# Harbor freight plane.



## Iggles88 (Dec 8, 2011)

After trying to buy a stanley number 40 for months and just not being willing to pay 100 dollars for one i figured I had to figure something out until I found a good deal on one. So after watching stumpy nubs and seeing he basically had the same problem I copied his idea to get one of these and use it as a scrub plane. In the video he says he made a scrub plane, I don't think he made one just used it as one but nonetheless it works great. I first sharpened mine to a 1 1/2" radius and soon realized that was way too much so I changed to a 3" radius. After having it sharpened to. 3" radius I had it taking very thick shavings and it was working completely different then I expected. When I got it I thought it would be a piece of junk and that I'd be lucky to get any shavings from it but it definitely made very nice thick shavings. There are a few things i really like about it. It surprisingly looks very nice, the knob and tote look nice and i also like the way it is adjusted its very easy dial in. The one thing I don't like about it is that the lever cap comes off sometimes out of nowhere but once I tightened the screw down (probably a little too tight) it worked a lot better. When I first bought it I thought I would just get it until I found a number 40 or bought a lie Nielsen or veritas. Now I think I might be a little less in a hurry to get another plane, this one should serve me well for a while. 
P.s. I tried to put some pictures on here but I guess you can't on an iPad. I'll try posting them in the comments section. This was supposed to be a review but since I cant upload pictures it won't let me write it as a review.


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## Smitty_Cabinetshop (Mar 26, 2011)

Iggles, gotta use Photobucket for pics as there's no way to directly upload to LJs… Congrats on the scrub!


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## Iggles88 (Dec 8, 2011)

Yea I know ya have to use photobucket but on the iPad photobucket won't let ya upload pictures so I couldn't add Any to the review


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## Iggles88 (Dec 8, 2011)

Thanks tho I appreciate the response, if anyone knows if you can upload pictures on the iPad let me know please


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## Smitty_Cabinetshop (Mar 26, 2011)

If you have the photo on the pad, the photobucket app (not site, but app) will prompt to 'Choose Existing'. If you have a pad 2 or New, might work w/ buillt in camera (this is via orig pad):


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## Dcase (Jul 7, 2010)

If you don't set up as a scrub they will take fine shavings too.


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## Iggles88 (Dec 8, 2011)

I noticed that, even right out of the box it worked pretty well for light shavings but the mouth is too wide and I have a bunch of other smoothing planes that I use.


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## Iggles88 (Dec 8, 2011)




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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

Looks like mine:









And a shot at mine iron:









It do like to "scrub" things down, though:









Mine cost about $9.00 + TAX ( GRRR on the tax part)..


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## BobE (Apr 26, 2010)

The #33 was the first plane I ever bought. After I got the deep grinding marks out of the sole, put a shim behind the blade, and flattened the back of the screw cap it made a pretty decent smoother. I hardly ever us it now, but I've been keeping it around with the intention of making wedged shims for it. I just haven't had the need yet.


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## Nighttripper (Jun 19, 2012)

Wow maybe I need to go pick up one or two of these !


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## Iggles88 (Dec 8, 2011)

I really recommend it for someone just starting out in planes, it's cheap and can actually work pretty well if tuned properly. Also can use it like I and other people have as a decent scrub plane


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## Nighttripper (Jun 19, 2012)

Well since HF is on my way home from work, I stopped and bought one. Never used a hand plane before.

I have some 1×3's in both pine and birch laying around that are rough and slightly bowed, so I thought they would make for a good experiment.

I was only able to get out there for 15 minutes before other responsibilities took precedent, but needless to say, I was not having a very easy time.

About how far out would you position the blade when starting on rough faces with knots ?


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## RusticJohn (Jul 26, 2008)

The old wooden Jack planes work just as well as a scrub plane provided the blade is sharpened as you have done. Mostly people give them away as they see no value in them.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

The point made above *if tuned properly* is pretty important. To me, using it as your first plane is like giving a kid a 22 that will not shoot straight. He's probably going to get frustrated and quit.

I believe I can make almost any plane work to some reasonable degree, but I think if I tried this as my very first plane, I'd still be using power tools.

And trying on knotty pine to start…...well, that's just not going to be fun.


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## Iggles88 (Dec 8, 2011)

Have to agree with what don said, you can make the plane work but it definitely needs to be sharpened and depending on what your using it for (smoothing or scrubbing) will determine how far you extend the blade but try it very very slightly out and see how that works. Also using knotty anything is going to cause problems planing.


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## Iggles88 (Dec 8, 2011)

I do have to disagree in a way with what don said also, starting out using handplanes most people don't want to spend a lot of money, as you seen in some of the other pictures this plane can produce perfectly fine shavings so while it's not a perfect plane you can absolutely learn on it, the main thing is sharpening the iron and I think it works just fine. It costs ten dollars that's what needs to be remembered, when it comes to value this plane is great. 
Rustic John, I have one of the older wooden jack planes that I use as well and yes it does work but I'm more comfortable with the metal bodied planes just a personal preference.


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## BobE (Apr 26, 2010)

It took hours to tune mine as a smoother. It definitely wasn't an out of the box kind of deal.


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## Iggles88 (Dec 8, 2011)

There's no way it could be an out of the box deal look at the higher end planes how much they cost, there's a reason for that. I'm surprised anyone was even able to get it to work as a good smoother I think the mouth is way too open, after using planes with adjustable frogs to close the mouth I think that's the way to go, for a scrub or something that takes a bigger cut it works wonders.


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

I see. then take a close look at my avatar. That is this plane, right out of the box. I will go and hunt up a close-up.









Not bad, just out of the box….


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## Iggles88 (Dec 8, 2011)

Bandit that's pretty much exactly how mine worked right our of the box but after I honed the blade it worked a million times better and I also flattened the lever cap to seat better. After those two fixes it worked better. If you buy a lie neilsen or veritas you shouldn't have to do really anything for it to be working right.


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

If one relies on their planes to be perfect right out of the box, then pay for than experience. Otherwise, there is no better way than to LEARN how to tune, fettle, and sharpen a plane. Sure, one could get a ready to use plane, but then they would learn nothing about how to make a plane work the right way. One could get… how many of these little #3 sized planes for about the cost of a new LN? Along the way, they could, if they ask others, learn all about the things that make a plane work. At $10 a lesson? Try THAT at say Roy Underhill's school…

I have about seven planes in the size 3 to 4 range to act as smoothers. The #33 will stay a scrub plane. It will save me the cost of trying to snag a Stanley #40 on the bay. Cash I can use elsewhere.


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## Iggles88 (Dec 8, 2011)

Bandit believe me I completely agree with you. I don't know how it got mixed up to think we're on different pages. I don't have any of the expensive planes and don't plan on ever buying one unless gifted I would t turn one down lol. I was just saying that for bob to have a plane that works well he would need to do a little tuning and by doing that hed learn how that plane works. I have a bunch of number 3s and 4s as well and haven't paid more then 20 bucks for any of em. Most are old Stanley baileys. I just finished restoring 6 planes last week, I needed a good working set as I think I'm going to make the transition to hand tools. By doing those restores I know that all my soles are flat, that all my blades are razor sharp, and that everything is set up to work exactly the way I want it. I think everyone should do atleast one restore, it's a good feeling knowing you put that plane back to work.


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

My restores…


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## Iggles88 (Dec 8, 2011)

Ive seen your restores around the site while I was looking for info, you do nice work. when I get a chance to get to my shop I'll shoot a shot of the restores I just finished recently.


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