The best plane no one seems to mention...Blum Plane review

[george wilson]

Gary,I have not used one of your planes,and the screws might be just fine. But,when Warren says something,it is worth listening to is all. He seems concerned about the screws. But,I think a lot depends upon how good the steel in them is,and the metal they screw into.

I have no idea what the specifications of your screws are,but the strongest screws are probably those made for holding carbide inserts in place while they cut metal. They can be had in flat head form,but will have Allen sockets in them,or Torx,which will stand plenty of tightening. Most machine suppliers like MSC sell replacement screws for carbide tooling.

[Warren Mickley]

I had two concerns about the screws. One is the screws that hold the blade in place are Phillips head screws that have to be tightened and loosened for every sharpening. My experience with Phillips screws is that the slots in the heads wear and are frustrating. The other concern is screws or bolts holding the frog in place. They are only as strong as the wood tissue supporting them and I wondered if they would loosen with heavy use. Maybe my concerns are unfounded. I have used only five planes for my career, all brought into service between 1973 and 1983, and probably most planes are not given such a heavy workload.

[Gary Blum]

Just spent a good deal of valuable time replying to this thread, went to hit 'Post Quick Reply' and a page came up saying I need to log in! Post apparently gone. Does this happen to anyone else? That's frustrating

[Steve Voigt]

Just spent a good deal of valuable time replying to this thread, went to hit 'Post Quick Reply' and a page came up saying I need to log in! Post apparently gone. Does this happen to anyone else? That's frustrating

Make sure when you log in that you have the "remember me" (or something to that effect) box checked, and it shouldn't happen. But yeah, stuff like that happens and it stinks. I try to remember to copy long replies, so if I lose them, I can just paste them back in again.

[Gary Blum]

Thanks, Steve. BTW, congrats on your new planemaking venture. Everything looks great.

Gary

[Jim Koepke]

I had two concerns about the screws. One is the screws that hold the blade in place are Phillips head screws that have to be tightened and loosened for every sharpening. My experience with Phillips screws is that the slots in the heads wear and are frustrating. The other concern is screws or bolts holding the frog in place. They are only as strong as the wood tissue supporting them and I wondered if they would loosen with heavy use. Maybe my concerns are unfounded. I have used only five planes for my career, all brought into service between 1973 and 1983, and probably most planes are not given such a heavy workload.

There is a lot to be said for the simplicity of a body, a blade and a wedge such as most of my wooden bodied planes incorporate.

The more parts or complexity in a design, the more room for problems.

jtk

[Steve Voigt]

Thanks Gary!
I would still love to see your reply, if you can stomach writing it again. I'm guessing that after a number of years of making and using these planes, you have a pretty good idea of whether they'll hold up, etc.

[Barry Dima]

Just spent a good deal of valuable time replying to this thread, went to hit 'Post Quick Reply' and a page came up saying I need to log in! Post apparently gone. Does this happen to anyone else? That's frustrating

Hi Gary,

This happened to me plenty on another forum I used to frequent and which uses the same coding or framework as this one. I use the "remember me" function, which Steve notes, but when even that goes awry, sometimes simply hitting Back once or twice on your browser will get you back to your reply. Maybe this has something to do with my browser and cookie functions, but it works across several machines.

(Don't mind me on these other rails over here, y'all.)

[Gary Blum]

I'll try again. Thanks for the extra info, Brian.

I did experiment with slotted screws for the back up iron. It is just too easy to slip off of them and run the screwdriver into the blade. The screws are 10-32 x 3/8, so they are available in any good hardware store. I am fairly careful with them and have not had to replace even the ones on my original planes, after 8 years. I appreciate the mention of the torx or allen screws, George. The main reason I haven't done that is just that the phillips is something everyone will have handy by their bench.

Derek, I did have in mind setting the chipbreaker close. Just not THAT close! I'm like almost everyone ( besides Warren), in that I thought close was about 1/64 or so. Happily , with the positive prssure from my back up iron, I'm able to get it really close now where it is most effective. I put about a 112° micro bevel on the front edge of the chipbreaker. Total included angle that is.

My frog has 2 10-32 studs which are connected to the adjusting nuts at the top of the plane. They engage at least 1/2" in those threads. The top brass plate is routed in, but it still sets over the outer cheeks and there is about 1/2" of wood under it. I have never noticed any weakness in this setup or any wear. The frog is also held by the large bolt thru the plane body tightened by the big brass knob. I always just let the frog rest back against the wood bed, rather than close the mouth opening. Using the chipbreak gap adjustment makes the mouth opening not very important, in my opinion. That is also just one less thing for a beginner to worry about.

Gary

[Mike Holbrook]

I think I see Warren's concern. I am not normally a fan of Phillips head screws either, although the ones in my plane have deep recesses that look much better than what I am use to seeing. The two screws that adjust blade height are actually set deeply into the 5/8" thick solid steel frog. It looks like they are locked in position by allen screws. From the frog these two screws thread into metal threads set into the wood. Thumb screw/nuts at the top of the threaded area move the screws up & down. Both thumb screws abut a brass plate set into the top of the plane. The mouth adjustment screws have flat ends that push directly on the metal side of the frog. These two screws also run in metal threads. There is a large T slot in the side of the frog. The large locking knob tightens a nut attached to the end of a heavy screw. The nut rides within the T slot in the frog, securing the entire frog in place. The answer to Warren's concern is, none of the screws run in wood threads and the entire frog is locked in position against the four positioning screws by a nut pulling against a T slot in 5/8" thick solid metal.

Looking at the side of the frog, I see that there is a groove cut into the middle of the top of the "chipbreaker" that the blade rests on. The screws that hold the blade on are set into this groove. The screws must bend/stretch the metal in the plane blade enough to keep it from sliding around on the surface of the frog's chipbreaker.