For those interested... *LINK*

That thing's soooo...

Scott Burr Ben Lomond,CA

>Bright had to turn my monitor down...

What a shame...

Should have been beer cans.

Aluminum planes

Christopher Schwarz

>I hope that tool ends up in a collection, which is where it best belongs.

I've found aluminum planes to be the worst combination of planing charateristics imaginable. Too light. The sole is too soft. They oxidize and look nasty. I haven't used an A5, but the smoother and Craftsman aluminum jack I tried out were not highlights of m planing career.

cms

Actually..

Christopher Fitch @ Memphis

>I'd like to try out an A45 one day...

I suspect it might be a darned nice plane given it's purpose and weight.

Re: For those interested...

Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI

>My wife came home one day and mentioned she had seen a tool in an antique store marked "Stanley 45". I have been working on training her, and it has paid off several times. She asked if it was worth $20, and I said well it depends on the shape but it's worth going to look at it. The next day found us looking at the plane, and it was pretty grungy and oily, had the main body and the sliding section, but was missing the fence. It was covered in barn dirt, and had the normal #45 markings. I figured it was worth $20 for the parts to use or sell, so took it home. The next morning while cleaning the grime off, the surface seemed to look funny to me. At the time, I had no idea that Stanley had made an aluminum #45, so my first thought was that someone had copied the casting and poured it in aluminum. But I remebered the section on aluminum planes in the Walter book, so I started looking through it, and sure enough there was my plane. Now if I could only find a cheap aluminum #45 fence I would have a real find ;)

Re: For those interested...

Todd Hughes

>I have had a few of these and this one if I'm not mistaken looks like it has been buffed up and over cleaned.They originaly didn't have aluminum handles either but regular wooden totes. Not a very popular plane with users and not with collectors really either at least in my experance they don't sell like they "should". Some years ago Miss Jazz and me went to an old guy house that had 1000's of tools on the walls and in cabinets etc. all for sale and one of the first things she found was an A5 that was in about mint condition complete with the decal on the tote. Got it for $20 so when we sold it on the Ebay still did very well but didn't hit the "Book" price if I remember right.......Todd

Does that mean. . ..

Tony Sade (Charleston, WV)

>that the cherry A18 my BIL just gave me over Thanksgiving (along with a bunch of other cool stuff from his late father's collection) should just be stapled to the wall? ;>) It sure works pretty well once fine-tuned. Tony

It's the "GREAT WHITE PLANE".

Kevin French, Antrim NH

>

You forgot about the...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>nice steaks they leave on some woods too :(

The mysteries of aluminum

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>And pray tell, Scott, where do they get these nice steaks? Are you telling me aluminum planes are really the Cattlemen's fairy in disguise? And what do they leave for vegetarians - carrots?

Dooooh! There I go again...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Not using the spell checker (sounds like something out of Harry Potter). I was trying to say streaks, you know, like we use to do in the 70's.

Oh well� maybe it would work better cutting steaks.

Another useful kitchen implement from the shop

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>plus, it wouldn't rust. Well, the iron would, I guess.

Spell check will not save you

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>since "steak" is perfectly correctly spelled.

When they come up with common sense check, I'm burning my computer...I have a hard enough time not screaming at the monitor when I run grammar check and it tells me something is wrong that I was taught years ago is correct.

Re: Spell check will not save you

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Language curmudgeons everywhere bemoan the changing nature of languages. Your (impersonal) life will be less hassled if you realize there's nothing you, or even Safire, can do about it. After all, should we still be speaking olde english? Or sanscrit? Or grunting?

Pam

Re: Spell check will not save you

Alan Hamilton

>Pam,

Grunting can convey some thoughts and ideas very precisely; and grunts can be very expressive, especially when you're...uh...er...um... Never mind.

Alan

:)

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>

Although grunts have thier own language...

Bob Hackett

>I think you`ll find we`re all fluent in "civilian" too.

BTW-The true language of the grunt is a combination of the ancient Groundpounder and Knuckledragger with some Neanderthal mixed in depending on whether you`re speaking either the "airborne" or the traditional "leg" dialect.

Mainely,Bob-Who tried speaking "mech" once but found it too disorienting.