Guest
I agree, way easy to make I found out after I bought a horned wooden version for cheap on the bay. When I examined it I kind of kicked myself for spending anything on it, but darned if it doesn't work like a charm.Originally Posted by Mark Baldwin III
Pam
Member
I really enjoy using my LN scrub. I recently used it to help flatten some badly twisted hickory. It took some effort but it was enjoyable and ...quiet.
Greg
Contributor
One could just walk into Harbour Freight and buy a Windsor #33 plane for $10 or so. Regrind the edge of it's iron to a 3" radius. One then has a VERy hungry, #3 sized SCRUB PLANE.
No such store nearby? Order one on line. There is something about this little plane that just says....Scrub Plane.IMAG0008.jpgThe wood here is rough sawn Black Walnut. This plane will never,ever pretend to be a smoother, but excells at be a scrub plane.
Member
You may want a scrub plane, made by LV/LN/Stanley
One can use a mouth-opened #5
Or one can find a beaten up wooden smoother/jack, put camber on the blade, and be good to go; these old wooden plane may even have thicker blade; and it's most definitely lighter in weight
HTH
Pinwu
Contributor
Three years on. Not much change - I still use a wooden jack with an 8" camber for most waste removal. However a couple of weekends ago, demonstrating building a table, I used my LV scrub to taper the legs. The alternative would have been a drawknife. The scrub is more controlled. In the end this was rapid work.
Regards from Perth
Derek
Guest
Tapering a leg is probably similar to the edge type work that the scrub plane was supposedly developed for.
I don't know what radius I have on my jacks - probably something closer to 5", which might be why I don't have much regard for a scrub plane. My favorite harshly cambered jacks have all been cheap ones, though. An old scioto beech plane that was $15, a continental plane with a wide open mouth that was $10, and a japanese fuunji plane (to mix it up) that was $60.
After some time using all of these, as little as holding the finest edge is important and as much more important that it is to have a tougher edge that doesn't nick, I think I like the planes with irons a bit softer the best for heavy work - they don't chip as much and are super easy to grind and sharpen. They are irons I probably would find a bit soft for a smoother, but I can recall troubling over nicks in 62 hardness new premium scrub blades and have no such issue with a couple of older irons. The cheap japanese plane iron is a bit soft for a japanese iron, too, but it suits the task just fine.
Contributor
My heavily cambered #5 is my favorite plane. It is a junker #5 with a repaired front knob and I put in a Hock blade. No idea if that has made much difference -- that was the first blade I had on hand that I put that significant of a camber on.
As I said, it is my favorite plane. Previously I'd been very frustrated with flattening and getting rid of twist. Setting up a plane for this type of cut is huge.
Also, the #5 feels very light -- I can move fairly quickly traversing the board and knocking down the high spots.
Matt
Contributor
Great idea. I think I'm going to stop at HF at lunch. I mostly do dimensioning with a 6" power jointer and a 13" planer but there are times when I want to remove a twist before jointing or when the board is too wide. A cheap "roughing plane" would be nice to have and $10 is cheaper than a second iron for my junker #4.
-- Dan Rode
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle
Contributor
If you have a little extra time at lunch drop in on Home Depot. They carry replacement blades for a #4 at $3.A cheap "roughing plane" would be nice to have and $10 is cheaper than a second iron for my junker #4.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Contributor
$3? Holy cow, I can afford 3! Lunch, however, appears to be a loss today....
-- Dan Rode
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle
Guest
If you can take >1/16" cross-grain chips with a your jack or bastardized smoother, then you can call it a scrub plane. Until then, not so much. The previously mentioned German jack/scrub is my preference, with a 1-1/4" blade and 2" radius on it. Super lightweight and agile, and more akin to carving with a drawknife or scorp than planing.
Contributor
That Windsor #33 does those 1/16" chips with ease. About the same size as a #3. Handles are very solid. Iron is 1-7/8" wide, and the mouth opening is 1/4"! Lightweight, and easy to adjust the cuts. HUNGRY little beasty. As in the photo above, it will go crossgrain at will. I did grind a 3" radius on the bevel.
Guest
I'm not sure if I can take a 16th, but it would interesting to see what the total volume removed was. Cross grain isn't a great test because it's so weak, a jack has no trouble in my experience removing a lot of wood cross grain (even if the camber isn't really significant), but moving with the grain might be where a scrub would be better? I don't know, though, I never worked a volume of wood faster with a scrub than I could with a very rank set jack (my jacks have not been that much different than your german scrub - I get the sense I use more camber than most jacks, but I've always added it freehand and have no clue what the camber actually is), and a jack will leave a flatter board than a scrub - which is probably why there is a history of jack-type planes and scrubs were invented long after machine planing was the standard.If you can take >1/16" cross-grain chips with a your jack or bastardized smoother, then you can call it a scrub plane. Until then, not so much
Member
i've got a victor stanley from my wife's gpa w/ a wide mouth. Stock iron w/ about a 3.5" radius -whatever our small dinner plates are. I prefer it to a jack w/ a more standard/modest camber b/c it's so much faster due to the increased stock removal per cut. a metal jack gets heavy after a while so the heavy camber is the deal-maker IMO. A typical scrub is more like a stanley #3 in terms of size -may be a thought to try. I primarily use the scrub cross-grain w/ a relief planed in the opposing side for blow out depending on the edge/face grain orientation. I generally only need a few passes before it's "flat" and time to move on to a jack/fore
Sam
Contributor
Actually, I have two scrub planes. That Windsor #33, and a Corsair C-5. Both have some serious camber to them. The Corsair does have a frog that uses a single bolt to hold it, but it doensn't matter too much as a scrub plane. Never have had the frog move, anyway. When I was scrubbing down a plank of Beech for the leg vise's chop, I was taking off where the blank was rived off a larger beam. Grain was going up and down, with a long divot down the center. The Windsor went to work, and after a few minutes, board was indeed flat. BIG chips were flying off of the blank. went back with the Jack plane to get the "scoops" out, then a couple swipes with a #4 smoother. SDC12549.jpgSDC12551.jpgLaid the jack down to clean away them chips. They might be a bit thick?
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