Customer Reviews

Stanley 12-975 4-Inch Contractor Grade Bull Nose Rabbet Plane

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I have read various woodworking articles that recommended rabbet planes as being good workhorses--I was thinking of planing tenons, etc. (I have an excellent low-angle block plane already). The casting on this unit is rough and poorly machined. The iron (i.e. blade) is *wider* than the body, so you cannot easily use the edge of the plane to shape a tenon while guiding against the shoulder. The bearing surface between the upper and lower parts of the body is a painted rough-cast surface (not machined), so adjusting the size of the throat changes the vertical position of the nosepiece. The bedding surface for the iron is machined out of square. I did a lot of tuning and brought the tool up to a reasonable condition, but I still wouldn't recommend it.

If you are looking for a rabbet plane, I might advise another brand. I put it on my wishlist despite reading other reviews because the wishlist is an easy way for me to communicate what tools I'm interested in to family members that might be shopping for Christmas, etc. When I took it out of the package the sole was visibly concave, the throat opening was slanted and not a uniform width, and the nose piece of the unit was not in the same plane as the rest of the sole. A plane that is not in one plane cannot be usable without investing a lot of sweat flattening it, so I'd rather return it and try another rabbet plane- even if it is more expensive.

I was several hundred miles from home and my shop, helping a friend with a kitchen remodel. Got to a point in the cabinet portion when we really needed a rabbit plane badly. He ran down to the local hardware store and this one was all that they had. I have several older stanley planes and they are good tools. This one disappointed me quite a bit, as it is not up to the Stanley standards I have seen and used in the past. It's pretty roughly made, the adjustments are kind of a joke and the blade doesn't hold a very good edge. We finally got it to work and finished the cabinet doors, but halfway thru I was ready to drive home and get my Lee Valley/Veritas bullnose rabbit plane.
I gave it 3 stars because it will work if you mess with it enough, and it is inexpensive. I think if someone bought it as their first one, they would probably never want to use one again. Save your money and buy a good one from Lee Valley or one of the other quality makers. Can't recommend this one.

Hello, I wrote another review of this plane. It is good, but it needs tuning - I would not say the build quality is perfec. Mine was quite good to start with but I tuned it a lot and it is even better. Note that even the best planes need tuning and should not be used new.

This one has almost no adjustment, you have to get the blade to place itself perfectly all you have is a screw to hold it down. If it does not fit properly, you have to grind it until it does (I used a diamond stone, took an hour, now perfect)

Note the nose is TINY which means that if untuned, it can be really bad, with tearouts etc.. also my blade was slightly wider than the plane: I left it that way, and move the blade accordingly whether using to plane on the left or right. But don't leave the blade sticking out the side of the plane or it will dig into the wood. Reshape it or adjust it.

It is true that a heavier plane does a much better job, but well setup this thing is very nice, with one hand (in fact, just my fingers) it slices away.

It might be better buying this in person, so you can examine it before purchase, but, as with any plane, you really should tune it up to get best resutls. Especially at this price, really what you are buying is a cast iron blob in the rough shape of a bull nose plane - as a craftsman it is your job to turn it into something magical.

I knocked my rating down to 4 stars from 5 because I realise it might not be for everyone. I like mine however.

I purchased the plane even after reading the bad reviews. I have own many Stanley planes some antiques and son giving to me by my grandfather. I have always been very happy with them. So, I purchased this rabbet planer with the purpose of cleaning up the middle ridge made by a dado. When I first got the plane, like you need to do with all planes, I tuned it and adjusted it. The plane works great. I have been using it with no problems. It did take a bit of time to adjust. If you are not sure on how to adjust the plane or the tuning of it, you can e-mail Stanley's service department and they will be glade to mail out the information on the model you have. I would and more then likely will purchase other Stanley plane in the future. I gave this four stars because nothing is perfect.

When I saw this I just had to have it ... I do all my woodwork by hand (except for an electric drill) ... so what is routine for a router is quite laborious. I use this little beauty for most edgework, you can hold the whole thing between thumb and fingers and sort of palm your way along. I used to use a chisel for this kind of smoothing.

... It was so out of alinement and out of plane that any amount of tuning couldn't salvage it...

I purchased this plane to clean up and fit small tenons and rabbetts. It was inexpensive and I did not expect really high end tool when I bought it. It was delivered promptly and, as with all my planes, I immediately disassembled it and tuned it for use. The bottom is very flat and it didn't take much to knock down the few high spots. This blade is not even close to being ready to use out of the box so be prepared to start from scratch. The back of the blade wasn't too bad but it did take a little work to get it flat. A few minutes on my DMT stones gave me a surface that I could work with. I used a jig and worked my way from my coarse diamond stone, through the grits and finished with rouge and the leather strop and finally got an edge on the bevel that I was satisfied would work.

As I stated earlier, this is a very inexpensive tool and it shows when you try to set the blade for work. It is clamped in place with a single thumb screw and you must be very carefull to make sure that the blade is square with the plane when you set the blade. To begin with, I set it on my table saw top and placed the blade so that it was level with the bottom. I snugged the retainer thumbscrew and proceeded to tap the blade down and test it until it would cut fine shavings from the surface of a pine board. I still can't say that I have it right where it should be but I can use it for what I bought it for. I keep it in my apron and go to it when I need to adjust a tight tenon or small rabbett. The blade seems to hold the edge pretty well and has only needed a touch up on the very fine stone and strop to keep it working.

You shouldn't expect much from this plane and you won't be dissappointed. Be prepared to fiddle constantly with the blade position to get it to work. IMO if the mouth were tighter, and it had a machined slot to hold the blade laterally, it would be much easier to adjust and it would work much better. Lateral adjustment is completely by trial and error and it doesn't hold its position very well in hard woods. I only use it for very small tenons and rabetts. Anything over a couple of inches long is done with one of my larger rabbett planes.

This plane is an absolute piece of junk. It came with the blade looking like it had been sharpened on a brick. I spent a half-hour honing it to a clean edge, put it back in the plane, spent ten minutes setting the gap and adjusting the blade (it has no in-out adjustment screw, and the gap can't be adjusted with the blade in the plane), and after four passes over a maple board, the blade had nicks in it. The city of Sheffield should sue Stanley to make them take the city's name off the package. In addition to the difficulty of setting the plane up, the blade is over a 32nd of an inch wider than the body of the plane, so you must either grind or file the blade down to match the width of the plane body, or spend ten minutes resetting the blade every time you change directions.

first of all, besides the point that it's not worth a penny, it can't be more than $5 if you ask me. quality is aweful. the blade doesn't align properly, the top and the botton don't align. the botton of the plane (which should be _plane_) isn't straight. unfortunately there's not much choice, so i have to fix what i have already or make my own. i hear stanly 92 is good, i would try that if i can find one. but definetely not this one.