Planes and weather

[David Cefai]

The only stupid questions are the ones you don't ask, so here goes.
Yesterday I was planing down the edges of 5mm plywood glued to 15mm plywood. My planes were not "singing".I was also getting some damage to the veneer on the ply. The weather was warm and damp.

Today was a cooler and rainy day. I continued the same job.The planes were performing like I would expect them to.

Does the weather affect plane performance or was it just me?

[David Weaver]

What kind of plane are you talking about?

I haven't noticed any difference on metal planes, and on wooden planes that are made correctly, over a period of months or a year, there is still very little movement on mine (that includes both japanese and western style wooden planes, as well as some chinese made wooden planes).

A day doesn't seem like much time, but if I was going to guess what's different, I would guess it's what you're planing (the plywood) and not the plane that's changing the most.

I could be wrong about that, though.

[Jim Koepke]

I think the weather is affecting what you are planing.

Other things could be a change in the depth of cut or even the direction in relation to the dominant grain.

jim

[David Cefai]

Thanks for the input. Metal planes - a 5 a 6 and a BU block plane. I suspect that if there really was an effect it could have been the humidity and/or the fact that I had glued the plywood the previous evening and the ply was moister than the ideal.

The effect seemed so marked that I had to ask the question.

[James Taglienti]

It's got to be the humidity... I am building a murphy bed out of white oak right now and it is relatively tame, but the last few days have been very damp and humid... the oak is behacing badly, clogging the mouth of the plane and even getting "hairy'" ... this is air drid lumber from a local sawmill and i've been told it is more susceptible to weather changes. I was using all iron planes on it so It's got to be the workpiece.

[David Nelson1]

It's got to be the humidity... I am building a murphy bed out of white oak right now and it is relatively tame, but the last few days have been very damp and humid... the oak is behacing badly, clogging the mouth of the plane and even getting "hairy'" ... this is air drid lumber from a local sawmill and i've been told it is more susceptible to weather changes. I was using all iron planes on it so It's got to be the workpiece.

The fact that air dried lumber is more susceptible to weather changes has me a bit miffed. If it's dried to the same moisture content as kiln dried stock does the lumber go through that a significant cellular change? I know (not much) that some species appearance will change if kiln dried (loss of color),but that was the extent of my knowledge.