Nice! I am looking into light weight cheap plastic tools to carry in portable tote. I also love the way they don't sound when I drop them on my beautiful tile floors. Yes, I work in the A/C. So far speed squares, levels, and MilesCraft center finders and dowel guides have made the bucket list. Thanks for what you do.
I have an old mini plane of my dad's that is half the size of the one you have in the video. A couple big differences though are, mine has a metal body and instead of a wedge it has a metal chip breaker and a screw to tighten it. For small work it's surprisingly a good little plane. So, depending on the construction I wouldn't count out mini handplanes for being useful.
At under $4, I probably would have given it a go. Good detail planes are hard to find and at a decent price, almost nonexistent. My 2 best that also took a little work are a 1" block plane from Lowes($5), all metal, easy to setup, flatten and sharpen, and does a decent job on small stuff and most exotics. I usually avoid Osage orange since sharpening isn't really a passion of mine. The other is a set of 3 mini-planes from Harbors Freight that sell for around $8/set. A scraper, mini-block and one other, about 3/4" wind and brass and wood finish. Actually flattened, sharpened and worked well. I did eventually go to the trouble of making new irons from a piece of tool steel I ordered from somewhere. They work somewhat better now and stay sharp longer. Similar to a set of 10 that Rockler or Woodcraft sells for $300. Theirs are ebony, far better materials and designed for guitars and violins. I have better uses for $300 and no guitar projects on the radar. I enjoy these planes but they definately have special uses around the shop. Still have my shop and my field block planes that get the most and most brutal use. Both Stanleys from around 1900 that were salvaged from flea markets for around $5 each. Both have enventaully gotten new irons and lots of work but perform better than new ones. Good shop projects get a Wood River block plane and really nice furniture gets the Lie-Nielsen. Most of the bench planes are used Sranleys, a #7 Craftsman, and some Wood River to fill in a gap or 2. My favorites? My #4 and #5 1/2 seem to get the most GP use overall. My #6 and #8 the least. Not doing lots of long pieces right now. Excellent video and I really enjoyed it. I'll be looking at finances next week and we'll see if we can contribute a bit to this.
It's funny hearing the people upstairs in this early video. But I have to admire Rex's attitude towards imperfect tools. If they're imperfect, we can fix them. that's why we're here.
Clean, concise common sense content Rex Love your approach to problem solving looking at the 'is it worth it' angle. Many of us, 'low budget' guys get stuck in the cost/quality trap - at least it helps to hone skills tho'. You exemplify the, 'think it through, 'cos it may have benefits' approach and that makes for somewhat unique content. Good luck with your jump to content-only mode.
Alex Adedipe I would love to upgrade (and thanks for the compliment!) But equipment is expensive and I'm not making much money on RU-vid. My patreon is growing and if I get more patrons, I'll upgrade for sure!
With those simple wedge planes, I find it helps to stack up a few sheets of normal printer paper at either side of the mouth before you drop the iron in. That way you can set the depth with far greater ease than by trying to hammer on it afterwards. The iron just drops down a few tenths of a millimetre &, provided it's all on a flat surface, you won't get any issues with the lateral angle.
The low friction is an issue for me when I make some projects in plastic. It is surprising how often some friction is needed to hold things in place. Great fix by remaking the wedge in wood. Opening the body up to eject chips better was another next level fix as well. It is a shame there was no final pay off though. Still I bet I could find uses for that plane chamfering and what not. And like you said just the iron alone is worth the price of admission.
The thought occurs to me that the round horizontal hole moulded into the body might be for a dowel rod to be put in to assist in using the plane for pulling as is common in Asian woodworking.
Great video man! Makes me think I’ve never seen a great video on how to sharpen a plane and the whole idea of the burr. And if you need it. I’ll look through your videos for one now! Lol, thanks!
The bottom of the plane looks like it has a 1/16" to 1/8" edge around the outside which gets larger near the blade. The interior of the bottom looks like it is recessed to minimize the drag while planning.
No when I say similar, it is similar only in form. It is a very thin metal body, but takes razor blades rather than a steel. So coupled with my broken HSS power hacksaw blades made into Kiridashi style blades I have got quite a few methods for thinning or skiving leather. When you edge leather there are special tools made to put a small bevel on the edge prior to finishing and burnishing. The small plane is a great way to do a fast aggressive chamfer, then I cheat and clean up with a belt sander. Shhh.
I've got a plastic plane made by x-acto that came in a miscellaneous box of tools I bought at a garage sale. The one you've got actually looks like much better quality than this one.
Like you, I might pick it up just for the iron for that price if it's decent. Would be curious as to how well that iron skates a file... I think remaking the rest of the plane is the right move. Maybe use that Corian stuff you used for the buildoff with James.
Isn't that kind of the point though - you're buying a blade and you can think of the plane body as a sort of shipping container that was tossed in for free.
Thanks for this series, it's very interesting! What about similar planes that comes with a wooden body, for a similar price. Wouldn't that be a better starting point rather than plastic?
Ha! Rex, love your vids and am an avid guitarist. When I subscribed a few months ago, that was literally the first thing I thought! Thanks for all your great insight and especially love the cheap tool reviews (I'm a "try Harbor Freight first, see how much I use it, then go to Woodcraft if/when necessary" kind of guy). Also, your table saw hand injury vid was both great and quite sobering. It should be mandatory viewing for any aspiring woodworker just starting out on a table saw. Thanks again, Rick.
Hey Rick! So glad you like the content. I will actually have a guitar-building video up next week (earlier for patrons). I've been playing for years. That's me on the intro. I'm really glad you like the cheap tool reviews. I'm actually a pretty big fan of harbor freight. Some of their stuff is gold!
Your videos still entertain and educate me! I love'm. Keep'em coming. Now, a question:Do you trust AliExpress? I've read some scathing reviews on them with regard to timely shipping, accepting returns, sending the wrong or no product, etc. I notice you source a few interesting trinkets from them, and I trust your judgment. Me? Mostly always Amazon and Ebay, and occasionally Craigslist.Thanks in advance, Dan
Hey Dan! Aliexpress had been fine for me. The shipping does take FOREVER, but it's not that big of a deal. I've never gotten the wrong thing. At the price I pay for stuff, I wouldn't bother returning them. So, I think they're fine. Really glad you liked the video!
And why not? Planes were made with hardwood bodies for hundreds of years before iron ones came along. The plastic from its appearance and behaviour when you shaved the nib off, looks to be glass filled polyester or nylon which is ideal. Certainly nicer than the aluminium bodied one I got foisted with.
Hope to see your "better plane" with that iron. Maybe a Krenov style one? I've wanted to try making one of those. Hmmm. This plane seems not available via the link. Maybe soon?
Considering how expensive injection moulding dies are and how most injection moulding shops work, I’m assuming that this was more like an item made to be sold in dollar stores, it was some kind of idea by a student and someone at a tool company thought it was a neat idea and decided to allow them make a die and similarly, it might have been something made for a trade show like the EMO (biggest machining Equipment Show in Europe) to show off their die making technology and engineering skills.
fun fact. i also got myself 3$ chinese plane recently. but i got a no7 jointer :P actually the tuth is i bought a thickness planer and exchanged bonus points for a jointer and had to pay 3$ extra anyway it is doing great, it only took 3 days to do all the normal restorative rutines foe a used stanley, because out of the box it was unusable, but i expected this much in the end i painted it pink and now it makes great combo with the thickness planer question would you rather paint all your planes dark or bright color?
Rex thanks for an interesting series. This may be a really dumb question but, how did you know this plane expects the iron to be inserted bevel up? I have an identical looking wooden plane and I see no clues as to how the iron should be inserted.
@@ChattanoogaDan Hi! The very shallow blade angles have to be bevel up, because the sharp edge would be held away from the workpiece by the rest of the bevel. So if your bevel is ground to 30 degrees and the iron is set to 25 degrees then the bevel makes contact at the shallow angle where the iron gets to full thickness, Just try putting the iron on a flat surface; bevel up leaves the sharp edge touching the surface, bevel down leaves the sharp edge up in the air by the thickness of the iron.
4 года назад
Little doubt: Instead of making a wood replacement, why not add some sanding paper?
Nah. I just thought it was a funny comment sorry. I didn't mean to waste your time or get you excited like that not used to getting my comments read lol. Though now that I think about it I kinda wanna try that haha modding cheap hand planes sounds fun.
@@theone614 oh! Don't sweat it. These import tools are so nuts, I'll believe anything. You're really polite to apologize! Thanks for being a person on the internet!
That's a good point. I'd replace it with a smooth rod, but if the body really is polyethylene like I think, then no glue will stick to it, so installing the rod will be tough.
checked out the aliexpress page for this plane. In the specs it says it is 27mm wide, and gives a margin for measuring error of 0-2cm. So, I guess theoretically it could show up being 7mm wide and still be considered accurate. But it also says that the handle material is "Wood". In no universe is any part of this plane made of wood. Keep it classy China.
My guess is the manufacturer ended up with like, 20000 of these blades in surplus for a couple cents each, and decided to injection mold bodies for them to make a profit.
Have you found any cheap little Chinese shoulder planes or a bullnose plane? - wanting to add to the collection but there doesn't seem to be cheap options available. As for this one... strange little plane! I wonder why it can't face plane?
I don't, but if you email me: rex krueger @ gmail I'll just give you my address. I'd love to see this tool, provided you don't work for a tool company. I don't take free tools from manufacturers. Thanks!
An alternate solution. Good iron bad body 4 bucks. toss the plastic and build a wood bodied plane around the iron. OOOPs, I jumped the gun on my comment.
@@RexKrueger xP not yet. But when the printer arrived about 6 months ago, I was like " Huzzah! Finally, I have one!! I can make anything I want !!!!... ... ... hmm... what to do?..." and the pondering continues to this day.
Rex - I realize this is an old video - and I totally respect your 'no sponsors' mentality. I'm sick and tired of shops set up in somebody's rinky-dink home garage that have $100,000 of CNC, Felder sliding saws and Laguna bandsaws. It's ridiculous. Great for the manufacturers - they've figured out a way to get their machines in front of 10s of 1000s of eyes that not even "This Old House" could do for them. But it's nothing like the typical shop. Nothing. That said - I really don't think any serious hobby woodworker expects to get into this hobby with a $5 plastic plane either. Spending even half an hour trying to make a made-in-china POS tool usable is really a waste of time - both making it and viewing it, and that's why you're at 40,000 subs instead of 400,000 like you should be. If you really want to grow a full-time audience so you don't have to do client work, I think you should do more of the "home-made lathe" types of videos series. Think more Frank Howarth (sp) or John Heisz ... or Izzy Swan (who are all sponsored from time to time but not their main focus) ... but shop-built machines... shop-built jigs... shop-built storage/organization. You have a great presentation style you just need to find your content niche.
Okay, so I totally appreciate your feedback, really. A few remarks: 1.) I know most people won't do any work with this plane. This was fun. These videos get views. 2.) The homemade lathe TANKED. I earned no money from that thing. A smart business man doesn't repeat failures. 3.) This video was in no way a waste of my time. It was cheap and quick to make and I made money. It also continues to make me money. 4.) And I mean this with respect, but if know the path to 400k subs (and I really am flattered that you think I should have that many) then why do you have 11? You don't make videos? You're not trying to get subs? You'll have to excuse me if I feel like I've got enough armchair quarterbacks in my life. All the people who want do give me advice DON"T MAKE VIDEOS. The people who do make videos don't give advice because they don't know how they got big. No one does. That's why we're all out here trying things. And trying some more.
This is it! You've got GAS bad. Terrible Terrible GAS. (gear acquisition syndrome) OK I get it, you've been doing so much, with so little for so long, now you think you can do anything with nothing!
