Tools Not To Buy | Learn From My Mistakes !

hi I'm Rob C and welcome to my shop I know I'm going to stir the pot with this eight tools that I would never buy again and I'm going to suggest you not buy them now let's drop the gloves and get started I can't wait to read the comments on [Music] this so where' this come from well remember it's my opinion for what that's worth but I like everybody else started out bought tools that I came to find out afterwards I didn't need or they didn't work or they were not suited now I've got a fair bit of experience I've been working wood for over 700 years so what I want to do is go through and not only tell you what not to buy but I want to tell you why not to buy it and I'm going to offer you a suggest or I'm going to offer you an alternative that I think would be better suited a lot of this advice has come from people that are just offering their opinion but sometimes those opinions come across as being the gospel when really it's an opinion remember it's my opinion if you got a bit of experience behind it then that carries a little more weight but when it boils down to it it's just an opinion anyway you might want to get your notepad out and your pencil let's start so if you're going to woodwork everybody wants a hand plane and as you migrate toward hand tools of course you're going to need a hand plane and there's lots of advice out there but I find that most of it is pushing people towards fours fives even threes and I'm going to suggest why you might want to not consider those and I will give you the option this is actually my first ever playing this came from my grandfather it's a number three but if you see and I wear a large glove so if you're a person that would wear a glove large or bigger you're going to have a very difficult time cramping your hand down inside there now it's designed to be a three-finger grip with your index finger going down along the side or out here and that's just uncomfortable and the the four is not much better these are smoothers and their purpose is dictated by their length a short sole will go in and make the Surface smooth without necessarily flattening it or being affected by the areas surrounding the area that you're working unlike a longer plane which you're going to have to surface a much bigger area to get down to a specific spot my suggestion would be the 4 and a half it's approximately the same length there's only maybe a half an inch difference 3/4 of the most so it doesn't change its function it's a lot wider you're talking about inch and 3/4 2 in vers 2 and 38 and some people may say well that's going to be a lot harder to push if you learn how to sharpen properly you won't notice any difference in the three of them in terms of how wide of a shaving you're taking I have a video called 32 seconds a Shar very simple very basic we'll leave a link below to help you but look at my hand on this one far more comfortable this is the one I would prefer if I had to if I wanted to use a smoother now one other thing to consider is is this the footprint here you have a plane that is relatively narrow which means it's not as stable in use this one is much wider much more stable in use and I actually could throw a third thing in and that is the weight you'll find that pushing a plane Through the Wood the heavier it is the easier and or smoother it is to operate whereas these lighter planes a little bit what you might call jerky so if you're looking for a smoother leave these ones for the adolescence an adult smoother I consider to be a 4 and A2 the next staying on the line of um tools being planes this is a low angle Jack it's a remake of it originally done as a number 62 by Stanley there's not very many of them around because they didn't last very long meaning they didn't produce them very long because they weren't terribly popular now I don't like this plane at all I don't like the fact that the adjuster knob is down underneath it's very I find it very awkward to move I use my Jack on my shooting board a lot and while a lot of folks talk about this being great because of the low angle approach a I'm going to show you that the approach the angle of attack really isn't that much different but more importantly is you just don't have a lot of surface area if you compare that to say the five and a half which I think is a far better plane there's a lot more surface area for stability on the shooting board not only that there's a lot more weight when you're using your shooting board you want that weight to help carry that plane through that ingrain cut now the angle of attack on a bench plane if you remove the lever cap and examine the angle that you're actually planing the wood the frog is 45° that means you're pling wood at 45° the bevels are underneath so they don't matter they they don't come into account at all in factoring what angle are you meeting the wood on a low angle Jack the bevel is on the top side so if you remove the lever cap and look at this you have your bedding angle of 12° you've got your primary bevel which is 25 that gets you to 37 almost everybody avoids having to polish all of this and introduces what we call Micro bevels I typically add somewhere between five and seven so if you add if you add uh 37 plus 5 you're up around 42 well 42 versus 45 3° really isn't that big of a deal it's far more important how sharp it is and if it's really sharp the way I like to do it you're never going to notice three degrees difference so would I choose a a low angle Jack never don't like them at all remember this just my opinion there are those that argue that well you can get different blades at different angles I'll find a better way to do it really don't like this plane my favorite and I would say thanks to David Charlesworth for making me think about it is a five and a half I do almost everything with it it has the mass it has the length that means it's still a good smoother even though it's longer than most but it is and it's smaller than a joiner so it's not going to function as a joiner but for a general purpose and including the shooting board I don't think you can beat it consider the five and a half next is a standard angle block plane so stand by standard angle what that means is the bedding angle that's the angle that the blade actually sits on is 20° and because tell this doesn't get used with the B with the bevel on the top side again you factor that in so you've got 20° plus 25 which is 45° and again if you add in some micro bevels you could be planting as high as 50° not that that's a huge issue but the biggest problem is this because that puts the lever cap so high when you're holding on to it your hand is more on top as opposed to behind and I just find that's very awkward the way that Nestles I wouldn't say Nestles either way that positions in your palm you're up here just not very comfortable at all the low angle block has a bding angle of 12° so you're planing when you factor in all of your micro bevels you're probably in the mid four low 40s but with that being sitting down there so much lower and by the way you can easily add another Blade with a higher angle on there and that'll change your pitch so if you want a higher angle of attack meaning planing angle you can easily do it the big Advantage is because this distance is so much smaller that fits in your hand a whole lot better it actually positions it so that you're behind the blade pushing I find this a whole lot more comfortable you put them side by side you can see what I mean so if you're going to get a block plane get a low angle block plane you can alter the angles with the blade but you'll find that a lot more comfortable in your hand not be an issue this is the original shooting board plane this was a Stanley number 51 actually had a c iron table for it but you could use it like this and the idea was that the blade was on a bit of an angle the my only complaint or my biggest complaint is it was a single-purpose plane that means you had to have a place for your shooting board and this plane as opposed to using one of your bench planes that you could easily use general purpose on the bench I also don't like the fact that the blade is here my handle's back here I find a lot more control if my hand is right up there near the blade and it's expensive the versions today are at least $500 each if you have it and you don't mind spending it I suppose but I'm going to give you a little Shameless promotion this is something we just came out with it's called the grip it's designed to fit on there now your hand is right here where the blade is it's a it's very easy and gives you great control it's easy to put on and off so you can turn your main bench plane into an effective shooting board plane with just a couple of seconds so if you want to save some money and some space which is the biggest concern I have trade your or trade your idea of getting a designated shooting board plane for a good five and a half and add the grip and you find may find far better suited and what I what I would uh never buy again is a mortise chisel that does not have parallel sides or if the sides are parallel they have to be square to the bottom and I'm going to show you why but here's one that has that is not Square If you go on the other side the side these sides are parallel but they're not Square to the bottom I'll show you how that's problematic and here's one where both sides are slanted in so it's narrower at the top and at the bottom and I don't know why people do that because well when I show you you'll see what I mean so I teach people who are just knew at this or don't cut a lot of mortises so there's two ways that I prefer to have it to teach it the first is to lay out your mortise and then just put some lines squared from your main from the side of where your mortise will be I only use one line as opposed to two I like to work right up to that one line so if I use a chisel that does not have sides that are square to the back when you set them on this line and the reason these lines are here is to help keep the side of your chisel parallel to this line the long side of your mortise very difficult to just line this up by eye I find if you put your chisel right on there and if if your chisel's built properly then this is automatically going to be parallel to this line when it's on an angle then of course every cut you make is going to be off and it just screws up your whole mortise if this one with that has slopes on both sides you're setting your chisel like so you're not going to get a clean cut against this line because of course this chisel or this side is not Square to the B bottom so it's going to be off and this one's going to be off if you get a chisel that has Square sides parallel and square to the Bottom now every time you set your chisel on there and chop this is going to remain parallel to that and it's your best chance to getting a nice clean wall on both sides of your mortise second way I teach it sometimes folks don't have as steady hand as they wish so what we do is we put a block and clamp it in place now this would be clamped to the bench Edge Edge is squared up set it right along there and put a clamp on both sides now you can take your mortise chisel and hold it like this and go ahead and chop and that'll give you a nice clean wall on that side and because the Chisel have parallel sides that are square to the back you're getting a nice parallel clean wall over here if you're using one that does not have a square Edge or sides that are square to the bottom every time you chop it's going to be aiming off into there moving this block on you and of course if you've got one that has slopes on both sides that's not going to work out either so your best bet is to buy mortise chisels that have sides that are parallel and square to the bottom you get a nice clean mortise whether you chopping them by hand or whether you're using a guide block so a beveled Edge chisel means the bevel should be on the edge not on the top so you see this big wide Square spot right here if you're trying to Chisel in between your tails and you got to get right into that corner if you don't have the clearance over here you're either going to have to come back afterwards and carefully carve it out or you you risk bruising the side of your tail because that will not clear and get into that corner so a bevel Edge means you want to have the edge or the Beville come right down you don't want to go all the way then you're going to cut yourself so there's a little bit of a flat Landing right there just enough to break that from being a a knife edge that's one thing to look for in chisel another one which I think is equally as important is the balance if they are not balanced if they don't feel good in your hand you will not use them here's one of the worst examples I bought these back in 19 in the 1980s and they were so clumsy in the hand it just you'd be trying to Chisel something and this thing be wobbling back and forth it was so topheavy worst chisel I think I ever bought something like this that fits in your hand nicely it's comfortable it's just balanced perfectly there's another one this is one that we actually make which feels really good in your hand if it's not done properly from the ergonomic standpoint you are not going to want to use it so be careful when you're buying your chisels make sure you have clearance on the side and feel them make sure they feel really comfortable and nicely balanced now this one may introduce some more controversy but we're on a roll so we'll keep going and that's dovetail sauce if you're using a Japanese style dovetail saw there's a problem when it comes to Western Hardwoods these will not hold their shape here's what I mean your saw has to make a cut now I'm I'm cutting a piece of hard maple that's a little better than inch thick and the best way to test the effectiveness of the saw is to make a cut as far into the wood as the saw Will Allow now remember the idea in dovetails is you should be able to assemble right from your saw you don't want to have to come in and start carving with a chisel now I'll cut this piece off the surface left must be flat you want it to be smooth as well so that when you put it together join to the other piece there is no visible Gap whether you turn it around that way or whether you're coming up against the side of a pin this way you want a nice flat surface that creates a really good glue joint what you find with these they're great with soft woods but in Hardwoods that little thin blade only measures 12,000 of an inch will wander and follow the path of leas resistance now I did this I used these for a while but but here's something else you notice too these elongated teeth end up breaking off and the next thing you know you've got multiple teeth broken on your saw so if you're working western style Hardwoods these guys developed these saws years ago hundreds of years ago stiff brass back sawt plates relatively thin it's only 20,000 of an inch but being close to that stiff brass back keeps it nice and straight that rip tooth is designed for cutting through these tough Hardwoods and you end up with a nice smooth flat surface that will make a great Jo joint I teach a lot of people every year to cut Dov tails and there's some things that you can benefit from that just over time will work in your favor and one of them was a primary one that I'm speaking of is the shape of the handle you can find what are called gent saws they have a round turned handle the problem with this is real simple with your eyes closed or in a dark room holding it in your hand you have no idea where the blade is which means you never are able to hold that in your hand and tell Plum 10° left 10° the right on the other hand no pun intended if your saw has a shape that every time you pick it up you grasp it the exact same way you eventually learn where zero is 10 degrees to left 10 degrees to the right and in the process of learning to cut Dove Tails every time you make a cut you're reinforcing that ability to determine the angle or the plum cut when you're working on your pins so get a saw that has a shaped handle that will register and every time you make a cut you're investing in your skill it'll pay huge dividends as you go down the roadways well I said eight but I decided to throw in a ninth and that is a marking gauge the traditional Mark and gauge I haven't even got one show you a picture of it had a pin that it came out of a wooden beam the problem was that when you set it down you no longer could see the pin so if you were trying to stop I have often told people I said if you want to avoid heavy gauge lines on your furniture just scribe between the Tails don't scribe right here just in between there and there well if you've got that old style you're setting it down and you really don't know where it is as soon as you put it into the wood this style which which is has a round wheel is so much easier you can simply make your cut roll it to go a little bit one way or the other and you can be very precise with it all to mention how much easier it is to sharpen feels great in the hand but the single biggest Advantage is you can actually see the cutter Engage The Wood and stop and start exactly where you want so there's nine tools that I have purchased over the years that I wish I hadn't I wish I saved the money and bought what I should have gotten but I didn't know about it so I'm sharing this information with you hopefully it'll help like I said everybody has an opinion you just heard mine do with it what you may either way enjoy your woodworking if you enjoy my method of work and like my style of teaching click on any one of these videos to help take your woodworking to the next level I've always said better tools make the job so much easier if you click on the plane and chisel icon below it'll take you to our site and introduce to all the tools that we actually manufacture right here in our shop it'll also give you information on our in-person and online workshops

Channel: RobCosman.com

Views: 419,964

Keywords: bad tools, beginner woodworking, buyers guide, diy tools, dont buy these tools, never buy these tools, tools not to buy, tools to avoid, waste of money, wood working, woodworking, woodworking for beginners, woodworking tips and tricks, woodworking tools, woodworking tools not to buy

Id: upjJIqdk4ik

Length: 19min 29sec (1169 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 24 2023