I have looked all over for a decent bench plane, the cheapest I could find the same plane locally was from Bunnings at $80 which seemed extortionate, but from Amazon it worked out US$35.91 delivered or $36.55 after conversion. Delivery took about 2 weeks.
CamelCamelCamel.
Unfortunately not, I was there with my Dad and he commented on the fact that it wasn't the same quality as his old one. I don't know about the frog, but it definitely didn't have a wooden handle, and it looked identical to me.
Can you advise what the problem is.. do the handles break or seperate? Is this a known deficiency with this product or are you just making an assumption because it's built differently to your products from the 1800's.
Lol yeah. Dude wants wooden handles, probably cheap 300 year old hardwood from the real amazon back then.
Well, yes. Rosewood handles are best as they don't become slimy and slippery when your hand starts to sweat.
The biggest issue with cheap planes is that the frog doesn't hold the blade securely enough. This lets it chatter, resulting in shavings getting jammed up under the blade and a poor finish.
My 25y.o. Stanley plane has a plastic handle (the only bad thing about it, is a bit distorted & hence loose).
This deal looks OK, except the plane looks small, and lacks the lever and knob that can quickly adjust the blade. From a quick readup on wikipedia I'd say mine's a jack plane (as in 'jack of all trades'), a good general purpose tool. This is a bench plane, not sure what tha means, but looks like it would be harder/slower to use due to lack of easy tool-less adjustments.
If you are buying a plane I'd highly recommend buying a honing guide i.e. http://tinyurl.com/6kl49d9 at the same time. Planes is no joy without with a sharp, straight blade.
Good work dude. We need to see more tool deals on ozbargain
This is true, a man can never have enough tools.
I think we have a fair share of tools on Ozbargain.
As a Stanley collector, it saddens me to see the rubbish put out under the Stanley name these days. I would suggest that the plane in Bunnings is not the same as this one as it would have a proper frog and wooden handles.