Hey Rob Lee - Any plans for a Compass Plane?

[Doug Shepard]

A discussion on another forum about the lack of a good compass plane from one of the current planemakers came up and just a supposition that if anybody might be working on one it might be LV. Any reason to hold off looking for Stanley/Record ones on eBay? Got anything cooking in the back room?

[Alan Schwabacher]

I wonder if you could get close to compass plane performance with guide surfaces attached to a spokeshave? That might be a cost effective approach, particularly if LV made it, because then I'd believe it worked.

[Eric Larsen]

Chairs are WAAAAAAAYYYYY down the road for me, but what's wrong with the plane from Highland?

[Tim Sproul]

I doubt it.

The pull shave they make works well instead of a compass plane.

[Rob Lee]

A discussion on another forum about the lack of a good compass plane from one of the current planemakers came up and just a supposition that if anybody might be working on one it might be LV. Any reason to hold off looking for Stanley/Record ones on eBay? Got anything cooking in the back room?

Hi Doug -

That puppy would be pretty far down the list, I'm afraid....not a fun plane to make.

I'd recommend going after an antique...

Cheers -

Rob

[Doug Shepard]

... but what's wrong with the plane from Highland?

That now makes 2 current makers that I'm aware of. I'd be interested to hear from anybody that owns one of the Emerich ones. The other is Kunz and I haven't read very complimentary posts there. Not liking the $400 Emerich price though.

...
I'd recommend going after an antique...
...

Thanks. Just thought I'd check first.

[Chuck Nickerson]

Anant also makes a compass plane, which I have not seen in the flesh. LN was thinking of making one but decided not to. All the useable antiques I see are insanely priced. I may have to resort to an Anant with a replacement Hock blade.

Sigh.

Chuck

[Brent Smith]

Hi Doug -

That puppy would be pretty far down the list, I'm afraid....not a fun plane to make.

I'd recommend going after an antique...

Cheers -

Rob

Aw C'mon Rob............. You know you'd sell at least two of them, Doug and Myself........how much can the tooling cost???

[David Marcus Brown]

I've got a Stanley #20. It didn't cost me a lot when I picked it up but it's proving to be a difficult plane to tune up. The iron it came with is really thin and prone to chatter. But, you can't fit a thicker blade because the mouth is too tight. There isn't much room to adjust the frog. Even with the frog all the way back in its adjustment, I'd need to open the mouth to fit a slightly thicker blade. With the original blade sharpened and set properly the plane is prone to chatter. I gave up trying to use the #20 and grabbed a spokeshave. To be fair, the spokeshave (a veritas curved bottom) gave me a hard time too -- it wanted to chatter even when set up with a fresh blade and a fine cut. I guess hard woods like red oak prove difficult for any cutting tool.

[Alan DuBoff]

Dave,

I have the complete opposite experience with a #20. The blade, BTW, is interchangeable with 5 1/4, as I recall. I used mine to plane some arches I laminated on the stretchers of my workbench. It worked surprisingly well and pulled nice clean, thin shavings.

I did spend the time to get the blade nicely honed, I'm sure that helped. It's not a plane I have used a lot, but when the need arises it is the tool of choice, IMO.

[Bill Moser]

I've got a Stanley #20. It didn't cost me a lot when I picked it up but it's proving to be a difficult plane to tune up. The iron it came with is really thin and prone to chatter. But, you can't fit a thicker blade because the mouth is too tight. There isn't much room to adjust the frog. Even with the frog all the way back in its adjustment, I'd need to open the mouth to fit a slightly thicker blade. With the original blade sharpened and set properly the plane is prone to chatter. I gave up trying to use the #20 and grabbed a spokeshave. To be fair, the spokeshave (a veritas curved bottom) gave me a hard time too -- it wanted to chatter even when set up with a fresh blade and a fine cut. I guess hard woods like red oak prove difficult for any cutting tool.

Went through the same thing with my (antique) Union #411 (a #113 clone). I have it in my hands now. I'm no mechanical engineer, but looking at it, it's no wonder that its prone to chatter: thin sole, only connected to the blade/frog via a weird dovetail joint, adjustment screw which doesn't lock down. If I knew more, the list would probably be endless. Seeing that LV and LN do not produce clones of anything, but actual improvements, its also no wonder that they don't attempt this particular plane. If they did, they would need to do it right, and that would undoubtedly cost a fortune. Not that that stops me from lusting after LVs latest, the "scwewy wabbet"* plane!


* for you canadians out there, that's a bugs bunny/emler fudd reference

[Brent Smith]

I have a Record 020C and it works fine. A finely honed blade and a firm touch are IMO what these planes require for smooth use. I would really like to see what Veritas would come up with though. Chances are it would be a big improvement over past incarnations.

Hey Bill........Hosenfeffer .

[Doug Shepard]

Well I've been watching the Bay for a Record 020C and finally decided to bid on one. A large number of these show up on the UK eBay, but not quite so many in the states. Anyhoo - just won for around $10-15 leass than what I see most of these going for so I guess I did OK.
Record020C.JPG

[Doug Shepard]

Well I got my eBay plane today and it's very clean. The one thing that jumped out at me though was the thin blade. Between my LNs, LVs, and that monster slab of steel on the Brese planes I'm already trying to figure out before I've even used it if there's a way to stick something thicker in there. Maybe there's a Pimp My Compass Plane thread in my future??

[David Marcus Brown]

Good luck w/ the quest for a thicker blade. I would have used something heavier (a thicker blade) to combat chatter but it would have required major mouth filing.