Customer Reviews

Stanley 12-904 9-3/4-Inch Contractor Grade Smooth Bottom Bench Plane

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

 

 

Out of the box this plane will not produce at its greatest potential. The sole is close to being flat, mine had a bit of a hollow ahead of and behind the throat. Take some time and lap the sole flat. Contrary to what the other reviewer mentioned, this plane does have an adjustable throat but you must remove the iron to access the two screws that hold the frog.

The weight and balance is fine. The plastic tote is OK but nothing spectacular, especially when it loosens up after working for a while.

With a bit of tuning you'll be cutting nice shavings. Without any tuning you'll be disappointed.

This is a Good tool, not a great tool. If you want a great tool, go and spend the 200 bucks it takes to buy one. However, if you don't have that type of cash then this is perfect. Like all planes it needed tuning. I had to properly sharpen the blade, and take some burs off of the throat. The bottom the plane isn't polished to a mirror finish, but it is smooth enough and very flat. After tuning, I used it to plane a 3' by 6' table top made of solid oak. It worked like a dream. I was able to take paper thin shavings every time. As long as you know what you're doing, this will tool will get the job done every time.

This plane really is terrible. Plastic handles, poor machining. It feels cheap. For the money one should have little problem finding an older, nicer #4 elsewhere. That's what I did. Shortly after getting this plane and truing it up, I was disgusted by the amount of time I put into it for something so cheaply made. So I bought a nice vintage model Stanley Bailey online and it is fantastic.

I have a real problem with the overall machining on this. The sides and bottom are very roughly machined. The sole is so far from being flat - I have spent a couple hours lapping the bottom and I still haven't gotten to the lowest depressions. This makes me wonder if the sole will be 90 degrees to the sides when I'm done. Stanley seems to be trying to compete with the (junky)l ow-price Chinese and Indian planes, rather than be a mid-price alternative to the $250+ Lie-Nielsens and Veritas. I would have preferred to pay in the $80-100 range for a decent plane than $40 for this beast. I've since gotten a few old Stanley planes at the internet auction site, and they have been of much better quality and needed less tuning than this. And that's all I have to say about that.

Save your money on the plane tune up books and buy a decent tool. This piece of garbage is not worthy of the stanley name. They used to make fine tools (pre WWII), but now sell unusably poor scrap that is a disgrace to their heritage. The castings are hopeless, and the blades are worse. No amount of filing or sanding will eliminate the chatter marks because the blades are too thin. The blade alloy will not hold an edge and chips with the slightest use. The plastic knob and tote are deplorable. The blade adjuster has more slop than a hog farm. Lie-Nielsen makes the finest planes on the market, and if you want a satisfactory plane, you'll buy one there.

This is a very handy size plane, just big enough to handle the 2" wide blade. The beautifully machined casting making up the sole is marked Bailey, and the plane is from the home of metal planes, England! It's not just a tool-shaped object from China! The tote and front grip are plastic- no rosewood at this price, and the throat is non-adjustable; which is normal. I recommend one of the good plane books from Amazon to really tune this baby.

I purchased this great little plane after ruling out some over priced used, abused & neglected planes. Plastic handles are a big plus moisture changes should not cause them to loosen. The special frog screw makes adjustment easy & accurate. My planes sole is machined or ground perfectly flat. I have not sanded mine to a mirror finish yet. I might just to reduce friction.
I did remove the clear coat from the 1" blade above the bevel using acetone prior to sharpening otherwise clear coat will clog sandpaper or stone used to sharpen. I did try a mico bevel as instructed in the manual & didnt like the performance. A single razor sharp bevel performed / pushed like a dream when working on a flat 12" x 8" OAK board that was cupped slightly. This was done of course after using the contractor grade jack plane with plastic handles.

The design of the tool is solid and time tested, and a bargain for the price. However, the sole needed serious lapping (thank goodness I have diamond sharpening plates) to remove a hollow behind the throat. The machining is very rough but I guess that made it easy to read where the hollow was and to check the progress of the lapping. Almost every plane should be lapped and tuned prior to its first use unless you have the cash to lay down for premium plane. I suppose its up to you, but for me, the two/three hours of initial tune up outweighs the extra cash for a ready to use plane.

The blade also needed lapping and light grind to remove a small nick. From there, it was micro bevel and hone as usual. Again, almost every plane will need this out of the box, and I'm fine with that, and still consider this a bargain.

My plane works great after tuning it up and changing the bevel to 28 degrees.
Unfortunately, the rear handle broke after only a few weeks. I know I never dropped
it or abused it, so I am left to assume that the plane had been previously damaged
or the plastic in the handles is cheap. First the top chipped off (from no apparent
trauma) and when I looked closer, there was a hairline fracture going down both sides.

I'm not sure what Amazon will do, but I know I need to upgrade to some
hardwood handles.

This plane can't be compared to the Veritas and Lie Nielsen planes but is a fraction of the price. There are other planes out there more in the $100-$200 range which can require the same amount of tuning. One improvement that can be made is to buy a replacement blade such as one from Hock Tools which even sell chip breakers. The sole of mine wasn't perfect but pretty close to being flat.