Harbor Freight No 33 Bench Plane Review and Tuneup
Harbor Freight No 33 Bench Plane Review and Tuneup
In this video I unbox the $10 Harbor Freight No 33 bench plane and proceed to flatten the sole and sharpen the blade. The result is a plane that can take whisper thin shavings and would be useful in any shop.
I got one of these to plane the surface of a work bench and did not know about tune up and I want pour gasoline on it and throw a match on because it f’d up the table top
Exactly what i did, i also altered the handle a little bit. Seems like it was made for a teenager or maybe an Asian person. Also changed the stain to my favorite burgundy
I purchased one to give my son for rough work and found it wasn’t usable at all. The right side adjusting screw was drilled at a different angle than the left which actually worked ok. Even after trying to bend the blade slightly, I could not get the screw to engage the slot in the blade.It was off by around 1/8th inch. I’ll save for a better one that is easier to adjust the blade depth also. You get what you pay for I guess.
Better than Stanley and other brand
Just got mine all flattened and sharpened up. Took about two and a half to three hours. I am very pleased at this cheap little plane. And I didn’t have to take a loan out to buy it
I bought the other hand plane. Too, too much time work and fix the many issues upon issues. Still it is really annoying. I’m gonna buy this one instead. Thanks for your insight and experience.
I kept hearing this… "I don’t really want to say anything good about this because… Harbor Freight… But it’s pretty good!!"
I find that just about any plane can work if it’s very sharp and the sole is flat. Where the lower quality shows is when the iron becomes dull too quickly because of poor quality steel, adjustments are hard to make, or it’s not ergonomic to use. I have used poor quality planes in the past, and while they are serviceable, they’re not particularly nice to use for extended periods of time. That being said, lower quality planes are absolutely fine for people on a shoestring budget or as backups if you’re willing to keep them sharp.
Yeah! What’s with the adjustment knobs? But I bought this little guy to learn sharpening and sole flattening, and this vid is very helpful. I see that it’ll work justfine. Now I’m going to get the Kobalt for 15 bucks! Eventually I’ll be ready for a veritas!
I just bought one, trying to tune it and set it up. I watched several videos. Got the blade and bottom perfectly flat and sharp BUT it doesn’t really cut that good, skips constantly! What am I doing wrong?? Please help me
I spent close to an hour on this thing today. The body of it is nearly flat, after using sand paper and progressing to whetstone, and the blade is finally sharp. my biggest issue is the compression piece that’s held in by the screw and the knob. when I tighten the knob the entire piece slides off the retaining screw. I will have to do some filing to make a notch in it so it stops moving around. All in all, it costs $33 now and if I had known better I would have never bought it… You can get a vintage bench plane on ebay for a similar price and with a lot better quality.
Thank you for the insights!!!
Nothing wrong with a ten dollar beater that works!
ive seen some good buck bros out of the box and not so good. same with these. ask somebody at harbor freight if you can window shop through a few boxes and find something that looks okay. i had a pretty long afternoon tuning the one i picked up because i just grabbed the first box i saw . happy holidays <3
I have one of those planes and it does a very good job. I’m not sure who makes it, but I do know Harbor Freight doesn’t. Probably some tool company that has their name on several tools of the same type. If a person becomes a brand snob they end up throwing money away. I also have a Stanley Bailey #5 plane which is easier to adjust, but does no better job planing a board than this one does once it is in adjustment. After all, a bench plane isn’t a rocket ship.
It’s me, I’m the one who scratched up a table by using it out of the box. Thank you for the video, I was considering buying a proper one (what are they, $100?) But you gave me the hope to make this one work
Yo tengo uno muy parecido pero de la marca stanley
Don’t have any hand planes yet, but I will look into one. It appears this will be a good intro for me. Thanks for the how to video as well. I always appreciate a good tutorial from an experienced person.👍
Bugger of ya wanker..
I wanted to get into woodworking with hand tools and wasn’t sure i wanted to put forth the large investment in some good quality planes chisels and whatnot so I went to harbor freight. Got this plane and a set of chisels. Exactly as you said "destroy anything they touch" and so it was a bit discouraging but I started watching videos similar to this one and finally had the same result. Been learning with what I got and its been fun but now I know that its something I definitely want to spend a little extra money but at least I was able to get the cheap products and make them work better with a little fine tuning before spending some serious money on something i wasn’t sure i wanted to do. Loved this video definitely covers some of the downsides of this tool from harbor freight but its an expectation to not get the best quality from there
Great video. I am new to woodworking and find it is difficult to find hand tools. Most home centers don’t really offer anything and the high quality tools are rather expensive for folks just starting out. I’d rather mess up sharpening a $12 plane iron from Harbor Freight vs. anything from Woodcraft / Rockler.
I do have a few questions though, you mentioned grinding the bevel on the blade straight, at first at a 25 degree angle and then after you said 30 degree. How critical is the bevel angle? Should the bevel be more, less or the same as the angle of the iron when installed in the frog?
It look like a nice paper weight
Maybe a smoother
Well done, for sure, but few have the tools to get such a plane fixed up. Also, time should be worth something. A $10 plane + 2 hours of your time is not equal to $10.
Bought one the other day. Out of the box it looked like a disaster. I am knew at woodworking so wanted to use this as a learning tool to flatten the base and sharpen the blade. Thanks for your video.
just got one and the blade on mine has a concave bevel. is there any blade i can get that is compatible with this plane? maybe a stanley of some sort that I can cut notches into with an angle grinder?
The weird adjustment at the end is what I had the biggest problem with. Seems like I never could get it to be square it was always slightly off on one side.
For ten dollars, you’d be lucky if had been heat treated, more likely its just low grade steal, as most of the Harbor Freight stuff is, better put some Linseed oil on it, fast.
I have one. I didn’t flatten the sole but I did sharpen the blade. I was able to easily adjust this plane to take whisper thin shavings. While the sole is not perfectly smooth a little Johnson’s wax helps in that regard. There are differing opinions on the necessity of taking the time to make the sole perfectly flat, assuming the sole is reasonably flat "as is." I am well pleased with this plane, especially considering its price. Keep in mind it’s a considerably smaller plane than a Stanley #4. I have a dozen or so Stanley planes but I feel this plane would work well for anyone on a budget and who is able to sharpen the blade properly and make the simple adjustments that are required.
I bought one of these with a coupon and ultimately found it to be a great price for the tote and knob I took off of it and put on one of my other planes . If anyone wants the rest of it just drop me a line and pay the shipping , it’s yours .
I just purchased one as I’m just starting with woodworking, and I also purchased the Stanley 62 sweetheart low block plane too. Thanks for your help and video
I’m so jealous of you guys over there having "Harbour Freight" There’s no such thing in the UK. I’ve just spent over two hours restoring a second hand plane that isn’t half as good as the one you have there in your hands. Practically every tool I have has required a tear down and rebuild to get it right. (I can’t afford the good stuff), but even then, it still costs me more than you lot over there get from Harbour Freight.
I have that very same hand plane from Harbor freight. And I had to go through the same process as you did. Now he is one of my favorites.
They are Made in India by the same people that make Grizzly planes. They are very nice quality for the money I can’t see how they make them that cheap. There’s more than $10 in material in that plane. And the material is very high quality even the knob and tote are Indian Rosewood
It might be a $10 plane but how much of an investment in Diamond stones and a bench grinder is there? Essentially, a $10 plane can perform as well as a $150 dollar plane as long as you have $500 in sharpening/tuning equipment. I would probably buy a cheap plane like this for the sole purpose of filing a wider mouth, rounding off the blade and using it as a scrub plane.
I use this as a scrub plane. I can never get the alignment down as the blade always tilts. So if I want to make huge uncontrolled gouges. Done. If I want smoothing work… 2% of the time I can get them. 98% it’s anyone’s guess.
I bought one today and turned it into a scrub plane. The lever cap kept popping off randomly. I flattened the bottom it, which had a sand casting finish. I also undercut the slot for the screw to the sole so that the cap slides down the way and the problem stopped. It takes a full sixteenth inch shaving through knots in weathered red oak.
I made that exact same impulse buy. I still haven’t completed the tuneup yet. 🙂 The iron in mine was way worse. Whenever it was sharpened someone got way happy on one side. I would have returned it but the gas to drive back to HF was likely more than the plane cost me. I don’t have good stones yet so all I have is sandpaper. I was afraid that the sandpaper would also cost as much as the plane LOL. Maybe this is enough motivation to convince me to go try.
Dude, calm down.
Excellent video! I have been on the fence about if these would respond to fine tuning. I will buy one tomorrow! I wonder if some really thin washers on the adjuster screws will help take up the play seen there. I will know tomorrow. Thanks for posting this.
Well , I don’t Have Both Hands ! But I Love The Video , And I’m Going To Buy Me One , I’ll Try .
It is ten dollars use some diligence and a hammer blow or two will save allot of diamond work.
I’ve fettled a few planes (older model Stanley’s), and they work well. I bought one of these HF planes, flattened the sole, honed the blade, etc. Couldn’t keep the blade from slipping, changing depth or angle of cut. The 2-screw mechanism isn’t a good design, in a plane, IMO. I deepened the mouth and converted it to a scrub, where it seems to do ok.
A hand plane like this, has potential to frustrate newcomers to the hobby. If you want to buy this plane, it would be good to have a knowledgeable person help you get set up.
So, if woodworking is just a hobby (like it is for most people watching this video) and with a bit of time you can turn this plane into a plane that ‘can take some beatiful shavings’, why would you just use it for rough stuff? I understand that for the pro that has no time tinkering around with stuff it’s not an option, but for a hobbyist it is just a beatufull product. Instead of spending 150 dollars for a plane he can buy a plane, a set of chisels, some marking material etc.
Well I watched the whole video and I think those are the best spent 10 dollars for you this week, thanks for sharing!
Thanks u saved my 10 as well
The basic concept is the same with all planes. I always wonder why the results is never accentuated but they always speak of quality versus results.
These low low low end priced planes are aimed at the DIY’er who just wants to ease a door or something, same with the low end bailey pattern which I bought, they can be made to work very very well. But let’s face it, the thickness of the shaving is, although not irrelevant, is small in comparison to the finish of the wood which is by far the most important.
@ 17:45 I agree!:) I didn’t know what I was doing, but decided to try to trim some edgebanding with this right out of the box and ended up gouging the ply. Fortunately, I think I can sand it out, but this video has been super helpful. I was particularly glad for the guidance on flattening the bottom. Thank you!
Great video i will be buying this tomorrow.