Is Lie Nielsen Plane a Bevel-up Model

Is their Low Angle No. 62 a bevel up plane? I was torn between it and the Lee Valley b/u Low Angle Jack. I wanted to try at least one b/u for difficult woods.

I should have asked when two guys (at my request) brought a LN and a LV to a meeting for me to see. Having heard that some folks with large hands might have difficulty with the Lee Valley because of clearance between the tote and the iron adjusting screw I wanted to try the fit.

For me, at least, the LN was more comfortable. But I'm intrigued by this bevel-up feature and that might swing me to the Lee Valley.

Gary Curtis
:)
 
Funny you should ask ... I just bought it at the wood show yesterday. Yes, It's bevel-up. That was one of the biggest reasons I bought it. LN also offers a toothed blade for easing the roughing process a bit. I'm letting the wife calm a bit before I plunk down the $$ for that blade, too :D
 
Is a Lie Nielsen 62 a bevel-up?

Without going into the Lie-Nielsen/Lee Valley dispute, I've got 8 or 9 old Stanleys, all of which are being outfitted with Hock Irons. I can't do much Neander woodworking until my shop is finished and I've built my monster bench.

But in playing around with a Stanley 60 1/2, I was intrigued by the ease of the low angle blade. So, about 2 weeks ago, I began looking at eBay. There has been a Lie Nielsen 62 up for sale every 3 or 4 days. I should have jumped at the first one, but that is old news. They are going for about $170.

eBay has been a mixed bag for me. Tools are often explained poorly by people who don't understand. It's attractive to me because I can avoid the Calif. sales tax. Wish I had heard about a woodworking show in Sacramento. I would have driven down for it.

Gary Curtis
Weaverville (near Redding):)
 
Sorry we missed you! It was a bit small this year, but i think i come away from it with a better feeling about it than in previous years.

I have a couple of old stanley's myself. I think I let my drool get the best of me at the LN booth this weekend, but i don't regret it one bit :D

I haven't used any LV planes, I'd like to find someone nearby that I could take a look at someday. Now that my bench is finished, I anticipate needing a whole lot more planes, soon :p
 
Lie Nielsen

Tell me about your bench. Where did the plans come from? How thick is the top and made of what wood?

I'm accumulating supplies to build mine. The 2" Baltic Beech top was milled and glue-laminated for me by Almquist Hardwoods in Blue Lake. That's on Hwy 299 just this side of Eureka.

They had a big 20% sale, so I bought Maple 2x4's and 2x6's for the legs and stretchers. Legs will be glued up 4x4's. Got the vises from Lee Valley. The plans are a modification of an old set sold by WoodCraft in the early 1990's. I tailored them a bit based on the FWW 2003 Tools and Shops issue. It contains a bench made by Lon Schleining.

My shop is a brand new SUV garage. Wired for 30-amp 220. My wall-mounted benches (all 18-feet of them) are almost up. Then I build two wall tool cabinets, and order will prevail.

I'd like to hear about your bench. And see photos, if you have them. :) I don't have a digital camera. After 13 months, I am still moving into this place.

Gary Curtis:wave:
 
Tell me about your bench. Where did the plans come from? How thick is the top and made of what wood?

My shop is a brand new SUV garage. Wired for 30-amp 220. My wall-mounted benches (all 18-feet of them) are almost up. Then I build two wall tool cabinets, and order will prevail.

I'd like to hear about your bench. And see photos, if you have them. :) I don't have a digital camera. After 13 months, I am still moving into this place.

Gary Curtis:wave:

My bench is a funny story (to me, anyway). I was at our WW club's annual BBQ at Higgin's, a local lumber yard, last June where they clear out pallet loads of what they consider junk wood to us lowly hobbyists. Well this time around they had a pallet of what they called "Maple Rippings". These were sticks of 10/4 and 12/4 maple about 12' long. The pallet had at least 200 sticks on it. Well after hemming around with the guy, I had a price I could live with. He started with a buck a stick, which was a GREAT deal ... and I whined about maybe not being able to use all 200 of 'em and he said "Tell ya what ... hunnerd bucks for all of it" ... Well I was born at night, but I knew not to pass this one up :D

While I'm loading up my trailer with these maple strips, a very good friend of mine walks up and asks how much ... when I told him, i'd had about 40% of the sticks loaded and was becoming worried about my little humble trailer. He hands me $80 and takes the rest (about 120 or so sticks). I later sold 20 of my sticks for a buck apiece - so the remaining 60-65 pieces were free :D (Stealth gloat, anyone?)

Anyway - I glued up the top with the best pieces I had. At this moment it's about 2 1/4" thick. I got the LN #62 to flatten things a bit better and I may lose 1/16" or so overall. I drew up the plans myself using Sketchup. My shop is microscopic and I have to be very space concious. I only have 8' by 23' and I have all the machines (ts, bs, 8" jointer, planer, 60gal air compressor, etc etc) so the bench needed a few custom dimensions.

The top is about 74" by ~25" and it should be pretty sturdy for me. It alone weighs almost 150lbs. The base is made up of 3" square boards I laminated from my stash of maple and some 4"x1.5" planks for crossmembers. I have a few pictures of the glue-up here:

http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showpost.php?p=28091&postcount=30

I went light on vises for the time being since I seem to be teetering on the edge of going from power to hand tools and I want to get my hands on a few other vise styles before I commit to something. For the time being, I have a 9" front vise from HF that I'll probably skin with some 8/4 maple (the only wood i'll pay for on the bench :p) at this year's BBQ.

At some point I will probably build an insert to go in the base of the bench with some drawers or shelves for some of the oft-used things like squares and calipers. Maybe a set of handheld powertool cubbies. That part's still up in the air.

I'm in the middle of drywalling my shop now and the finished bench is kinda burried. The space is a very old garage, apparently predating squares and any kind of 16" increments. Adding framing, insulation and drywall is enough work. Nevermind having to move all the tools around for each 8' span, running new electrical. After that it's all dust collection and possibly compressed air. As soon as the shop's redone, I'll take tons of pics, though :)

It's coming along ... but man i miss working IN the shop instead of ON it.
 
Benches

Well, you were braver than I was. My top was made from 8/4 Baltic Birch and was glue laminated for me. It started out at 2" thick, but I had Almquist Hardwoods plane it, which brought it down to 1 3/4".

The length is about 8' 5", but I'll cut that down a bit.

It is quite heavy. It will be another 6 weeks before my shop is in a ready state for me to build the legs and base and then fabricate end caps, the apron, attach the vises.

Moving took a lot out of me, so I'm quite behind on getting this shop up and running. The fact is, I can't do much of anything without a good bench and solid vises, so I've got to get to work. Congrats on getting that Maple. A guy in my WW club in Los Angeles gave me some Sugar Maple he milled on his Michigan farm. I'll use that for aprons and end caps on my Birch top.

I get down to Sacramento a few times a year, so give me a call and we can hook up if I come through. 530 623-1619.

The name is Gary Curtis:)
 
Sounds good!

I was tempted to take my top down to Hughes - they have a big timesaver sander that I was gonna run it through, but then what would I use for an excuse to buy more tools? (I'm sure I'll think of something, but i'll save that one for next time!) :p

I've always been neander-curious and this was a great project to get more into hand tools. I started those monster mortise and tenon joints by hand but lost patience and routed 'em out instead. The top glued up fairly easily. I did it one strip at a time, using C-clamps to keep the faces aligned. It went slowly, but came out real nice. I lost very little thickness in the end.

We'll have to hook up if you're in the area. I've been up past Ft. Bragg once and loved it (except for the driving right after breakfast!! :bonkers:) We stayed at a little B&B just below the hidden coastline called Howard Creek Ranch. We're about due for a trip up that way again, I gotta check out the college of the redwoods, at least :D
 
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