Replies

1. 
   KiddervilleAcres | Feb 29, 2008 06:20pm | #1

   I tried one on my computer but it didn't work.  Should I try it in the hottub?

   Regards,

   Bob @ Kidderville Acres

   A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!

2. 
   troys | Feb 29, 2008 07:46pm | #2

   I tried one out at a tool show here in Oakland CA, nifty tool and easy to use. I would wonder how long the cutters would stay sharp enough to use well in hardwood and how difficult it would be to sharpen them. Very nicely thought out tool.

   Troy

3. 
   noviceneil | Feb 29, 2008 10:09pm | #3

   I have one with the dado cutters, 1/16, 1/8, and 3/16"..extremely well made, easy to change cutters...they do a great job on lengthwise cuts, and a very good job across the grain..I have some trouble with the fence staying tight, seems to loosen too easily while doing cuts repeatedly...I have the same problem with the Stanley 45...I also wish they had longer posts available...overall it's a great little plane, obviously an expensive one when you start adding the cutters...I haven't used it alot yet so this is my initial impression

   Neil

1. 
   WoodRivWW | Feb 29, 2008 10:20pm | #4

   Thanks for the info.

1. 
   noviceneil | Mar 03, 2008 06:58am | #5

   Had a chance to use the plane this weekend. Was making a molding for the top of a toybox which if it holds up may become a blanket chest in the distant future...anyway, I wanted to make an 1/8 inch bead at the top with a quirk and going through my meager store of molding planes, I realized that I didn't have anything to fit the bill...then I remembered my beading plane from Lee Valley....I made a great 1/16 quirk with the BC HP-6, then rounded over the remaining wood with the beading plane..worked great...I think that there are a great number of potential uses for this plane, I just need the time to realize them..

   Neil

1. 
   WoodRivWW | Mar 03, 2008 07:14am | #6

   Sounds great. What's a quirK?

1. 
   noviceneil | Mar 03, 2008 02:36pm | #10

   I'm sure someone will correct me (perhaps Lataxe when he gets done breathing whatever strange wood that led to his last post...I didn't think cannabis grew on trees...whoops, forgot this :) ) anyway,a quirk is a flattened space before the bead, adds depth and the appearance of depth to the bead...would be alot easier to draw it but I don't seem to have that capability on my computer (this would be the point wherre my artist relatives would tell me how I should have gotten a Mac)....perhaps someone can provide a picture while I reread Lataxe's last post...I swear I read something like this in the sixties...

   Neil

    

    

    

2. 
   KiddervilleAcres | Mar 03, 2008 05:12pm | #12

   Neil,

   Two things going on with Sire Lataxe:

   He is still unsettled that we Yanks took a chest on them outrageous goofy looking spindly legs which makes the chest look like a big box on sticks and made chests with grace and grandeur, by replacing them with cabriole legs.

   Not to mention that he still feels we owe that tax on tea!

   Wanna bet I'll hear about this?

   Regards,

   Bob @ Kidderville Acres

   A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!

   Edited 3/3/2008 9:13 am ET by KiddervilleAcres

3. 
   Lataxe | Mar 03, 2008 09:35pm | #14

   Bob,

   I thought of several excellent and irrefutable arguments in reply to your invective, especially that concerning the scuttlers and also the tea-tax.  However, I realised that the potential circumloquation could be avoided with use of this succinct phrase:

   "Close-up your adjustable oral fissure before tear out occurs"!

   Meanwhile, (and this is something of an apology to the OP) one is still unclear about the Bridge City tool in question; and about all of their oeuvre, in fact.  There are few reviews and what there are seem to say something along the lines of: innovative design; excellent materials; but over-engineered (meaning the decorative shapes spurious to functions) and rather expensive.

   The tool in question seems to be rather like an SLR camera - a very versatile design, capable of great things when made well; but (like many "systems") rather prolific in add-ons of a very specialist function and therefore a bit of a money-pit.  Also, I dislike their marketing strategy, with all that "founders club" nonsense.

   But there are so few reviews that this impression might be entirely incorrect.

   Lataxe, who has eyed that plane up from time to time whilst counting his spare pennies out.

4. 
   JeffHeath | Mar 04, 2008 04:41am | #17

   Lataxe

   After careful consideration regarding all things you were trying to mention in that oh-so eloquently worded post, I believe I can honestly say, I agree with all you said.

   Bridge City Tools makes some of the prettiest gadgetry specified towards the woodworking market, but they cater their tools towards collector's and hobbyists.  No one trying to make a living would spend so much money on a tool so limited in its function.  And, I believe you can say that about the vast quantity of tools they produce.  As I stated, pretty, but more appealing on a shelf in a shiny box than on a workbench.

   And, being forced to buy membership in a club just to have the right to purchase tools goes way beyond my tolerances as an ale consuming human.  My conclusion regarding that company, reached a long time ago, is "PH@#% em'!".

   Jeff

4. 
   flairwoodworks | Mar 03, 2008 08:40am | #7

   It is certainly a very nice looking tool.  It has good fit and finish, but I felt that it is under-engineered.  When rabetting, taking either a full width shaving or one under 1/4", the shavings get caught on the underside of the body sides.  I was unable to take a 1/8" wide, gossamer thin (0.02" thick) shaving along a 2' board without having to clear the shaving in order to proceed.  When cutting a rabbet larger than 1/4", the shavings were usually able to come out the center, between the two sides of the body.

   I found two other minor annoyances.  Firstly, there is no lateral adjustment.  This just requires small taps on the side of the iron.  Secondly, the capscrew which hold the blade fast, has a small brass cup washer (for failure of a better term) which simply "floats" between the screw and blade.  When backed off it will fall out and bounce into the darkest corner of the shop if you are not careful.

   Chris @ flairwoodworks

    - Success is not the key to happines.  Happiness is the key to success.  If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer

   
   

   ---

   Edited 3/3/2008 12:45 am by flairwoodworks

5. 
   philip | Mar 03, 2008 09:19am | #8

   Woody,
   I have not even seen one in real life, so I Googled and found this :-

   HP-6v2 Quick-release, lockup dovetail joint articulate
   HP-6v2 Mini Multi-Plane (Bridge City Tool Works)
   Key features Bridge City Tool Works HP-6v2

   * Quick-release, lockup dovetail joint articulate
   * New Quick-release scheme makes changeovers unsubdivided & firm!
   * Interchangeable soles
   * Hard-anodized atomic number 13
   * Large change of soles uncommitted to primed this astonishing young HP-6v2 Mini Multi-Plane
   This astonishing young HP-6v2 mini multi-plane requires no tools to exchange soles! There is no circumscribe to the raiment of originative uses you'll regain by with the help of the broad change of that may be interchanged soles uncommitted (sold separably) towards our young HP-6v2 Mini Multi-Plane Body. Our young quick-release, lockup dovetail joint articulate plan makes changeovers unsubdivided and immobile! Let your mental imagery go wild....

   One wonders if whoever wrote all that would know that it is actually a tool for working wood.
   Nevertheless, it is followed by this piece- in which the word "wood" is mentioned .

   ECE #711 Primus Improved Smoothing Plane (Emmerich)
   Key features EC Emmerich 711
   *711 Adjustable oral fissure minimizes tear-outs.
   * The Ultimate Wood Body Smoothing Plane
   * Adjustable oral fissure minimizes tear-outs
   * Shavings flux freely because that on that point is no force
   * Lignum Vitae (Ironwood) resole is ego lubricating
   * Backlash-free "Primus" chemical mechanism is unbeatable

   This is the top out of the run along Smoother from ECE. Made in the opinion of a Fruitwood personify, Ironwood resole, Primus accommodation chemical mechanism and an adjustable rima oris. Excels at amercement passementerie act and rise up smoothing. Made in Germany by EC Emmerich in the opinion of o'er 150 years of see in toolmaking. High lineament German nerve press hilds a real sharp-worded inch. Built to utmost manifold lifetimes, this plane testament ne'er allow you downward.
   I just thought I'd bring it to your attention (;)

   Philip Marcou
1. 
   Lataxe | Mar 03, 2008 01:42pm | #9

   Philip,

   Strangely enough, I have come to believe that I have a number of the attributes listed in your fine post.  This may or may not be a delusion (how does one tell)?

   In particular, many neighbours have opined that, "He is fruitwood personified" or words to that effect.  I also have quite a "young quick release" for my age and "my mental imagery go wild" more than once in a week, which I put down to inhalation of various strange wood dusts over the years;and perhaps too much reading of books recommended by the wilder-eyed Knotters, such as Charles and Pedro.

   Lastly, and as I once explained to Cicero, my genes do contain an element of "high lineament German nerve press" which does in reality, "hild a real sharp-worded inch".  albeit in metric rather than them imperialistic thangs, which are far too bombastic not to mention arcane and inimical to practicality when it comes to the process of matching wooden bits to have that elusive degree of meld that signifies "harmonious".

   But I digress.

   As to that plane, it seems reminiscent of contemporary design in furniture - as much a sculpted thing to look at and display as a machine of utility for woodworking.  But I must put aside my prejudice and liking for tradition, before anthropomorphism of a dangerously self-deluding kind sets in and I lose the ability to hild; or even to buy a shiny new tool because of suspicions concerning the marketing hyperbole.

   Lataxe, with adjustable oral fissure minimizing tear-outs.

1. 
   zolton | Mar 04, 2008 01:39am | #15

   Dang it Lataxe! I don't care what anyone says; you're tip-top in my book.

   I very much look forward to your posts. You're a guy who can string some words together. Thanks for clearing the air about that particular tool. It's just as you said..

   Zolton* Some people say I have a problem because I drink hydraulic brake fluid. But I can stop any time I want.

2. 
   saschafer | Mar 03, 2008 04:37pm | #11

   Those sound like they were written in English, translated into Chinese, from there into Swahili, and then back into English.

   -Steve

    

6. 
   WoodRivWW | Mar 03, 2008 05:21pm | #13

   Thanks to all for the information and interesting discussion.

7. 
   hamelech | Mar 04, 2008 03:31am | #16

   WoodRivWW,

   I also tried the HP 6 plane at the same Oakland tool show that Troys attended(a Lie Nielsen sponsored event at The Crucible, but I've not met Troys), John Economaki hizzelf from Bridge City Tools was demonstrating the tool.

   John had a couple of idea samples, e.g. a length of light colored beading inset into a darker wood, creating both color contrast and texture. It's easy to form small coves, quirks and rounds. If this is your method of work, this tool fills that niche.

   I was impressed at the high quality fit and finish of the whole kit. Lataxe's point is well taken, it's an expensive hobby to buy each and every sole/iron. To sharpen the iron, you buy for $30, ####matched anodized aluminum profile and use diamond paste as the abrasive, and yes, for every different sole/iron, you'd need the matching sharpening profile. It adds up.

   Cheers,

   Seth