foggytown wrote:

And now in a burst of refreshing honesty we're all going to admit to
the most useless, waste-of-money, unnecessary, white elephant, "why the
hell did I ever buy that" tool in our arsenal.

Interesting thread. I can think of a lot of contenders for most useless.
However, the tool that clearly takes the cake is the first hand plane I
ever bought, quite a long time before I ever really settled down with the
notion of trying to make interesting things out of wood. I think I bought
it to trim a door in an apartment.

Anyway, years later, I picked it back up and tried to do something
interesting with it. It was one of those simple types with no mechanical
depth adjuster. You had to loosen a big wheel, then jiggle the blade a bit
to try to get it to project just right. Very fiddly. Worse, it had an
ALUMINUM body. Based on more recent research, I would have thought Stanley
got over this bad idea after the dismal failure of their Sweetheart line,
but I suppose not. Aluminum planes suck for all the reasons you've ever
read about. Not the least of which is that they leave horrible black
streaks on everything. Adding insult to injury, it was never made very
well. The sole wasn't flat, the cheeks weren't perpendicular to the sole.
It was almost impossible to adjust, and it wouldn't stay adjusted for love
or money.

I tried to true it up and tune it, but I ultimately just threw the thing in
the trash. I kept the iron out of it, and that's the only piece. It's
rare for me to toss anything. I still have a flywheel from a Nordic Trac,
and the remains of my ill-fated treadmill belt sander. I can always find
some use for almost everything eventually, but this plane was a completely
useless piece of crap.

I can come up with other tools that really aren't very useful. My hot glue
gun hasn't been seen since I don't know when, and I don't really miss it.
My Crapsman router and table is a tool the use of which is best studiously
avoided. My cheap Delta scrollsaw is a close second to this plane for most
useless, poorly-conceived purchase, but even that stupid space waster has
proven sort of halfway useful at least twice. No, the plane wins, hands
down.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
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