#4 Rehab: Should I have this gap?

[Danny Thompson]

In the middle of my first plane rehab I ran into something unexpected. The chipbreaker will not sit flush with the iron (see pix below).

The culprit seems to be the junction between the "yoke" (the wishbone part of the depth adjuster) and the chipbreaker. It appears the tip of the yoke is narrow enough to fit through the rectangular hole in the chipbreaker, but only part way. A very short way down the yoke, it widens to a point the chipbreaker won't move past.

Is this normal? What am I doing wrong?

Any help, even if it's a "You idiot!" would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Danny

[Mario Soldevilla]

Do you have another you could compare it to? Other wise I would just file the opening on the chipbreaker until it fit.

[David Weaver]

I would do the same - file the hole on the chipbreaker until it fits flush.

[Ken Werner]

Danny, pardon me if I am missing something here. I don't see the bolt holding the chipbreaker to the iron. Do you have one? Could that be the problem?

Ken

[Jason Beam]

I thought the same thing Ken did - it doesn't look like the screw's holding the chipbreaker and blade together is there. Maybe I'm missing something, too?

The middle hole in the chipbreaker should be threaded for a screw that pinches the two together. Then your cap iron further clenches down on things to keep it all on the frog.

[andy brown]

Ken has it ! there should be a short bolt fitting through from the back; its' head is bigger than the slot in the plane blade and so tightens them together. You should see the middle hole is threaded- from your pic 2.

Andy.

[Ken Werner]

I thought the same thing Ken did .

Jason my friend, you are headed for trouble.....

Ken

[Danny Thompson]

There is a bolt, but when I attach it, the chipbreaker doesn't snug down to the frog and iron. Instead, the iron snugs up to the chipbreaker, shifting the gap to between the iron and the frog. The bolt does nothing to resolve my yoke/slot problem.

[Ken Werner]

I'd like you to attach the bolt and post a side view image of the iron / chip breaker unit bolted together. Remember that you might have to hone the end of the chip breaker to be perfectly flat on the iron. Position the end of the chip breaker between 1/16 and 1/32 from the end of the iron.

[Bill Houghton]

There's a lateral adjustment lever on Bailey type bench planes - (what you seem to have there). The "wheel" or wide part of the lever fits down into the slot of the iron. If you don't wiggle the iron around a bit as you set it down, it can get on top of that part of the lever, and won't settle down. Have you checked to see that this is not the problem?

I've never seen an adjusting yoke that's too fat for the chipbreaker slot, but I also haven't seen every plane in the world. I concur with others that, if this is the problem, you should file either the slot in the chipbreaker or the yoke until it fits.

If you fit the breaker to the plane all by its lonesome, does it set right down on the lateral adjust lever and the frog? Seems like you should be able to confirm or refute the issue with the breaker by itself before proceeding.

[Jason Beam]

You know ... when i look closely at this pic:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachme...4&d=1193504642

That thing looks like it's stickin' up awefully high.

And then when I look at this pic:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachme...3&d=1193504606

That sure looks like a lotta iron stickin' out past the end of the frog.

Could it be at all possible that the yoke is adjusted too far? How much further back can you make it? It seems to me that in the present arrangement, your blade would be sticking through the plane like 3/8" or more ... (if the mouth accomodated such a thickness).

I think i'd loosen that brass nut as far as possible - just to see if that's got something to do with it.

[andy brown]

Hi,
My apologies for a crossing post earlier in the thread...now
at the risk of being thought a complete idiot....
...if the iron is being pulled up to the chipbreaker,then the iron has become weakened,or is perhaps 'fatigued'. In the photo it looks 30% -50% thicker than the chipbreaker, so it shouldn't really bend so easily.
Now comes the idiot part.
I've no idea if this thought has any merit, but an infill washer or little plate of some sort between the chipbreaker and blade might allow the blade to lie flush on the frog and give you the correct planing angle as well.

Andy.

[Danny Thompson]

Thanks for all your help so far, but the mystery remains.

Here's the shot with the chipbreaker attached to the iron. See how the gap has shifted from above the iron to below it?

The lateral adjustment ring (or whatever you call it) is perfectly lined up with the slot in the iron, but the yoke's tight connection with the chipbreaker prevents the iron from laying flat against the frog. See the gap between the ring and the iron in the first pic below?

You can also see in the second pic below that I tried moving the depth adjuster all the way back . . . no luck. It still protrudes a significant amount. I see no way to adjust the amount of protrusion.

Any vintage #4 owners out there, does the tip of your yoke have a similar thinning neer the tip. I am wondering if I have a bit of a Franken-plane, where the previous owner threw an inappropriate chipbreaker onto the plane before posting it on the bay.

[Steve Clardy]

None of my #4's have a yoke that extends that far up into the chip breaker.
I'd say it has the wrong frog or yoke on it.

Give me some clues here as to what type it is.
Details...

[nic obie]

I agree with Steve.

Somebody probably replaced the fork. It isn't very hard to knock out the pin then file it down until everything fits. In a way this is good because when you are done you will have a plane with no back lash in the adjuster.