Hello
Was going to make a hanging tool cabinet to hold my planes. I tried to make rabbets on clear white pine (using LV right hand skew rabbet plane) to accept plywood back. Had width set at 1/2″ and depth stop at 1/4″. Had great difficulty and in the end decided to rip up and rabbet 3/4″ plywood to finish case out of extreme frustration. Is this plane’s intended use more for cross grain (hence nicker blade)? Must be a reason they call it rabbet plane. My cuts had inconsistent depths, and inconsistent widths. Had difficulty in getting any depth to start of cut. I changed grain direction on another piece with minimal improvement. Did also adjust depth of cut several times. Could never get a consistent, smooth shaving. Blade is sharp. I know i am doing something wrong. The end results were downright ugly. Any advice? Would like to see a link to any video use of this tool if any one knows of one.
Thanks
Mike
Replies
to deep a cut?
When I am hand tool crasy... I usually lay out and chop most of my rabbits and dado's... then use the plane to smooth them and make them acurate. If you plane is wandering your not holding it against the edge. If its not makeing a depth equally I think you might try switching sides.. If your using pine most likely your running down hill with the grain and then up hill on your end grain cuts. the edge should tell you that you need to plane into the core then switch sides and plane form the other side. Look at the endgrain if you jumping of on darker wood lines your blade may not be as sharp as you think also...
2 cents..
rich
Work backwards
Have you been starting at the far end of the cut and working your way backwards making each pass a few inches longer until you reach the near end of the stock? Doing it this way will usually give a much better cut. Also start out taking a very thin shaving until you have reached the near end, once you have the entire cut started you can advance the iron and take slightly deeper cuts to speed up the work.
Inconsistent depths and inconsistent widths
All that I can think of is that the depth stop and fence weren't tightened properly. Check the depth of cut and see that it protrudes a hair from the body out the side. I could also be the direction of grain, though you said you changed the direction on another piece. The left hand skew rabbet isn't just for lefties - it's also for grain running the other direction.
First hit for "skew rabbet video"
http://blogs.popularwoodworking.com/editorsblog/New+Veritas+Skew+Rabbet+Plane+In+Action.aspx
derek's instructions may have covered this (i haven't read them), but the two things to focus on (that I've found) using the plane are:
1) make sure everything is set up and tightened properly
2) when you're planing, make absolutely sure the fence stays against the workpiece - you can almost ignore everything else you're doing other than concentrating on holding the plane against the fence, because the plane itself will take care of cutting the proper depth. Things get hairy as soon as the fence gets away from the workpiece for a pass or two, though.
Not sure why you'd have depth issues unless the plane was not in the same state of vertical for each pass.
I agree with derek, it's a fabulous plane, and extremely satisfying to use and then observe the results.
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