Am I wasting my time ???

[Tusses]

el cheapo No. 4

need I go on ???

anyway. I am upping my game and either tuning up or replacing my cheap / diy tools.

my hand plane removed wood - but never cut straight.

The blade wasn't square at the end - so I spent a bit of time flattening the back and squaring the bevel. on putting it back together - I noticed the whole lot is out of square

have a look and tell me if its junk

It was cheap - so no matter if its junk - I just dont want to waste my time trying to grind everything square, if its a lost cause.

any recomendation for an entry level plane ?

Ta

Rich

 

[NeilO]

Tusses,
Looks to me like a generic No4, so its not going to be perfect...
you checked the sole with a square, but I would worry more about the sole being flat, unless your using it to shoot...then provided the out of squareness is minimal the lateral blade adjustment should compensate....

the frog base just needs a little file smooth to get it to seat properly, as does the mouth to get square..

but if you havent the time or the inclination, it means bin it and buy new, or good secondhand..

 

[Tusses]

Inclination I have - Time too , as long as I know its not wasted !

 

[Joe]

Tusses, how accurate is your square? I would have thought you'd be better off using an engineer's square for checking plane sides and mouth alignment. Mind you, I'm sure the sides aren't square to the sole - in my not so extensive experience they rarely are unless you buy one of the more expensive brands (and as NeilO said, there are ways of compensating for this when shooting).

Joel

 

[Tusses]

the square is spot on - I checked this too

if I were to find an old Stanley or something at a car boot , would I still have the same problem ? or were they better engineered ?

 

[tnimble]

the square is spot on - I checked this too

if I were to find an old Stanley or something at a car boot , would I still have the same problem ? or were they better engineered ?

The change fairly high is to get about the same squareness.

Better questions than how square are the sdes, the mounth etc. is how does the blade fit on the frog, does the cap iron seat weel on the blade, does the lever cap put even pressure at the curve of the vap iron, does the frog makes solid contact with the body, can the grof be moved froth enough to get a close mouth, are the front of the mounth and the blade parralell when the blade is nicely centered etc.

 

[ac445ab]

the square is spot on - I checked this too

if I were to find an old Stanley or something at a car boot , would I still have the same problem ? or were they better engineered ?

The old Stanley are better engineered but rarely I saw one with perfectly square sides.

Ciao,
Giuliano

 

[paulm]

Looking at the bottom pic Rich, think the first thing to do is loosen the two bolts and see if the frog can be adjusted square to the mouth. If not then will need a fair bit of work and may not be worth bothering with, but if it just needs adjusting there then worth thinking about further tweaking.

Cheers, Paul.

 

[Tusses]

Hi Paul - at the moment it wont adjust square - when the screws are tightened it seats back down tiwsted.

I'll have a look in a bit.

 

[bugbear]

The sides only need to be square to the sole if' you're using it on a shooting board, which isn't likely with a no 4. So don't worry about that.

The frog position should be adjusted so that a square blade is as parallel to the mouth as possible.

However.

If the bedding surface of the frog is not flat (in a left-to-right sense) you'll need to compensate by having a non square end on the blade, so proceed gently.

I would recommend a car boot Record #04 as a better recipient of your time and effort though. Should be under a tenner.

BugBear

 

[Tusses]

thanks for all your help !

I am getting somewhere now

the frog wouldnt sit square, so a few minutes with the angle grinder and now it will.

working much better so far

I still have a lot to learn - like which way round does the blade go :shock: I really know nothing

It only seems to fit one way (bevel down) so thats how it is at the moment.


I'll have to google around and read up

thanks again

 

[Tusses]

With a bit of blade sharpening ....

some thin shavings - nice and see through

end some end grain oak - couldnt do that before !

 

[George_N]

T

If the bedding surface of the frog is not flat (in a left-to-right sense) you'll need to compensate by having a non square end on the blade, so proceed gently.
BugBear

thanks for all your help !

I am getting somewhere now

the frog wouldnt sit square, so a few minutes with the angle grinder and now it will.

:shock: If that's proceeding gently I'd hate to see you in a hurry :wink:

 

[Tusses]

:shock: If that's proceeding gently I'd hate to see you in a hurry :wink:

 

[bugbear]

:shock: If that's proceeding gently I'd hate to see you in a hurry :wink:

I suspect a round "burr" in a dremel in conjunction with "spotting" or "printing" might be handy in some cases. Some parts of a plane casting are very difficult to file.

BugBear

 

[Tusses]

aha ! well done that man

my dremel !!! I completely overlooked that idea - Thanks

 

[paulm]

Loads of information on here

http://www.cianperez.com/Wood/WoodDocs/ ... How_To.htm

Cheers, Paul