Thanks for the detailed reply. I appreciate you taking the time to do it.

Dick Snyder
wrote in message
oups.com...

Dick Snyder wrote:
...

I need to remove a small amount of trim (up to 1/8" in a couple of
cases -
usually less than that). ... Can you either point me at a good
on-line
resource so I can read about this or can you give some advice based
on your
own experience?


The practice of removing small amounts of material to make pieces fit
is called 'blocking in' and the tool commonly used is the block plane.

Stanley manufactured an enormous variety of block planes, some of
the best are still made by Stanley, with Record and others making
knock-offs while Lee Valley and Lie Neilsen have somewhat improved
designs derivative from the Stanley designs. The fanciest have an a
djustable mouth and fine adjustments for the depth of cut and skew
of the blade. All three of those features are useful.

If you can find an old Stanley, as at an antique store the quality
will probably be better than any but the most expensive ones made
today.

Here is a guide to Stanley planes, there were serveral series
of block planes but the 9 1/2 and 65 are the ones still
made by Stanley though they no longer use those model numbers
and I think the new 65s have a skew adjustment not shown on the
webpages.

http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan0a.html

Lee Valley and Lie Neilsen (Nielsen?) have their won webpages.

Simpler less expspensive models without the fine adjustments
will get the job done, but I recommend getting one with those
as they'll save you a lot of time and frustration fettling
it.

Personally, I prefer the lever caps that use a knurled screw to
clamp down the blade as I can slightly loosen it befor adjusting.
The 'snail lever' and other quick release caps save 2 - 3 seconds
when removing the blade for honing which, in my view is a silly
time to worry about saving a second or two compared to making
it easier to adjust during use. Clearly this is a minority
opinion, though.

After using a block plane, there will be no going back. Befor
long when you get a tool catalog in the mail you'll flip past
the powah tools and rowtah bits to get to the hand tools section,
scan the pictures and then say to yourself, they sure don't
make them like they used to.

Good luck.

--

FF