HF brass/wood small planes

[peter havriluk]

I bought and put on the shelf a set of Harbor Freight 'mini brass planes', the princely sum of thirteen bucks, less coupon discount. I used the block plane of the set yesterday to taper the soundboard braces on my current project 'in situ', as space was at a premium. Little bugger worked just fine. At least very nicely for the price. I did sharpen the blade (scary sharp technique) before I used the plane. Haven't had a use for the other 2 planes in the set as of yet. It's not a finger plane, but I think it delivers value for the price spent.

I'd be delighted to get suggestions as to how to use the 2 planes I haven't used.

Now to see if I can get any use out of the five-dollar spokeshave...

[Kevin in California]

Hey Peter, glad that plane is working out for you. I purchased that set also a few years ago. One day I opened the package and tried them, they wouldn't cut cardboard.
I did sharpen them, and got the little block plane to work as you have. The scraper plane, no go. I can't remember what the third, oh wait, it is a chisel plane, right? I couldn't get it working very well either, but, I have no doubt they won't work with a little fiddling. I've made a few of my own small planes, so I use those instead, but for the price, if you can make the HF ones work, it is a heck of a price.

[Hans Mattes]

Kevin -- your comments are "right on" regarding Harbor Freight, "if you can make the HF ones work, it is a heck of a price."

I've been rebuilding my workshop (after losing my previous shop in a fire) and have chosen to buy a fair number of items at Harbor Freight. The majority of them that have any complexity or require any tolerance are TOTALLY UNSATISFACTORY out of the box. For a while, my reaction, each time I opened a HF box, ranged between annoyance and anger. But I've adopted an attitude like you describe, and things are working out.

Instead of thinking that I'm buying a tool, I've come to the perspective that I'm buying a rather inexpensive kit to build a tool -- and the kit will contain most (though often not all) of the parts needed to complete the tool. In many cases, a Harbor Freight purchase + $5 to $25 dollars in hardware + an hour or two of my time will result in a very serviceable product that would have cost several hundered dollars more than HF charged. That's a decent return on my effort -- and I end up with a tool that I understand and that is, at least to some extent, customized to my use.

[Dave Bagwill]

What an excellent attitude and approach!