What's up With the Stanley 140?

[Dennis McDonaugh]

I finally bought a Stanley 140 off of E-bay after six months of trying to get one at a decent price. I wanted something to "tune" wide tenons and it looked perfect (I already have a stanley 92 for shorter tenons). I sharpened and honed the blade and it finally hit me when I tried to use it. The right side of the plane comes off to expose the edge of the cutter. That means I have to trim the left end of the tenon or pull the plane towards me with the right hand. This is all wrong for a right handed person. I guess I'll look at the LN rabbet block plane now.

[Pam Niedermayer]

I've been using the LN 140 to good effect for a year or two; but immediately asked LN for a left handed model to handle grain direction problems experienced with the right handed version. A month ago Thomas LN emailed me they now have one available. I haven't bought it yet, being on a tool buying moratorium, but plan to real soon.

Pam

[Fred Gorney]

I’m not sure I understand what is happening. Are you trimming the shoulders of the tenon? If so, your stock would have to be oriented along the bench, with the tenon on the right (if the stock’s across the bench you’ll have to plane left-to-right). If you want to plane shoulder of the tenon on the left, you’ll have to pull the plane toward you, or turn your stock around so the tenon is on the right. If this is the issue, then I’d suggest going with a larger shoulder plane, like the 073, rather than the rabbet block. Its heft will really help if you’re going through a lot of end grain on a wide shoulder. And it’s a lot taller, so it has more to register against the tenon cheek for a good square cut. Or, like Pam says, get the left-hand version of the 140.

Fred

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Its not the shoulder Fred, its the tenon itself. I am making the mortise with a Delta 14-651 and I get slightly inconsistent widths. Its actually probably not the width of the mortise, but some are more ragged than others.

Anyway, I've found it very difficult to just cut the mortisse and tenon and have them all fit perfectly every time. So I make the tenon slightly over-size and fit each individually. What I'm doing is lay the work piece down flat (wide side) on the bench and push it up against a bench dog. The tenon is on the right side. I take a swipe or two with a hand plane until the tenon fits snugly in the mortise. I usually make the tenon about an inch long which is longer than my stanley 92 is wide so I bought the 140 to do the job. That's when I found out the rabbiting edge is on the right side.

It seems to me that nearly every right handed person would want the rabbiting edge exposed on the left side of the plane so you can push it with the right hand and hold the work piece with the left hand. I can do it the other way, but I have much more control over the plane in my right hand.

[Fred Gorney]

OK, I see what you're saying. I'd say work off the left end of your stock, but then you wouldn't be able to hold the stock against the dog with your left, which you seem to be comfortable with.

The only really long tenons I've made were for my bench. They're about 3-1/2" thru tenons. I took overlapping strokes with a finely set bench plane (a low angle plane is preferable but not necessary), then cleaned up the inside corner with the shoulder plane. In fact I'd suggest trying that first with your 140 (no need to remove the side) and the 92. Just take a little care that you keep the faces parallel. I don't know why I didn't think of that earlier.

There are other options, like learning to use your left hand for this operation. Being ambidexterous is good for a woodworker, and a necessity for carving. Or you could set your stock across the bench, and plane right-to-left. Of course you can spend money if you want to. I think I'd go for Pam's suggestion first, then the 073 (but some people find it uncomfortable).

Experiment a bit, and let us know how you fare.

Fred

[Wendell Wilkerson]

I've found that the LN rabbet block plane works very well for tuning the cheeks of long tenons. I've been using it actually the way you've described trying to use the 140.

Wendell