Thread: Jack plane help

Originally Posted by doncra

So I took apart my plane to clean it and then reassembled. Blade is nice and sharp. My problem is that no matter what I do I can only generate fine powdery shavings like coffee grounds. What am I doing wrong?


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is the blade upside down?

No - blade bevel is facing down towards the sole of the plane


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Few things to check.

-Is the cap iron/backing iron/chip breaker sticking out further than the edge of the blade? In other words is the blade the first thing which is actually making contact with the wood?
-Is the mouth so far open that the blade is riding over the mouth of the plane when you advance it? This will be apparent in that it will be difficult to advance the blade. When it rides over the mouth like that it pushes it upward so that it doesn't cut.
-Is the bevel angle appropriate?
-Is the mouth so far closed that a shaving cannot be generated?
-If you put a straight edge along the length or width of the plane's sole, is there any visible curvature to the sole?

Check and try all of those things. I have listed them in the order of most to least likely. For what it's worth, I have made most of those mistakes. Certainly the first two.

What brand/age is the plane?

Cheers,
Luke

A few ideas ...
- have you tried using the blade just on its own, like it was a chisel, to pare some long- or end-grain?
- what type of wood are you using?

Maybe your blade is landing too close to the front of the mouth, and the frog needs to move back.
Are you using an original blade, or a newer, thicker one?

Cheers,
Paul

A few pics of your setup would help.
Regards
John

Thanks for all the replies - very frustrating as before I began (stupidly) tinkering the plane produced nice shavings so theoretically should be able to get there again.

I'm using the original blade trying to flatten a pine lamination worktop (see my post in the Workbench thread). Can't remember the brand but a basic jack plane from the big green shed less than 6 months old - nicely sharpened with an oilstone and seemed to go alright.

No obvious problems with the sole - chip breaker seems ok - it is sitting a couple of mm back from the cutting bevel which I understand is about right.

From a closer look tonight the blade position seems somehow off - I need to basically dial through the full range of adjustment to get the blade to come through the mouth (not sure on the lingo - is this too open or too closed?) Blade adjustment seems very stiff - perhaps the cap iron is overly tight? Wondering if I've also changed the position of the frog - there was a fair bit of crud under there when I disassembled and cleaned but didn't take care to note its exact position on the plane body. Will try to upload some pics tomorrow.


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I think you need to move your frog forward. All of the symptoms you describe indicate as such.

Luke, the frog moves parallel to the sole on a Bailey type plane, so it shouldn't change blade protrusion at a given setting. However, if the frog is set too far back, and the grind bevel of your blade is too steep, the blade could be impinging on the sole - that would make it both hard to adjust (the bevel would ride up on the sole & put added pressure on the blade) and may prevent adequate exposure of the cutting edge. If it was working before, & you haven't changed any parts, it's a pretty fair bet you've altered something when re-assembling the plane, so it's just a matter of tracking down what you've done differently.

I'm intrigued by the "couple of mm" setback of the cap iron/chibreaker you mention. That's actually a bit excessive by the 'old style' recommendation of a "fat 32nd of an inch", which translates to somewhere between 0.8 & 1mm, depending on your visual acuity. By setting the cap iron more coarsely, you should be giving yourself extra room for blade protrusion, so I can't fathom why you are struggling to get the blade out far enough to take good shavings. Check that the blade is actually sitting on the bed of the frog, and that the lateral adjuster and depth-adjuster cam are engaging properly. Sometimes the lateral adjuster doesn't engage correctly, which causes a struggle to get the lever cap on, and an overtight blade if you do manage to get it on, though it shouldn't affect depth adjustment.

Cheers,

Think I've solved it - cap iron was too tight and I found an adjustment screw in the frog had loosened which wasn't allowing the blade to come properly through the mouth. Thanks to all for your tips, advice and suggestions


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