Woodriver Planes

[Keith E Byrd]

After reading and getting a couple of responses about planes I purchased the Woodriver #4 from Woodcraft. I certainly am a novice and know almost nothing about planes. With that said this was fun to use. I lapped the bottom and it was already flat. I sharpened the blade just a tad (it needs more) and I planed the rails and part of the surface of my workbench to flatten it out. It worked really well and in about 45 minutes I had all the rails, vise jaws etc flat.
Here is my question: Underneath the adjusting knob there are 3 screws. A larger one in the middle and two smaller ones on either side. What are they for? There were no instructions, directions at all with the plane and I didn't want to mess with something and screw it up.

[Ken Werner]

The 2 bolts on either side loosen the frog. The center bolt adjusts the frog fore and aft. This is the Bedrock design, which allows frog adjustment without removing the iron.

[Keith E Byrd]

Thanks - so there is no adjustment with the two smaller screws except to hold the frog in place.
Just for the heck of it I stopped by Woodcraft and asked one of the sales guys and he said they were for adjusting the angle of the blade - which I didn't understand.

[Ken Werner]

Too bad he couldn't simply have said "I'm not sure." And then found someone who did know.

[Joel Goodman]

Just to expand a touch as you said you were new to planes. The reason to move the frog forward is to close the mouth up to a tiny slit. This is useful to prevent tearout when smoothing. The mouth should be as tight as possible but not so tight that it clogs easily. The cap iron placement (how much blade is protruding past the cap iron) will also affect clogging. As you get more expert, get better at sharpening, and are taking shavings that you can read the newspaper through, you will want to tighten up the mouth for optimal performance. For thick shavings obviously the mouth needs to be opened up.

[David Gendron]

Just to had on the tight mouth, a thight mouth is only needed for tricky wood grain, IMO, the ticker the shaving you can take with out tearout is what you whant, so you get the job done!

[Mark Maleski]

a thight mouth is only needed for tricky wood grain, IMO,

I agree David, though a sharp blade is even more important with an opened mouth.

the ticker the shaving you can take with out tearout is what you whant, so you get the job done!

I'm not sure I agree with this - assuming the #4 is being used as a smoother, I can't see a thick shaving being better than a thin one. I think you'd have a better argument if we were talking about flattening or truing (which I'll concede you could find yourself doing with a #4).

Back on point - congrats Keith on your success with your first plane. I recommend you check the Lie-Nielsen website as they list use and care instructions for their planes (these are equally applicable to your plane). Their bench plane graphic lists the screws in question as "locking screws" and "adjuster screw (frog)," and the text below it describes how to use these screws to open/close the mouth. Although you bought a competitor's product, I'd anticipate the LN folks would be glad for your visit to their website (which is there for marketing and sales in addition to product support).

[Richard Niemiec]

Thanks - so there is no adjustment with the two smaller screws except to hold the frog in place.
Just for the heck of it I stopped by Woodcraft and asked one of the sales guys and he said they were for adjusting the angle of the blade - which I didn't understand.

I choked on my popcorn reading this..... simply unbelievable.

[Keith E Byrd]

Thanks for the info - I will definitely go to their web site - I enjoyed working on the shavings and I did have some tear out - so I will work on these tips and see if I can eliminate some of them - Thanks to all for the tips!

[Keith E Byrd]

I hope it was buttered so you wouldn't get hurt!!

[Joe Rogers]

Thanks - so there is no adjustment with the two smaller screws except to hold the frog in place.
Just for the heck of it I stopped by Woodcraft and asked one of the sales guys and he said they were for adjusting the angle of the blade - which I didn't understand.

Ah...yet another reason Thom Lie-Nielsen doesn't want to have his planes sold in the stores!
Joe

[Don Dorn]

I don't need another plane (except a LN 10 1/4 of course), but if I did, I'm not sure I wouldn't be able to fight the urge to try out a Wood River. After all, what other plane that you know of has that cool feature to change the blade angle?

[Keith E Byrd]

I went to another Woodcraft store in Sterling Heights, MI yesterday. Extremely knowledgeable staff - Matthew the owner spent some time talking with me about planes and ended up selling me a L-N 102 block plane - I came home and tried it out - it is really sweet. Again if you are in MI this store was first class.

[Brian Kent]

I seems like every plane should come with an instruction book. Even the Lie Nielsen Use and Care web pages recommend a whole book just for sharpening.

First time I picked up a plane - a Buck Brothers from Home Depot - there were no instructions. I assumed I needed something to re-sharpen the blade so I picked up a course / medium / fine stone from Harbor Freight. (about 40 / 80 / 120 grit) I thought I was set, and hoped that some day I could afford one of those really big Buck Brothers planes.

Yup, an instruction sheet would have helped a whole lot. At first I started trying a really conservative cut on some really knotted 2 x 4's and set the blade for about a 1/16" to 1/32" cut. I could work my way up to 1/8" later when I got better. I only understood two adjustors - the in-an-out thing for the blade and the angle thingie.

Some simple instructions would have been sufficient:

"This PSO (Plane-shaped-object) is a POS (Plane of Sorrow, Piece of Soft-Metal). Thank you for donating money to Buck Brothers. If you love your fellow human beings, please do not sell this at a garage sale. Retract blade fully so that it will never gouge a piece of wood. If you repaint and highly polish your Buck Bros PSO / POS you may want to leave it in plain sight next to your door or window, so that a burglar will steal the shiny one an not look hard for your hidden Lie Nielsen, Lee Valley, Old Stanley, Krenov, Ron Breese, Steve Knight or other real planes."

[Mick Zelaska]

I seems like every plane should come with an instruction book. Even the Lie Nielsen Use and Care web pages recommend a whole book just for sharpening.

First time I picked up a plane - a Buck Brothers from Home Depot - there were no instructions. I assumed I needed something to re-sharpen the blade so I picked up a course / medium / fine stone from Harbor Freight. (about 40 / 80 / 120 grit) I thought I was set, and hoped that some day I could afford one of those really big Buck Brothers planes.

Yup, an instruction sheet would have helped a whole lot. At first I started trying a really conservative cut on some really knotted 2 x 4's and set the blade for about a 1/16" to 1/32" cut. I could work my way up to 1/8" later when I got better. I only understood two adjustors - the in-an-out thing for the blade and the angle thingie.

I feel your pain. My bench planes were a constant source of frustration and little more than paper weights. Didn't know how to sharpen, tune, or use them effectively. Finally took Rob Cosman's class at Woodcraft and can now put a razor sharp edge on the blade in about 20 seconds and take shavings you can see through. You can get the same information on his DVDs.