WoodRiver #80 Cabinet Scraper

Comments about WoodRiver #80 Cabinet Scraper :

This is a great tool to handle surface preparation before switching to a hand held scraper for finer control. It really saves my thumbs on larger surfaces. It quickly became one of my favorite tools. However, know that it is not usable out of the box. The sole needs to be flattened big time. Also the thumb screw that adjust the flex of the blade is not really a thumb screw, you need to use a screw driver. Now that I love the tool so much, perhaps I will look for an authentic Stanley 80. In the meantime I would recommend this with the above warnings.

Comments about WoodRiver #80 Cabinet Scraper :

I bought mine at the Woodcraft store in Woburn, MA. The tune up was simple - tear it down and degrease everything, then smooth the sole with sandpaper on a flat surface (I used 3/4" MDF) to about 320 grit. I honed the bevel and turned a hook, put it all back together and was making shavings in no time. This sure beats burning my thumbs up scraping large surfaces with a card scraper!

Comments about WoodRiver #80 Cabinet Scraper :

I plan to use this to supplement a scraper plane and hand scrapers. Out of the box, it makes a little dust as you push it along the work. It requires a lot more work than I really wanted to do, but it's a decent start for a cabinet scraper, if you are willing to tune it up. The sole is in terrible condition, requiring a lot of grinding on the diamond stones to get it anywhere near flat and smooth. I got the vast majority of the tool marks out before I called it quits. A belt sander might be a good first tool to use on the sole. I started with a 100 grit diamond stone and it took about 45 minutes of grinding before I moved on to finer grits. The blade needed sharpening before putting the burr on it. The blade is beveled at 45 degrees, which is where I left it, being the same as my scraper plane. The blade is held by a crossbar, fastened by 2 metric M6 hex head bolts. UGH!! It surely isn't easy to set the blade height... So, either drill and tap the threads for common thumbscrews or studded knobs or buy metric versions of thumbscrews/knobs. The metric versions that I've found so far aren't cheap. Looks like I'll be tapping the holes for some studded knobs with a more common thread size, like 1/4-20. Although I spent more time and effort getting the scraper up and running, than I desired, in the end it works nicely. After the tune-up, it produces some nice, thin, curled shavings instead of sawdust, on my test board. So, I'm happy. I'll probably finish working the scratches out of the sole at a later date. I don't know how good the steel is in the blade, so don't know how long the burr will last. It's probably a good idea to get a spare blade or 2, perhaps of higher quality, unless you like to do sharpening.

Comments about WoodRiver #80 Cabinet Scraper :

This is a good design and replicates the popular Stanley #80 scraper plane but quality control on this sucks big time. The grinding of the bottom of the plane and the blade is horrible to say the least. In order to make it work the way it should either buy a Hock replacement blade or spend several hours trying to get the grinding marks out of the blade. Personally I bought a Hock replacement blade for the #80 plane.

Comments about WoodRiver #80 Cabinet Scraper :

I now use a scraper instead of a rough sander on most of my projects.