STANLEY Hand Planer, Contractor Grade (12-960)

Me tocó una buena unidad, esta en escuadra, no trae detalles graves, la pude usar salida de la caja. Obviamente necesita algunos ajustes y afilar, pero nada que no se tenga que hacer con todos los cepillos nuevos.

These (same as other stanley contractor grade planes) are pretty much useless out of the box, but with a bit of a tune up they are actually pretty decent and will do anything that any other plane will do. That being said, these are $30, and no amount of work you do will get them to be a veritas or lie nielsen that cost almost 10 times as much.

To make this usable, you will at a minimum have to take it apart and clean it with alcohol or acetone or something to get rid of the sticky, oily residue from the rust inhibitor that was sprayed on it, and you will have to sharpen the blade (they’re near useless out of the box). This process is going to take you 30-60 minutes depending on how good you are at sharpening.

To take it to the next level you’ll want to get the sole smoother and flatter. Out of the box it’s usable but not great. I stuck progressively finer sandpaper (starting at 80 up to 600) on a flat surface and went to town. This is going to take an hour or so depending on how far you go. It will make the plane look a lot better and glide better as well.

This is a fine tool once properly tuned up. There is a reason a Veritas is 4x the cost – tighter process controls, thicker A2 blade, some design improvements. Any of the lower cost planes require the purchaser to finish the production process, and no, one does not have an equivalent tool to a Veritas or LN when finished. However, one does have a tool that works very well for low cost + time to tune it.

It took about 3 hours to flatten the sole, blade, and cap iron, and deburr everything (I spent 1 1/2 hours on a Veritas LAJ cleaning it up to my liking). The sides are not perpendicular to the sole, which is ok for me – this plane is too light to use on a shooting board anyway. All the other surfaces are in correct alignment and just needed to be smoothed up. I now get blade wide whisper thin shavings, as well as thicker ones without chatter if wanted – I believe that is the purpose of a plane. Blade and mouth adjustments are smooth. I really like the thinner profile/width and lighter weight of this plane vs the 12-920 and 12-139 (own them as well). It will be very good for light trimming/edge clean-up activities where my other block planes feel a bit bulky.

I’m rating this tool based on the value it delivers – how well it accomplishes the designed task vs its cost. It accomplishes the task very well at a relatively low cost = high value.

This is a great plane to keep in your tool belt when you are installing a bunch of trim.

I compared this made in Mexico plane with my 50 year old Stanley 60-1/2, and here are the important differences:

1. The plane body casting is slightly larger and slightly heavier (maybe 2%), and the machined finish on the sides and sole of the tool are a little bit coarser than my 50 year old tool.
2. The plane sole and sides were acceptably flat and square out of the box, and would be perfectly functional with no “tuning” or adjustment.
3. Solid brass adjustment knobs on the new tool vs. steel on the old one. I kinda like the brass!
4. The blade needed sharpening, as all new tools will need. The blade steel on the new tool is better than on my 50 year old tool.

Overall a very good value for an actively used job-site tool. Should absolutely stand up to 50 years of use that I have given my old tool.

Because I purchased this tool as a gift, I did spend an hour or so flattening the sole and sides, flattening the back of the blade, sharpening the blade razor sharp, and buffing out the brass knobs, sole and sides. Is it as pretty as a Lie-Neilson? No. However, I expect that the gift recipient will remember me well every time he picks up this tool and uses it for that perfect final fit of a miter joint.

Excelente producto, necesita un pequeño ajuste para que la cuchilla quede paralela pero nada que no se pueda arreglar. De buen tamaño y excelente funcionamiento.
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