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Aldi 'premium' planer

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  • 14-06-2010 9:49am
    #1
    ennisa
    Registered Users Posts: 226 ✭✭


    Hi all, I've been away for a while due to the workshop being closed over the especially cold winter and also with getting married in april. It is only this week that I have cleaned out the shop and put it to work again, though I would let you know about what I found in Aldi this weekend though;

    I picked one of these up at the weekend for €8.99 for a laugh. But I have to say it doesn't suck. Right out of the box the iron is sharp. That in and of itself is not much to go by as it's not hard to get sharp irons. Relative to making a decent hand plane that is. The sole could do with a little flattening and I have to say the rear tote is pretty uncomfortable but in an odd turn of events that will probably fall off soon as it looks like it is only tacked on. I assume it is glued though also. There are pictures below, i fettled it a wee bit and put it to work on a piece of walnut floating around the shop. As you can see it gave pretty decent shavings and the surface left behind was not too bad. A little honing of the blade and it should improve even more. The blade is 2"/50mm wide and looks like a standard size stanley blade and might be worth replacing right of the bat to circumvent any eventual issues with the 'workzone' blade in there plus the chip breaker could do with some sharpening and smoothing, the leading edge is pretty ragged. But for an €8.99 plane straight out of the box to provide any usefull planing at all I am mightilty surprised and happy. I might buy another. I got mine in Aldi Finglas.


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    #2
    jack of all
    Registered Users Posts: 2,367 ✭✭✭jack of all


    I missed out on that, would have been sorely tempted otherwise. Good review, thanks anyway!


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    #3
    jack of all
    Registered Users Posts: 2,367 ✭✭✭jack of all


    I managed to get one afterall- in Aldi Wexford, they had loads of them there this week. Pretty impressed, so much so that I bought another. I should have checked the contents of the first box before I bought though as this one had less favourable grain- the second one was perfectly quarter sawn, which I presume will wear better and resist movement also. Only took a few shaving on a piece of rough beech, but as Ennisa says, it cut well out of the box. Going to fettle it a little with my sharpening kit and see how it performs. The blade is very thick, I'd love to know how hard it is, a bit of hard work will soon tell. Handy enough plane to have rattling round in the old tool box and you certainly wont work about rust or dings.


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    #4
    jack of all
    Registered Users Posts: 2,367 ✭✭✭jack of all


    Sorry to hijack your thread ennisa! Anyway I spent a few hours fine tuning and fettling my pair of "premium" planes! I flattened the irons and honed a small secondary bevel on each (flattening took an age as the machining marks were very pronounced). Tuning up the chip breaker was an easier task- this needs to be screwed up good and tight to prevent slipping when the plane is adjusted by hammer/ mallet (the screw doesn't have a large enough bearing surface on the ubderside of the head). I checked both planes for flatness and square. Both were pretty square and in fact were far better than my nice ECE model with lignum vitae sole. I took the soles of each to some sandpaper on the saw bench, to remove the heavy lacquer finish. I shaped the rear tote with a rasp and some sand paper. Initial test cuts on some pine gave a lovely silky finish to the wood and I used one of these planes on a small but real project last night, to good effect. When you factor in time spent fettling etc it's probably no cheaper to buy these cheapies than a good no-nonsense ECE model; but I've got some spare time on my hands and I quite enjoyed getting these planes to perform.


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