Trouble with Beech

[transatlantic]

I've started making a small box in Beech and have just started making the grooves using my home made grooving plane. I'm having real trouble trying to push the plane through though. Im not quite sure what is going on. I can make grooves in Sapele with absolute ease, yet with the Beech its a nightmare. I've tried planing from both directions, but its no easier. Blade is sharp, and when it does cut, its very clean?? It just feels like you're trying to force through end grain. Whats going on?


Photo shows Beech on the left and Sapele on the right (Ignore that one really rough cut in the middle, that was something else).

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

 

[thetyreman]

having a higher angle on the blade edge works well, I found 35 degrees worked better when making grooves in beech when I was doing it, the difference wasn't subtle either, it made a big difference.

 

[transatlantic]

I'll give it a go!

 

[transatlantic]

It didn't seem to help, I think it made it a little hard actually.

I just tried some Oak (I think American White Oak), and that is supposed to be about the same hardness as Beech and although it wasn't as easy as the Sapelle, it wasn't difficult. But then Sapelle is supposed to be harder than Oak?

It's very odd. I am guessing this has nothing to do with hardness, but more grain structure?

 

[Ttrees]

I don't see any traces of wax anywhere, could any of that resistance be coming from the walls?
Is the beech dry?
Are the walls the same looking, or does one have any slight damage?
Could the cutter have a bit of taper to it, getting wider further away from the edge?
I don't have any experience with plough planes, so can't do more than speculate really,

I see that the Stanley's and old moving fillisters have rather a thinner cutter most of the time, and supported by the bed close to the cut, so you may have too much clearance angle making the iron flex or twist a bit leading to possible problems like chattering or indeed the Azimuth error.

Does the plane refuse to cut with the first pass?
It may be a good idea to see if it will favour a side, i.e...
See if it's taking a deeper shaving on one side on this first pass, and see if it's the same when the groove is established.

Another idea might be to get some graphite and paint the sides of the cutter making something evident.

Derek Cohen might have an article or two which might be worth reading, as he does lots of tool fettling.
Or searching for folks having problems with their moving fillister planes.

Good luck
Tom

 

[transatlantic]

I don't see any traces of wax anywhere, could any of that resistance be coming from the walls?
Is the beech dry?
Are the walls the same looking, or does one have any slight damage?
Could the cutter have a bit of taper to it, getting wider further away from the edge?
I don't have any experience with plough planes, so can't do more than speculate really,

I see that the Stanley's and old moving fillisters have rather a thinner cutter most of the time, and supported by the bed close to the cut, so you may have too much clearance angle making the iron flex or twist a bit leading to possible problems like chattering or indeed the Azimuth error.

Does the plane refuse to cut with the first pass?
It may be a good idea to see if it will favour a side, i.e...
See if it's taking a deeper shaving on one side on this first pass, and see if it's the same when the groove is established.

Another idea might be to get some graphite and paint the sides of the cutter making something evident.

Derek Cohen might have an article or two which might be worth reading, as he does lots of tool fettling.
Or searching for folks having problems with their moving fillister planes.

Good luck
Tom

But if it was any of those problems, why does it work fine on Oak and Sapelle?

 

[Ttrees]

Guessing maybe the fibres of the beech could be causing stiction compared to other species or examples of the species
you have, maybe a different batch of sapele would be the same problem, and a different example of beech would be trouble free.
Its the most challenging examples that will test the plane.

Since I don't have any experience with ploughs, I'm wondering if your angled stock might be another factor?

Tom

 

[thetyreman]

it doesn't sound likely that it's sharp enough, how polished is the back of the blade? maybe that's the reason, I can't think of anything else, I always use a mortise gauge to mark out the grooves first which seems to help prevent tearout, it's always preferable to go with the grain. You can get some unusually abraisive and hard pieces of beech that I have experienced more than once, it seems to wear the edge out very fast.