Any help will be appreciated.

 

Hi, Bill; I'm no authority on hand planes, I only use a block plane and a jack plane, neither of which are expensive models...the block is a Stanley.
From my perspective, living a ferry ride away from the Vancouver Lower Mainland, I tend to go with whomever gives me great online/telephone service. Lee Valley is a rock solid supplier, so for me that's what I need.
(...A plane a month?! You do know that you can resharpen the blades; you don't need to replace the plane... )

 

LOL, indeed I do know. A block plane, rabbit plane, smoothing plane, jointer plane, and perhaps a few specialty planes, among a few different blades and a few more setups. I don't have stones yet either, so I need those, as well.

 

I own hand tools from both Lee Valley/Veritas and Lie-Nielsen. You won't go wrong with either choice. The big difference is Veritas has take a modern spin on hand tools where Lie-Nielsen tools are much more traditional.

My next hand plane purchase will likely be a LA Jack Plane as well, and I will likely go with the Lie-Nielsen version.

 

I did not know this...
Veritas Introduces New Tool Steel for Plane Blades and Chisels - Fine Woodworking

 

New Steel



I knew they had that steel, I just didn't know how different, perhaps advanced, it was. Thank you. Very interesting!

 

How big is the garage you intend to fill up with tools?
Do you have 240v available?

I have a one car garage and only one 120v outlet. I have to use one tool at a time or I run the danger of tripping the 20amp breaker. My profile lists my tools.

Until a few weeks ago, I was able to scoot all the tools to the sides and end and still park my Camry.

A two car garage with plenty of drawers and no intention of parking cars in it?

 

Yes, I have 240 already installed, and use it on my table saw. I plan to add a 240 100 amp subpanel as the need arises, and have pre-wired for this (home is semi-custom built for us).

I have a 2-1/2 car garage and plan to take it over (in time), and to the future dismay of the missus. I have spent countless hours on layouts and tool selection. I do have cabinets now, but plan to replace them all with customs, self-built for exact shop needs. The future design will allow for one car parking in the garage, but only when the shop is not being used. It's only a matter of time before the missus' Camaro refuses to enter the workshop.

 

Two types of hand planes to consider having in your tool inventory are the Router Plane (recommend both a large and a small plane) and the Side Rabbet Plane (recommend both a right hand and left hand version). These are extremely useful to shave just a slight amount of material off the bottom or side of a dado/tenon/rabbet, when the need will arise.

Wood is not always the exact same thickness as a router bit or dado blade that is used to cut the grooves. The depth of cut obtained is not always consistent across a wide panel due to slight swelling of material used. When a router bit or table saw blade is just shy of providing the proper depth or width of a cut for a mating piece to the dado/tenon/rabbet these Plane tools save a lot of frustration. To attempt re-cutting the dado/tenon/rabbet with the power tools can result in removing too much material thus creating slop in the joint; slop that may then need to be adjusted creating an unsightly repair.

I was making bookcases with shelves inset utilizing routed dados. The plywood was not a standard 3/4 inch thickness and the router bit was not an exact 3/4 inch (just my luck too). I purchased the LH/RH Side Rabbet Planes to remove the few thousandths of material thus allowing my dados to look crisp and just the right amount of tightness. While jigs would probably have helped, I did not have any at the time.

There were times a dado/rabbet was not deep enough in some areas of the grooves but was not detected until assembly of the wood components. The Router Plane helped to quickly correct the situation with exact accuracy throughout the groove.

Both Veritas and Lie-Nielsen sell these style of planes (I bought the Lie-Nielsen versions a long time ago when I attended a tool show in Seattle). They both have videos explaining their setup and use. There are also other instructional videos on YouTube covering these types of planes and their uses. I highly recommend watching any Router Plane videos to see the value in these planes. Here is one video, done by Highland Woodworking, as an example: Lie Nielsen Router Planes Product Tour - YouTube

All I can say is these planes have saved me a lot of frustration several times when I have ran up against the unexpected tolerances due to wood size/movement or tool design/setup inaccuracies. Just thinking about them brings me a feeling of relief (then again - I am a tool-addict so I may just be getting a slight high as I think about tools and look through the catalogs. *grin*)

I apologize for being so wordy. I tend to talk too much. :laugh:

Harry H

 

Thank you for the extensive response Harry. I appreciate it. While I didn't specifically mention it, I do plan to add virtually the entire line of planes to the shop. Every time I do the product reviews, as you mentioned, I can see slightly different uses for them all, to be honest. I actually began my woodworking love affair 25 years ago, but only recently created enough time in my schedule to pursue my dream, i.e., Bill's Wood Shop! This is strictly a hobby for me, but I'm not afraid to get commercial, or near commercial tools....whatever it takes to get the job done, is my guiding principle.

Thanks again for your input! Kindest regards.