of buying multiple different planes. I've read Derek's Jack Rabbet review and found it very helpful and since then it looks like Veritas has added a few extra attachments that Derek had made himself. Although with the length and heft of the Jack Rabbet it wouldn't replace a simple block plane.
Thoughts?