No. 4 Adjustable Bench Plane (12-404)

Many of the reviews here say you have to do a lot of work to make this plane functional. You have to grind the heal, machine the manifold, steam the iron with rhubarb, run the screws through the flux capacitor and send it through a trash compactor to get it to work. As My Cousin Vinny said, everything that guy just said is bullsh... I have to say that mine worked great right out of the box. I didn't even sharpen the iron. However, I did sharpen it after about an hour of use and it again worked great, possibly slightly more so than new. Since this is a lower end, entry level plane, I think it may be shipped with a decently sharp blade, ie, not everybody has a nice Arkansas stone sitting around. The instructions for the plane are abysmal. Do you run the plane straight ahead or at a slight bias? How much is a "hair" of blade? What is the "adjustable" part and what is the effect? None of these things are covered adequately. The solution is simple - pull out the plane and practice on some sacrificial wood. Pros: * $15 at the moment for a very versatile, all around plane * Works right out of the box * Adjusting will make it work even better Cons: * Handle is too small for my sasquatch hands. Have to pretend you're a kid in the '70s playing cops and robbers and form a gun with your hand to handle the tote handle. No "criss-cross applesauce" up in this joint. * No chipbreaker * Horrible instructions Who is this plane intended for? I needed to plane some boards for a specific reason - a butcher block. I could have bought a full on thickness planer, an electric planer, or a wood planer. I wasn't sure how much I'd use an electric job so another tool sitting idle sounded like a bad idea. This and possibly the larger jack plane are supposed to be the most versatile, all around planes, so I went for it. Now that I know I like planes, I can't wait to try out a nicer plane, maybe a block plane and a jack. Could this be my only plane? Probably. I am no New Yankee Workshop. But it has opened my eyes to what it can do. I've now generated about 4 small baskets of wood shavings and it was way easier than I ever imagined, and downright fun. It's much funner than stealing the remote from the wife or hiding the kid's cell phone so get one now.

This plane is not for everyone. If you have sharpening tools and time, it's great bench plane and you'd be hard pressed to find a better one for the price. Just know, it's going to take time to flatten the sole and sharpen the blade. It took me about 6 hours to get the sole nearly flat and about 2 hours to get the blade flat and tune the bevel to a razor's edge. That's no small time investment and if I didn't have the time, I would have happily bought a $150 to $200 plane and 8 hours of hard work easily translates into that much money. That said, I was able get this hand plane tuned and cutting smooth. And - as of now - and it's cutting better than my untuned $110 Stanely Sweetheart Smoothing Bench plane. There's no doubt that I'll be able to get the Sweetheart running better with less time investment - and the craftsmanship and details are far nicer - but if money is the factor and time is not - and if you have the sharpening tools around - this bench plane is a super solid option. Now that I've sunken the initial investment to get it running well, I'll put in an hour here and there to continue flattening the sole and polishing the blade - it can only get better over time. Pictured are some shavings from the rough edge of some pine. Overall, I'm very happy with the plane. Part of that is that I wanted to take on the challenge of flattening and tuning an inexpensive hand plane. Another part is that I'm more connected with the tool now that I've put so much time into it. But the near glassy edge that I managed to get on the side of the piece of pine I was working with also tells me that I'm going to be happy with the projects that I build with it.

This is my first hand plane. I wanted an inexpensive plane to try out and learn with and I am very happy with it so far. I pulled it out of the package and first disassembled it to clean off all the grease. It was VERY greasy. Then I did a quick 3 minute honing of the iron on my whetstone (without a guide, will be getting one soon) just to get started, put it back together, lined up the blade and I was off making nice thin curls in no time. The 2 thumbwheels are a little finicky, but as long as you keep the blade pressed back against them, it's easy to line the blade up and it locks solidly in place. The bottom appears around 98% flat. I might try to flatten it later, but for now it's plenty flat for what i'm doing. As you can see from the pics, i'm getting paper thin cuts with ease on pine. Once i hone the iron fully with a guide, i'm sure it will be even better!

As a new woodworker, I underestimated the usefulness of a bench plane - it just didn't seem as versatile as some of the other gadgets. Bench planes are listed in almost all the beginners' wood working resources as a necessity, so I figured I'd give it a try - the price was fair. Boy I am glad I did! It's such an easily controlled precision instrument. Using it is easy once you get the general sense of it, and it has a zen-like quality to use well. This one has good fine adjustments, a decent blade, and can pull very thin layers of the top of the wood. I'll probably also build up some good forearm muscles with the amount I am using it though, a bonus from a workout perspective I suppose!

This is my 1st bench plane and I can say its meh... The handle and knob had to be sanded cause the plastic wasn't finished properly and it will give you some scrapes and blisters unlike their description reads: "High-impact polymer handles and knobs are contoured and *polished*" The handle rattles a bit even after trying to tighten it. Wow! the adjustment knobs... are... incredibly... tedious! Don't know if I'm just too new for this and this bench plane design is better than the usual one or not, but for me it was bothersome. I wont comment on how flat or straight the sole is because for the use I give it, its good enough from factory. The blade had to be sharpened of course and I didn't check the flatness of it, again for the same reason above. The lever cap is red which looks nicer to me instead of black like the picture shows. Overall, Its only $17 don't expect much... For some one like me just starting with planes its the cheapest option. The easiest plane to handle? I don't know, with those tedious adjustment knobs I feel you just have to play too much with them to get them just right, the sort of thing you would have to watch someone with a masters degree on it do it once or twice before you can say you have an idea if you're on the right track or not.

This plane is a very solid bench plane would recommend to anyone that is new to woodworking. Some people on here complain about the metal being soft but the truth is though cast iron is a strong material it is all very gummy or easy to cut. With that said don't let that deter you from this plane it is easy to adjust and the plane comes fairly sharp apon arival (or at least in my case) but I would still recommend touching up the blade. This plane does not have wooden handles they are plastic but they do the job just the same. And in a sense it dosent have a chip breakerror. I say in a sense because the clamp on top acts as a chip breaker. Hope this is helpful.

Like many others have written, this inexpensive hand plane will take a bit of work to make it useable. The plane I received had a concave sole and a very rough blade. Out of the box it was really quite horrible. After about 30 minutes of work on the sole and 15 minutes on the blade the plane cut nice ribbons on softer 2x4 and OK ribbons on a piece of hardwood. The newly sharpened blade appears to be hanging in there for the little bit that I have used it so far. I would rec this plane for very occasional users or for roughing in dirty/knotty wood where you don't want to damage your 'good craftsman level' planes. please note this is by NO means a high quality 'enthusiast level' tool. FWIW, I used Paul Sellers technique (youtube) for flattening the sole and sharpening the blade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQyjLV92224&spfreload=10 Search his site for other vids on plane setup/sharpening. Highly recommended.

I read a lot of harsh reviews of this plane, citing how it needs to be "leveled" (and sometimes sharpened) out of the box. Well, for a newcomer like myself, I just started using it without doing any of that, and I was very happy with it! The metal looks flat enough to me, although I can tell it might not be 100.000% flat, but I'm guessing the margin of error there is less than a millimeter. The blade was also in good shape. Not a super big fan of the "two screws" method of adjusting blade height- made it unnecessarily hard to get a level blade. Still, I've been using this for some small wood projects (mostly pine, some birch), and I am very happy with it!

Trabajo la carpinteria y me di a la tarea de hacer crecer mis trabajos y estoy usando varias marcas de herramientas y compararlas en el trabajo y me sorprende los resulatados de esto. El cepillo que compre funciona a la excelencia aplicando mis conocimientos de afilado para el tipo de madera etc. etc. Me diverte y me gusta este trabajo. Algunas veces las herramientas caras trabajan igual. Esta es economica y excelente calidad.

This planer is a very smooth and easy tool to use. It is very stable and has lots of working grip. I enjoyed, after resharpening the blade with a 30° bevel and rounded corners, seeing it peel off thin paper like flakes of lumber, giving me accurate and smooth surfaces to work with. I would definitely buy this planer again. Great planer!!

Dislike: - Not a flat base out of the box - Dull blade - The rough plastic lines on the handles - Annoying adjustment Like: - Price - Decent considering the price - Nice weight helps Honestly, it's all about the price. The sole was not flat, the blade was dull, etc. But, in my experience it wasn't particularly hard to get it 'fixed'. Nor was the hard lining on the handles - just sanded it with some 120 grit. The sole I took some 60 grit on a piece of glass, spent around 15-20 minutes and got it flat 'enough'. Blade was not particularly hard to get 'fixed' either. All in all, if you are willing to put in a bit of work and aren't pressed for time - while looking to save money, I recommend it. Especially for new wood-workers like me - which IMO, is who this plane is really meant for. Gives a good teaching to the basics of what planes should be in terms of the sole and blade (not that the manufacturer did this purposely for that intent).

Los materiales se sientes de muy buena calidad, como principiante tuve que asesorarme como ajustarlo y afilarlo, la opinión del maestro carpintero fue que era muy buena herramienta a muy buen precio.

Works good, but you need to be knowledgeable in sharpening and adjusting. Plenty of videos out there