Adjusting cutters on the Record 44 plane

[Tiger]

Great little plane is the Record 44 for grooves and I tend to use it for small boxes a bit. The cutters start at 1/8 inch then jump up to 3/16 etc. I often find that my panels are around the 1/8 inch maybe a bit over. If I use the 1/8 inch cutter the grooves are too tight. My question is if you have a cutter that is a little too tight, do you just make another pass with a slight adjustment of the fence (I've found this to be easier said than done once the initial groove is made)? I have the other bigger cutters which I never use, maybe they can be ground down to fit? I would like just a little slop in the groove so that the thin panels can float slightly.

[orraloon]

I know what you mean about shifting the fence to enlarge the groove and have never had any success with that. A cutter sized for the job is a better way to go. I have not worked grooves that small but see the need for them to be clean cut.
Regards
John

[Thumbthumper]

Great little plane is the Record 44 for grooves and I tend to use it for small boxes a bit. The cutters start at 1/8 inch then jump up to 3/16 etc. I often find that my panels are around the 1/8 inch maybe a bit over. If I use the 1/8 inch cutter the grooves are too tight. My question is if you have a cutter that is a little too tight, do you just make another pass with a slight adjustment of the fence (I've found this to be easier said than done once the initial groove is made)? I have the other bigger cutters which I never use, maybe they can be ground down to fit? I would like just a little slop in the groove so that the thin panels can float slightly.

A Record 44 is my goto drawer bottom groover.

If the groove is too tight, I grab either a 98 or 99 side rabbet plane (Stanley) and give it a light touch up.
Otherwise, you could give the panel edge a light shaving.

[Tiger]

A Record 44 is my goto drawer bottom groover.

If the groove is too tight, I grab either a 98 or 99 side rabbet plane (Stanley) and give it a light touch up.
Otherwise, you could give the panel edge a light shaving.

Would love a 98 or 99 and maybe someday, the panels are thin and are often MDF/Plywood so not sure shaving them would work well.

[bridger]

I have the woodriver side rabbet plane. With the addition of a "hotdog" auxiliary handle it works fine for me.

[mike48]

Hi Tiger

as John says, best to use a correctly sized cutter for this application.
Like John, I have never had any success in multiple passes with a plough plane to widen the groove.
In my experience, it makes the groove worse.

Grind down a cutter to suit your panel.
Cutters for the Record 044 are common on Ebay.
Cutters for most plough and combination planes will fit your Record 044, but will lack the blade grooves for depth adjustment. If you can live without this aspect, and have stray combination plane blades, grind one of these to suit.
Grind to have some cutter side relief.

Or, use a side rebate plane to make the grooves fit your panel.
I haven't had much success with these for large projects, but they are quite OK for a small adjustment.
(Add an extra large fence made from sheet metal to give more vertical angle stability).


Or, make up a special cutter for your Record 044 to simulate the side rebate cutting action, but with more cutting control.
The beauty of this is that you can use the 044 fence to regulate the groove width and keep the width constant along the groove.
And if you use the special cutter on both sides of the work groove (eg by turning the work around), with the same cutter "cut" setting, it will automatically centralise the groove.
I made up a plywood larger fence for my workhorse Record 044 to give more vertical stability when planing.
Your 044 has holes in the metal fence to facilitate this.


I made my special cutter from a small piece of a HSS machine hacksaw blade, silver brazed to some steel bar which fitted the 044, and which simulated a Record 0.5 inch plough cutter. Braze the HSS onto the bar first then carefully grind and hone to shape. My steel was old scrap 0.5 inch BMS.
After brazing, the cut depth of the cutter piece is ground to be the same as the groove initial plough depth.
Make a single cross adjustment groove in the steel bar to allow minor depth adjustment; I just used a hacksaw.
Use brass or paper shim between this cutter body and the plane body to adjust the cut of each pass.
I made two cutters before I got it right.
Use low temperature CIG SBA245 silver braze or similar.

Once set up, it works remarkably well, is adjustable, and gives a great finish.

Good luck, mike

[Tiger]

Thanks Mike for the ideas, I'll see what I got in terms of blades and what I can conjure up, thanks again for the detailed post.