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Thread: setting chipbreaker in wooden planes

  1. #16
    Noah,
    When the double iron is assembled, you want both sides -- the top of the chipbreaker and the bottom of the iron -- to be concave, not convex as in your picture. That way, the iron will seat at the top and bottom of the bed, and the chipbreaker will seat at the top and bottom of the abutments. It's kind of amazing to me that you are able to get it to work at all!
    So, you need to either bend the iron, bend the CB, or both. Disassembled, both of those surfaces should be pretty flat. The top of the CB can be a little convex (again, only in its disassembled state), but only a little.
    Like I said before, this is easy to do; just put shims underneath the ends and bend the middle down onto your bench with a C or F clamp. Start with 1/8 shims, then gradually increase the thickness until you get what you want. If you overbend, just flip it upside down. Don't worry about bending the iron--only the bottom 2" or less is hard. If your CB has a nut welded on, don't put the clamp directly on the nut--you can break the weld. Guess how I know this.
    As Jim mentioned, the irons can sometimes be twisted. To fix that, I grab the bottom of the iron in a vise, put a pipe clamp on the top, and twist in the opposite direction.
    Regarding the height of your plane: you didn't say how wide the iron is, but if it's 2", then the plane should be about 2 5/8 - 2 3/4 wide, and 2 3/4 - 3 high. My understanding, which is admittedly a little shaky, is that 18th c. planes were basically square in section, then got taller through the 19th c. Someone like Don McConnell or Warren Mickley or George Wilson might be able to give more precise info on that. But anyway, it sounds like your plane is severely worn down.
    It is a bit of a crap shoot, buying old woodies on ebay. A lot of planes aren't worth saving. You might be better off trying to get a plane from someone like Josh Clark (hyperkitten). That would be a little more expensive, but still pretty reasonable, and you would probably save money in the long run. If you are determined to go the ebay route, you really want to make sure the plane is very close to full height, the iron is close to full length, no cracks in the plane, etc. There are a gazillion of these old planes, so you can afford to be selective.
    Last edited by Steve Voigt; 05-01-2015 at 12:24 AM.
    "For me, chairs and chairmaking are a means to an end. My real goal is to spend my days in a quiet, dustless shop doing hand work on an object that is beautiful, useful and fun to make." --Peter Galbert

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