# Harbor Freight Surprise



## Karson

Paul: A great review. Thanks.


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## JoeLyddon

Thank you, Paul for the review…

What did you think of the little #33 that you mentioned?


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## Sodabowski

Well, I'll stick to the chisel-in-a-chunka-wood style plane for now.


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## shipwright

*Joe*, for nine bucks, the #33 works OK. It's too small for my hands though and that blade is very small. The #4 is more than $3 better.


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## sras

Hmmm, You've got me thinking…


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## crashn

shipwright,
did you lap the sole and sides? How flat were they? If you needed to flatten them, might it be even better?


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## shipwright

*crashn*, No I'll do that next. The first job was to find out if it was worth the effort.


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## rance

Oh the lures of HF. I'm still liking my electric chainsaw from Christmas. Looks like a good loaner plane too. One of my biggest complaints on handplanes is the mechanism. If they ain't smooth & operational, then I have a difficult time with them, no matter how sharp the blade can be sharpened. Looks like you have a working tool. I may have to check them out. Although I rarely use the Jack plane I already have.


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## Roger Clark aka Rex

Thanks for a good review.


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## stefang

It sounds like you got lucky Paul. Sometimes it works out to take a chance. Your review will probably result in others getting the same benefit. I wasn't so lucky. I bought a comparably priced cheap plane. I lapped the bottom, filed and smoothed the frog, got a good fit with the chip breaker, got it razor sharp, etc, etc. even after all that effort, it never performed well and I eventually threw it away.


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## crashn

Thanks shipwright, was just curious how flat the sole was for the 12 bucks. Looks like a good working plane, not something that will sit in the til because it was too expensive to risk using! I dont have any of those, all my planes are CL or ebay finds.


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## michelletwo

I mean seriously, whodathunkit?


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## JulianLech

_it will get the job done surprisingly well I have found that you can take a cheap hand plane and make it work well. I have not purchased the HF plane but have on old, cheap Craftsman hand plane and with some tuning I can get a shaving .001. It all depends how much work you want to put into it. The HF planes are also a good source for parts and jigs.


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## Bluepine38

The jack plane was about the same size as the Stanley Handyman plane that I have had forever, so I chose
the #33. It is small for my big hands, but the blade mechanism is what I was interested in. The blade on
the #33 looked like it was sharpened with a rough hacksaw blade, but after putting it in my sharpening jig
and running it from #40 through 400 sandpaper it did look decent. I have arthritis, so my big hands make
the regular height adjustment knob on a plane user unfriendly, but the adjustment knobs on the 33 work
great. Back off the tension screw a little and the two adjustment knobs move the blade easily to just where
you want it, then you tighten the adjustment screw and the plane produces nice shavings. Stanley did make
a plane and a scraper handle with the same adjustment set up for a while, but they are not readily available,
so I will have to make different handles for the #33 to make it fit my hand or keep fighting the adjustment
system that Stanley and the others are not going to change.


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## a1Jim

Who would have guessed a HF plane worth having.thanks for the review Paul.


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## Flocktothewall

First plane I bought too! Hated it at first, but then I did some research about sharpening, and lapping the sole. Once I did that, it works like a charm, I will say I also now have a Stanley Baley #4 next to it, (yard sale find) but one I use for heavy cuts, one for smoothing. Believe it or not the HF one is my smoothing plane. A good buy IMO.


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## Ken90712

Thx for the review, I have had that thing in my hand a cpl times thinking the same,,,awe just take a chance LOL Might have to do now just for fun.


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## Kentuk55

Thnx for the review, Paul. I've picked this up almost everytime I've gone into a HF. I've always came home without it, but, maybe I may rethink, because of the price. I'm not a "hand-tool" guy myself either, but, once in a while it might be nice to take a ride on a handtool


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## Purrmaster

Where did you find that plane? Do you know what the item number is? I got their other plane (the one that has two adjustment knobs) and it just didn't work out, though it was built pretty well.


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## shipwright

The item number is in the title line at the top of the page.
It's 92553


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## Purrmaster

Whoops. Sorry for not noticing that. Thank you.


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