EKD RP1 router plane

[djellworth]

My students tend to really like using our router planes. I have 4 - three old Stanley/Records and one flashy new Lie Nielsen. I am always on the lookout for more of the newer (LN or Veritas) variety second hand as I find that they are so much less likely to stick and despite the crazy new price are not actually that much more expensive than the crazy second hand prices around at the moment for the vintage tools.

I had spotted a new router plane on ebay by EKD - they seem to sell one a week or so - bid £55 or so and received it a couple of weeks ago.

So I had pretty low expectations for the price - but it doesn't look too bad - and whilst the raising/lowering cutter mechanism is nowhere near the precision and smoothness of the |Lie Nielsen, that works OK.
But we just can't get it to work smoothly... It is as if the cutter is ground at an angle which is basically not sharp (acute??) enough. (I hope the picture shows this)

We have sharpened it to at least the level our other routers are at but just cannot get a smooth cut. We may be missing something and there is perhaps another reason why but we suspect that this is the issue. Now - 1) has anyone else taken delivery of one of these EKD routers and if so, how do they find them? 2) Before we go to the grinder and try to change the shape of the blade does anyone have any other suggestions or thoughts?

 

[IWW]

Just eyeballing the blade in your pics, it does look like a pretty steep bevel. Another consideration is the quality of the metal - is it holding sharpness as you'd expect of a decent blade? If you can substitute a blade from one of the 'mainstream' routers, you have a very easy diagnostic test to find out if it's the blade that's the problem.

The only other thing I can think of that would radically affect function would be if the blade clamp isn't holding securely & the blade is moving up a bit under pressure.

These can be very basic tools (& it sure fits that criterion!) but still work very well - mine is a home-made OWT with a Veritas blade & it does an excellent job. I'm sure a bit of tinkering will locate the problem...
Cheers,
Ian