Customer Reviews

Footprint 280205 Professional Smooth Plane

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's not a $200. plane but it's better than what Stanley sells at twice the price. It took over thirty hours of work to tune it to the exceedingly high standards of my college hand tools class, but when done it was as good as the $200. planes. Yes, I wish the mouth was adjustable and the other adjustments were smoother. It is worth what you pay and can be great if you invest some sweat equity.

Footprint used to make high quality tools in England. This tool was made in India. The external appearance was very good. The internal finish was terrible. There was a big bur under the frog that kept it from making good contact with the sole. The bottom of the lugs of the lugs that contact the sole were uneven. The bottom of the sole was far from flat. About 10 hours of my time were required to correct these problems which should have been corrected at the factory. What I got was a kit that I could make into a useable plane.

4 stars for value rather that quality. I concur with the previous reviewer: this plane can be tuned to high standards, but will take a lot of work and sandpaper. Flattening the sole will go much (much!) more quickly if you can get access to a wide enough belt sander (3"+). The frog/sole fit needed a little adjustment and there is moderate backlash in the frog adjustment knob. The mouth was square enough. I'm satisfied with the end product, but consider this only if you can't find a good condition pre-1960s Stanley/Bailey.

I agree with the other reviewer that this product is a coarse but fixable tool. And it is of similar quality to other planes in this price range. BUT, I bought this plane specifically because I did not want to buy yet another product that was outsourced to CHINA. The box the plane comes in was printed in the UK but has a sticker on it saying made in China and and the UPC code was masked out. It makes me wonder if this is some kind of special order dumped on the US market. The product is OK but I dont like buying a product from a place where workers are in poverty, children slave in factories, citizens have no rights, and there are no pollution controls. I really wish that AMAZON would be more clear on the country of origin of the prouducts they sell.