Reply To: Getting a Harbor Freight #4 working
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Price is not an issue infinding old planes if you just look a little.
Not only are there inexpensive Stanley’s out there, but you can find competitor or secondary market planes from the 30’s and 40’s even cheaper and all will be a better buy than a HF paperweight.
With a Stanley, you might have to do some derusting, painting, and maybe fix a tote. Collectors pass these by.
Sargent made good planes that differed from Stanley’s in minor details, and Stanley bought out Sargent and kept producing them, eventually just using Stanley castings, and made price competetive planes for major retailers like Sears, J.C. Penny, and Montgomery Ward and I find these for $20-$25 on EBay and for as little as $5 in thrift stores.
As an example, I recently picked up a WWII era Wards Master #3 made by Stanley that differs in only cosmetic details like lack of chrome on the lever cap and a twisted lateral adjuster instead of the Stanley 3 piece version. Stanley didn’t even Chrome much of its top of the line products during the war.
I paid under $5 for this Wards master #3. After derusting, refinishing totes, and a couple hours of serious fettling, it’s a great plane. It differs from a #4 by this stage of production by 1/4” in iron width and 1/8” in length from a #4.
All the totes and screw parts are interchangeable with the WWII Stanley #4 in the background ( I picked up the #4 in rusty condition for under $20). The castings bear the correct Stanley foundry marks, and the “Bailey” has been ground off. Otherwise, they are the same era Stanley parts, same proprietary threads, …everything. Note the No 3 marking on the nose that mirror the #4 markings on the Stanley.
The secret is familiarizing yourself with what secondary market items Stanley produced. Functionally they function just like a Stanley. They are always cheaper. Collectors hold their noses as they pass them by.
My advice is to keep looking, you are just throwing good money after bad with the HF product, as you have already found out with the iron.