Plane blade

[Paul Kierstead]

Yes, I know I should not have gone cheap, but I wanted to find out more.

If you go used, you can go inexpensive without being cheap.

On the topic at hand, it sounds like a lot of work as it is pretty pooched.

 

[MrJay]

Regarding iron and cap iron alignment.

Check that the pointy end of the iron is square.
Check that the pointy end of the cap iron is square.
If both are square you should be able to align them squarely. A tiny bit of astrayness won't kill you.

If the iron isn't square you can flatten the back and grind a new bevel using a jig.

If the cap iron isn't square it can be carefully filed. It should be a proper pointy edge by the way (otherwise it will trap shavings and clog) and it should meet the back of the iron at around 45 degrees. You don't need a lot of surface contact between the pointy end of the cap iron on the iron - just the edge is fine, but you do want contact to be even across the width.

The cap iron should be set so its sharp edge meets the back of the iron a couple of mm below the very sharp edge of the iron. The exact distance can be tweaked for different woods, but 2 or 3mm should do you most of the time.


Regarding the frog

it needs to be set far enough back so that there is enough gap for shavings to pass through (ie not much). It doesn't need to be set back to meet the mouth. Don't over tighten the fixing screws.


Better to have a few nice tools than lots of cheap ones.

 

[bobscarle]

Thank you all for your help. I spoke to a very helpful man at Axminster today and told him my story. He is going to send out a pre-paid bag for me to send the plane back in. They will then send out a replacement. I cannot fault the Customer Service at Axminster =D>.

As far as the points raised go, the blade is square but the cap iron is not! I also believe that the distance between the adjuster slot and the front edge of the cap iron it too great, and this is the reason why the blade will not retract.

I will now have to wait a day or two or three to get another one to try. In the mean time my Father in Law had a trunk of old tools which contains at least one plane...............

Bob

 

[sparky]

Let's know how you get on.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

that i shall

i do have the origional vandium steel blade so ill try that first...but then what to do with the $30 A2 blade from LV
:roll:
oh well im sure that are worse problems to have

sparky

 

[woodbloke]

Thanks, Rob. We went to a nice Italian restaurant so I sampled their Grappa

Cheers :wink:

Paul

I like Italiano too, nice pizza, lashings of the Extra Virgin, marinated olives to start and good bottle of Chianti, dollop of ice cream for pud....lovely - Rob

 

[bugbear]

Regarding iron and cap iron alignment.

Check that the pointy end of the iron is square.
Check that the pointy end of the cap iron is square.
If both are square you should be able to align them squarely. A tiny bit of astrayness won't kill you.

Be Careful.

On some old planes, where the bed isn't truly square to the sole, a non-square blade is the previous user's careful compensation, so that the blade protrudes parallel with the sole (which is what you want).

Sometimes it is just a mistake, too.

So CHECK the blade in situ before any major grinding.

DAMHIKT.

edit: further, on old woodie bench plane blades, the blade is tapered from top to bottom, so be thoughtful in how you determine that the edge is square to the blade...

BugBear