I'm looking at picking up new plane from Lee Valley with the discounted gift cards i got on cyber Monday.
I'm new to woodworking in general so i'm spending time building a roubo workbench, shooting board, sharpening stone holder and such.
However, once i finish those tools i plan to mostly do luthier type stuff (ukulele first and foremost), and tool chests with lots of little drawers. Nothing too big as i'm working in a small spare bedroom of my house. While building the workbench i realized if i had to dimension lumber with hand tools i'd give up on the hobby, so i picked up a Makita 2012NB lunchbox planer. Now that i can dimension lumber quickly i'm focusing on other hand skills. I realize the value in the shooting board as i regularly want to square up smaller boards (and don't want to buy an electric jointer as i'm trying to keep my power tools to a minimum becuase of space), but using the one i built has been an exercise in frustration. I think this is partly due to my #4 and #7 Stanley are not perpendicular in the castings, but also because the #4 is too short, the #7 is too long, and they are hard to hold while shooting. So i realize my next purchase will be something to improve my shooting, and the low angle jack is cheaper and more versatile, but i'm struggling to figure out what i might use it for beyond shooting. On the other hand i can spend $100 more and get a dedicated shooting plane which looks to be more comfortable to use, but will only be good for shooting. I don't mind spending the money on the dedicated shooting plane if it indeed will improve my shooting and be more comfortable to use.
Do you have any thoughts whether i should get the low angle jack or the dedicated shooting plane?