Quangsheng Luban No. 102 Bronze Apron Plane Reviews

4.8 Rating 29 Reviews

Cast in bronze, this delightful little block plane is traditionally carried in the apron pocket, ready for immediate and frequent use.Compact and easy to use with one hand, it has a 25 degree T10 bevel up blade bedded at 12 degrees. Like it's larger cousins it has a super smooth, low ratio, type 3 adjuster.In the early stages of a piece, an apron plane might be used to make small adjustments to the ends of squared timber blanks, or to create chamfers on waste material before it is cut away, both to aid visibility and prevent breakout.In the later stages it may be used to fine tune joinery or sliding components to achieve the desired fit; or to take tiny threads off sharp corners to strengthen them. In some cases it may even be needed after a piece is finished, to correct the odd squeak or binding drawer.Specifications:
Body: Cast bronze (so it won't rust)
Weight 470g / 1lb
Conforms to British Standard
3mm thick, 32mm wide cutting iron cutting iron made from T10 carbon steel hardened to RC60-63
Sole dimensions 137mm x 35 - 40mm (coffin sided)
Notes on use:
To adjust the blade, loosen the cap wheel until it is just beginning to exert the lightest possible pressure on the blade.
Position the blade laterally with finger and thumb and then, with the plane sole down on a piece of timber, advance the blade until it just makes contact with the surface.
Wind the cap iron screw twice (about half a rotation) and take a test shaving and adjust if necessary.
You don't need to apply all of the tension that the thumbwheel is capable of, it has the mechanical advantage of a screw thread and a 2:1 lever advantage, so two twists is plenty.
Please note that we are unable to ship Quangsheng products to North America due to retail exclusivity restrictions.

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“I have the LN version of this plane and loved it. I bought this one for my student benches and it has supplanted the LN in my affections!I think it is superior to the LN. The small wheel on the LN is difficult to adjust. The larger QS wheel is just right. The cut is good, and it's half the price!”

1 Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

“It is lovely. Needed some work, to get it sharp and right. Worth every penny.”

1 Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“It feels solid, it is a light little plane, very handy for chamfer.”

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Posted 3 years ago

“This is my third Luban block plane, second from Workshop Heaven. The others are the standard angle block and the diddy no. 101, which i bought more for the delight of it, although it's been used in anger rather more than i expected (and is an excellent pencil sharpener!). I've only just taken receipt of this one, but immediately clear that this is going to be the pick of the bunch for me - sitting in the sweet spot of usefulness. It's weighted, shaped and sized perfectly for one hand use, whilst still having sufficient heft to undertake the key jobs where i'd typically reach for a block plane. I have quite small hands and this immediately made the standard block plane feel quite ungainly and, well, blocky' still by comparison. The 12 degree bed means it brings additional end grain advantages (the little no.101 is the standard 20 deg angle in comparison). And out of the box, the fit and finish was exemplary. The blade was keenly ground and took a reasonable shaving without any honing at all, although of course i did hone it properly afterwards, which took less than a minute, and that's all it needed. I remain to be convinced about the new style depth adjuster, which seems to engage slightly less solidly than the slightly simpler and much deeper-bedding wheel on the other Lubans i own, but I'm sure there are reasons for the evolution that i don't yet see, and the (lack of) backlash is similar for mine at least - the blade engages from retract to advance with a 1/3 turn of the wheel across all three of my planes. The only other caveat is that the coffin shape means no shooting for this one, but i have found that a much bigger bench plane is better suited for that task anyway. So, early days but i foresee this becoming my go-to block plane, and makes me wonder if i'll get much use out of the larger, standard angle block in the longer run, as nice as it is.”

1 Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“As all the other reviews say, it’s a great little plane and if you’re not snobby about Chinese, for every day use why spend 3x more for Lie Nielsen when you can have this, almost as good ( I too also own Lie Nielsen so can compare). Why 3* then? Well as others have said, it’s a solidly made heavy plane...great size. But: 1. It’s coffin shaped and you would expect that when viewed on plan, one long edge should be a mirror copy of the other. Well on mine, that is not the case. Whereas the from three quarters of the sole does mirror on both sides, when you get to the back, it no longer does...in fact it is curved in a way that one side is parallel to the other. I can’t see it matters in the end or I would have sent it back but it does show lack of quality control by Luban. It would have been rejected by Lie Nielsen. 2. I like the soles of my planes to be as flat as possible and although one can argue that on a short plane like this it is less important, nevertheless, as someone that loves quality tools, I set about checking for flatness and lapping. Flatness certainly wasn’t bad but it wasn’t flat either. It had a hollow at the centre front, by the blade slot and at the back...all were over the middle third of the width. It probably took about an hour to lap most away so now it is flat except I couldn’t get rid of the hollow at the back. I decided this didn’t matter as the remainder of the sole is now good, but nevertheless, it’s a bit disappointing. 3. My main disappointment though relates to the blade and the way it sits. After honing, I went to set the plane up only to discover that I couldn’t get the blade to appear evenly across the sole opening. I checked the bevel for squareness and it was fine, so it had to be something else. What I found was that one side of the blade towards the back was fouling on the side of the body and that was stopping it moving as far as it needed. It wasn’t too difficult to grind an area about 6x15mm in the side down and smooth it off...and that certainly helped but the blade was still fouling. Rather than making the whole blade slightly narrower I decided to grind a slight hollow on the edge of the back of the blade where it was still fouling. Rubbish having to do that but it barely shows, doesn’t reduce performance and meant that the blade does now just about adjust correctly. Only just because I realise that there’s a limit to how far the blade can be rotated like this because the depth adjusting slots sit quite snugly in the adjusted and there’s not much play. So it’s a shame and I’d like to be able to have more lateral adjustment as usual but it’s about workable. So overall, I think the above let this brilliant little plane down. Items 1 and 2 aren’t real issues but item 3 is and again demonstrates poor quality control. Given that all the other reviews are 5* I can only assume I had a one off poor product. Am I glad I bought it? Yes. Would I buy it again? Yes. I sort of had expected something like this and was surprised at how many 5* reviews I’ve seen. Had I bought this for ‘best’, then I’d feel short changed. But I didn’t. It isn’t Lie Nielsen but then it isn’t that cost either. So be prepared to do some fettling and it’ll be fine. As they say, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. And as an alternative, would I save a bit of money and buy a Stanley etc type alternative. No way. The inherent quality of this apron plane is far superior to others except the genuine premium planes, so it’s well worth buying this with your eyes open! Good planing! Seller response: This one should have, would have and still could be replaced under warranty. QS planes should only require a few minutes fettling to be ready for work, if you get one that needs any more than that please let us know and we will be happy to help.”

1 Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“I used to own the lie neilson version but it got stolen from my tool box on a building site and couldn't afford to replace it at the time. Several years later I decided to treat myself to a new one but discovered this and after reading a few reviews I decided to get it. A waited a while to post a review to properly use it and get a feel for it and I really like it. The only difference between it and the lie neilson is the depth adjustment screw, it's not as good quality as the lie neilson but for actual use once the blade is locked in place it's not an issue so would definitely recommend it.”

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Posted 4 years ago

“Feels great and costs so little. Worth every penny and probably the best cost/quality ratio there is at the time”

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Posted 6 years ago

“I have booth LN and this one. I have to buy another of QS and i will probably buy few more for each blade angle one. It have very fine mouth and once you find what it can do all other block planes are not so useful anymore. Incredible value for the money”

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Posted 6 years ago