Replacement Blade Wont Fit My #8

[Eric Schatz]

I have an early type Stanley 8 that needed a new chip breaker. I just went with the LV combo and bought a blade too. Very nice, heavy duty, great finish. However, its a bit thicker than the standard. I have moved the frog back as far as it will go but I still can't get it to project. The opening stays filled no matter how I adjust things. Should I be having this trouble or is it common for these blades to require plane fettling?

[Joe Bailey]

Aftermarket blades often require modifying the mouth opening in the sole of the plane.
Use a square to strike a new line on the sole of the plane -- on the front knob side of the mouth opening.

Use a file (preferably with safe edges) to open the mouth a little at a time until the new iron fits properly.
You may want to angle the new wall you are forming so that it "opens into" the jappanned area of the casting.

[Eric Schatz]

Thanks Joe. That makes sense to me. I guess that's what I'll have to do. I just figured they would fit but a little fettling will make it work.

[Ralph Boumenot]

Hock makes a thinner iron where you don't need to file the mouth. I had this same problem with my #7 and a LV A2 iron&chipbreaker. Lee Valley also sells a thinner iron and chipbreaker set also. I'm in the the "I don't believe you need a massively thick iron to stop chatter". Irons for the stanleys were thin for over a 100 years without chatter.

[Jim Koepke]

... I'm in the the "I don't believe you need a massively thick iron to stop chatter". Irons for the stanleys were thin for over a 100 years without chatter.

If one sets the depth to a light cut there will likely be no chatter.

However, one of my skills is to make just about any old blade chatter. Usually has to be a thick cut with the chip breaker set well back.

Sometimes with a LA Block plane a high pitched whine can be heard when trimming end grain. That is just a high pitched "chatter" that doesn't necessarily leave tell tale marks on the surface.

jtk

[Michael Ray Smith]

Aftermarket blades often require modifying the mouth opening in the sole of the plane.
Use a square to strike a new line on the sole of the plane -- on the front knob side of the mouth opening.

Use a file (preferably with safe edges) to open the mouth a little at a time until the new iron fits properly.
You may want to angle the new wall you are forming so that it "opens into" the jappanned area of the casting.

I had the same problem with a SW era #8. Joe's solution worked for me. I don't recall that I bothered to score a line. I think I just checked with a square as I went. Go very easy with the file and check for fit frequently. It probably won't take much.

[steven c newman]

One other item nobody talks about with those thicker irons AND chipbreaker replacementes.....The tab that sticks up from the depth adjuster does not reach all the way to the slot of the new chipbreaker. Might welll take that yoke off, it won't be needed.

[Michael Ray Smith]

One other item nobody talks about with those thicker irons AND chipbreaker replacementes.....The tab that sticks up from the depth adjuster does not reach all the way to the slot of the new chipbreaker. Might welll take that yoke off, it won't be needed.

Haven't run into that problem, but I have run into the problem of the slot in the replacement chipbreaker being farther from the leading edge than in the original chipbreaker so that the blade could not be retracted far enough.

[Jim Koepke]

One other item nobody talks about with those thicker irons AND chipbreaker replacementes.....The tab that sticks up from the depth adjuster does not reach all the way to the slot of the new chipbreaker. Might welll take that yoke off, it won't be needed.

When this first started happening a few people epoxied or silver soldered tabs onto the chip breaker to solve this. Later Rob Cossman patented the fix. When his thicker blades came with a chip breaker made to work with original adjusters that wouldn't reach.

jtk

[Michael Ray Smith]

When this first started happening a few people epoxied or silver soldered tabs onto the chip breaker to solve this. Later Rob Cossman patented the fix. When his thicker blades came with a chip breaker made to work with original adjusters that wouldn't reach.jtk

Funny you should mention that.....the chipbreaker that I ran into with the slot too far from the end was one of Rob's. It was, I don't recall, maybe 1/8" farther back than it should have been. But to be fair about it, that wasn't enough to have caused a problem except that I had it on a 5 1/4 that I use as scrub plane, and the camber on the blade means that chipbreaker sits farther back against the iron. Result: It wouldn't retract far enough.

[Ron Hock]

I don't know how thick the LV blade is that you have. Ours are 3/32" which is about as much thicker as they can be and still allow the plane to adjust properly. (The adjuster tang reaches through the blade to engage the breaker. If the blade is too thick, that adjuster won't reach properly.) Be sure to check that the adjuster-lever reaches the breaker properly before doing anything as that would be a deal-breaker.

About twice a year I get a call about one of our blades that won't fit a plane. The blade is being installed on an older planes that has a very narrow mouth slot. If you move the frog back to allow the blade to cut, the heel of the bevel hits the rear of the mouth slot. It's rare, though; the vast majority of our blades drop in with little more than a frog adjustment.

So, what to do? First, examine the leading edge of the mouth slot. If it often worn round from zillions of board-feet of shavings rubbing on it, carefully file it straight and square and sharp. If that isn't enough to allow the blade to cut, file the rear edge of the mouth slot (which is less demanding) until it does. Go slowly -- cast iron is easy to file. This is not a difficult mod and in fact, it is necessary whenever that leading edge needs tidying up. That edge holds down the shaving as it is being cut, thus reducing the risk of tear out. Think of it as routine plane maintenance -- once every hundred-thousand board feet or hundred years, whichever comes first.

I don't know if this will allow the LV blade to work, but it might. Good luck!