Problem with Norris adjuster on Veritas plane

[humanfish]

Hi guys
I'm having a problem with it and i'm afraid it's the second time it has happened. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
I can't adjust the blade enough to protrude through the sole. It appears the thread is thicker over an 8mm area preventing any further progress. Any ideas what could have caused this? It was workig fine when i got the replacement but over time and a reduction of use this has happened. Now I can't use the Jointer unless I replace the adjuster with my smoother one which is working fine as is the low-angle jack.

 

[Lord Nibbo]

I would say your adjusting the blade with the cap fitted too tight, you need to unscrew the cap slightly before altering the blade, failing to do that your putting a tremendous strain on that thread.

 

[Martin Brown]

Mail it back and we will replace. Will seek some advice meantime but my first thoughts are with the comments above.

Martin

 

[Pekka Huhta]

It seems to be mangled just for the reason LN said. You should loosen the cap iron screw pretty much when adjusting. It is nice to the adjustment mechanism, but also gives you better control for tuning.

Also the female thread on the adjuster may be damaged from rough use. I would inspect that as well, as the new screw might get just as bad quite soon if the other part is worn half through.

If you have a very fine needle file you can file the threads working again. It doesn't replace the metal that has been mangled away, but it will get the screw working. It's surprisingly easy to follow the thread with the file.

Pekka

 

[GCR]

It takes a lot of force to damage an M8 thread via a nut. What concerns me is the fact that the first part of the thread is undamaged and I would have thought that the mangled centre part would in turn damage the nut which would then damage the first part of the screw as it is wound out.

The damage looks to me more like contact with an immovable projection within the plane iron or body assembly which is making contact with the centre length of the screw and thus taking the top off the screw as it passes the obstruction. Might be worth checking the innards of the plane.

Bob

 

[Anonymous]

Agree with above that it looks like a typical stripped thread but M8 takes some stripping and I would not expect enough torque from the brass knob alone (with fingers).
Did you find you were having to apply a lot of pressure to the knob, i.e. more than with just fingers in your efforts to get the blade to protrude?

 

[promhandicam]

If it were just down to the fact that the cap screw wasn't loosened off then IMHO it would be the finer thread that would strip before the 8mm. I would suggest getting a regular 8mm bolt with the same pitch of thread and making sure that it goes through the threaded part that locates in the body of the plane. I would suspect that this is damaged. When reassembling the parts (looking at the adjuster on my low angle smoother), you have to wind the larger RH threaded piece on as far as it goes and then turning the rod counterclockwise, while holding the first threaded piece, thread on the smaller LH threaded piece (that locates in the iron). Hope this makes sense!

Steve

 

[Jeff Gorman]

Nibbo wrote: I would say your adjusting the blade with the cap fitted too tight, you need to unscrew the cap slightly before altering the blade, failing to do that your putting a tremendous strain on that thread.

This reveals the great weakness with the Norris type adjuster. After re-tightening the lever cap there's no guarantee that the lateral adjuster will not have shifted during the adjustment, and there's no certainty that the setting will be just what was wanted.

The Bailey pattern can be fully adjusted with the lever cap tightly snapped in place, and what you see when you inspect the edge, is what you get.

 

[dchenard]

Nibbo wrote: I would say your adjusting the blade with the cap fitted too tight, you need to unscrew the cap slightly before altering the blade, failing to do that your putting a tremendous strain on that thread.

This reveals the great weakness with the Norris type adjuster. After re-tightening the lever cap there's no guarantee that the lateral adjuster will not have shifted during the adjustment, and there's no certainty that the setting will be just what was wanted.

The Bailey pattern can be fully adjusted with the lever cap tightly snapped in place, and what you see when you inspect the edge, is what you get.

Like others I agree that the lever cap is too tight. However, and I think that it is the accepted procedure (for both Bailey and Norris), the lever cap shouldn't be so tight as to unduly restrict the adjuster's movement, depth-wise or side-to-side.

If I'm right on this (someone correct me if I'm wrong), then WF's statement about the Norris, while accurate, is irrelevant.

The Bailer lever cap has something of a fail-safe feature to it, which is, as one snaps the cap cam in place, pressure is relieved somewhat at the end of the "stroke" (otherwise the cam would not stay in the closed position), which relieves the pressure somewhat. My Record #4 has a knurled bolt instead of a cam lock, so it's easy to put too much pressure.

DC

 

[Paul Kierstead]

In my experience, you can get away with a tighter lever cap on a Bailey style then with a Norris style, but the real strength of the Baily is the separate lateral adjust lever and depth control, so there is essentially zero chance of inadvertent lateral adjustment. However, with practice with either can be made adjustable without pain.

Of course everyone's method of work varies, but I find I don't muck with depth very often, especially on smoothing planes; if a smoothing plane isn't hitting "enough" of the board, it probably isn't flat enough. I swap planes back to something to flatten it. Within the flattening ones, again I tend to leave the planes as-is, choosing the plane based based on need, not mucking with the depth. The only exception to all this is my Jack, where I typically start heavy and lighten up as I go. However, I keep enough camber on the Jack that being dead-on lateral-wise doesn't matter that much for faces, though it still matters quite a bit for edges. Of course I have the full range of planes and don't mix "purpose" much; others like to make all their planes do everything.

 

[dchenard]

In my experience, you can get away with a tighter lever cap on a Bailey style then with a Norris style, but the real strength of the Baily is the separate lateral adjust lever and depth control, so there is essentially zero chance of inadvertent lateral adjustment. However, with practice with either can be made adjustable without pain.

I've never had inadvertent lateral movement with my Norris adjuster equipped planes, I guess that if one relieves the pressure completely on the lever cap this could become an issue.

With proper pressure from the lever cap (i.e. not so much as to impede depth adjustment), the Norris adjuster has a lot more leverage going depth-wise than sideways. To me at least, this has never been an issue.

DC

 

[Paul Kierstead]

As I said, they both can be adjusted without pain.

 

[ydb1md]

Is it possible the adjuster nut was in upside down? If you look at the picture below, the flat side of the adjuster should be up. If you had the hollow side up, that would have mashed the threads into some cast iron. Just a thought . . .