Originally Posted by
Scott Archi
So I haven't flatten the sole of the Stanley I acquired. I set the frog skewed because it didn't seem to be machined straight to plane body... set up a cut checking both side and making sure the shavings were equal size as measured with a set of vernier calipers. Got this shaving down to 0.002" on soft pine. I could not get a thinner full length and thickness shaving. Is this ok for the first set up?
When I got done playing around with the settings I found that my piece I was playing with had a massive chamfer to it. Like I was planing on an angle.
Wouldi I have to adjust my settings or body position? Im nice and set to where I can easily take a nice thin shaving and the sound is right but my piece ended up with a big twist and the edge I was planing was flat but / instead of |.
Thanks in advance guys.
A 0.002" shaving is pretty good for starting out.
The blade has to be very sharp to get much thinner. Also the sole of the plane needs to be relatively flat. One test for this with a sharp blade take as thin of a shaving as possible. When the work piece is producing a good shaving over the full length use the plane without any downward pressure. If it is taking the same shaving as when you were pushing down on the plane then it is likely has as flat a sole as is needed for most work.
At times in my posts it may seem my shavings are measured to the point of obsession, but for side to side thickness it is more of how the shavings feel in hand. Besides, by the time you have measured a lot of shavings you get a good idea of how thick a shaving is without a caliper. With the plane set for a very thin shaving, a shaving from one side of the blade is compared to a shaving on the other side of the blade. When they feel the same the lateral adjustment is good to go. It is amazing how precise a measurement device our fingers can be.
My planing still gets a slope/chamfer on the edge of a work piece at times. Once all the saw marks are removed the work is checked for square. Then any out of squareness is compensated by tilting the plane and taking a narrow shaving along the high edge. The tilt is kind of guessed/felt by how much out of square the piece is compared to how thick the shavings are being made.
As an example, if the out of square looks to be about 0.008" and my shavings are about 0.002" my plane is held to take a shaving of about 1/4 of the width of the edge. This shaving is taken very carefully over the entire length. Then this flat is used to take the next shaving of about 1/2 the width then 3/4 of the width and finally full width. Check and repeat as needed. Others are sure to have their own methods to address an out of square piece.
Over time one of my findings was when there has been a lapse in my shop time my planing tends to tilt to the same side. With a bit of shop time my "balance" usually can be corrected to get back to "feeling square" again.
jtk
Last edited by Jim Koepke; 03-29-2017 at 12:15 PM.
Reason: A lot of wording
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)