Thanks to a commentator on my query about buying belt sanders was sent in the direction of hand planes. Spent last Sunday reading Find Woodworking articles and then fussing with and trying to “get” the hand plane. Am using a jack plane to smooth boards glued to make wide surface. Finally got it right but not without major irritation. A buddy who stopped by was impressed by how well adjusted the planer was!
Then I decided to sharpen it. So my question is: Is there some handy trick of the trade for adjusting the blade depth or is it just a case of learning by doing and getting the feel of it?
Thanks
Replies
Is it a metal plane? A wooden plane? What make or kind of depth adjustment? Maybe your question is about cap iron setting? If you could be more specific a lot of people here can offer a variety of opinions that just might be of help or may add to the confusion.
For a metal plane I suggest taking it to a piece of scrap wood with the blade retracted and start planing, increasing the depth with each stroke until you feel it just starting to bite.
At this point you won't see any shavings, you're knocking off the high points. After a few strokes slowly increase the depth of cut (if necessary) until you get gossamer thin shavings and a beautiful finish.
Now you can make any sideways adjustments required.
Stay with the minimal depth and try the plane on your work. Adjust as required.
If you don't get gossamer-thin shavings then you probably need to sharpen more.
All this takes less time than it took to write this.
Amount of blade sticking out the bottom of the plane ( depth of cut ) is pretty much limited by how much horse power you can put into the plane. Like was already said . . . start with nothing protruding and start planing and slowly advancing the blade every couple of passes until it turns into more work than you can handle.
I assume you have a basic old handplane with a metal wheelie advance. They tend to need a bunch of turning to effect much change until the slop gets taken up in all the parts then from there just a fraction of a turn for each advance. Or maybe you discovered that by now and I am wasting my breath (finger taps).
How did you sharpen the plane? What bevel did you put on the iron?
As far as advancing the blade, I just retract, make a pass, nudge the knob in. Lather, rinse repeat until I'm getting the shaving I desire. Jack planes are capable of anywhere from razor thin shavings up to 1/16 of an inch! It's a highly versatile plane.
What type of plane is it? Bevel up? Bevel down?
"Lather, rinse repeat"
"Lather, rinse repeat" ???
No wonder you're getting corrosion! ;-)
Just kidding. I know the comment was humorous.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled