Thread: Having trouble using a Jack Plane to get consistent shavings

Hi, probably one or two issues
Firstly, check the cap iron is straight and the screw is tight.
Secondly, check the lever cap, if it is too loose relase the lever then tighten the lever cap screw and then resecure the lever.
This should soove your problem.

What mark David said - sounds like your lever cap is too loose. Tighten the screw enough that it takes a reasonable, but not excessive force to depress the cam & lock the lever cap down. Alternatively, a loose cap-iron screw could contribute to the problem, allowing the blade to slip back under pressure, but that is more likely to cause slipping when you try to increase or decrease the depth of cut....

Cheers,

What they both said

One more thing.
Have you just brought the plane.?
And if so did you just sharpen the blade ?
And put it back to use. ?
The reason I'm asking when I started out I did exactly the same and become quite frustrated. .
Everyone was telling me how great these old tools are but I could not get the dam thing to work.
It was not till I found out that old planes need a bit of TLC.
But once that's done they are great to use .
And doing the TLC your self is great lesson in how planes work to..

Originally Posted by Simplicity

One more thing.
Have you just brought the plane.?
And if so did you just sharpen the blade ?
And put it back to use. ?
The reason I'm asking when I started out I did exactly the same and become quite frustrated. .
Everyone was telling me how great these old tools are but I could not get the dam thing to work.
It was not till I found out that old planes need a bit of TLC.
But once that's done they are great to use .
And doing the TLC your self is great lesson in how planes work to..

Sorry for long delay in reply.

Its a second hand, I sharpened the blade myself. Lot of learning, but the piece of wood tends to get shaved uneven, more taken off on one side & so I have to plane from the other side too.

Originally Posted by Tegmark

..... the piece of wood tends to get shaved uneven, more taken off on one side & so I have to plane from the other side too.....

That should be a pretty simple fix. First check: Do you have the blade protruding unevenly? Sight along the sole & look for a teeny bit of blade sticking out evenly right across. If not, use the lateral adjuster to make it so.

If the blade is protruding evenly, then you are holding the plane heeled over to left or right (whichever side is getting shaved more). Concentrate on holding it square to the face side. Old gits like me use the fingers on the left hand as a steady & a reference point. You occasionally pick up a splinter, but eventually, you learn to plan the face side first. In any case, it's a small price to pay for the help it provides...

Cheers,

Have a search on this forum and mr/mrs Google for restoring a hand plane
Even if you just read up some off it

Also make sure that when you're adjusting the cut depth that you finish with turning the adjuster for MORE protrusion...if that makes sense. It can sometimes let the blade get pushed around, and if it's not seated evenly could push it out of square.

Might as well check the frog seating areas on the plane body and that the seating for the blade on the frog is flat too.

Originally Posted by JPA

.....Also make sure that when you're adjusting the cut depth that you finish with turning the adjuster for MORE protrusion....

JPA, I think you are saying that if you adjust the cut by backing-off, to spin the adjuster 'forward' until it takes up the slack, i.e. to the point it is just about to start moving the blade out again? We were always told to do this, too, so that it 'holds the blade' if you hit a knot or whatever.

In later life, I question this bit of received wisdom. If you have the the cap iron screw tight, and the lever cap pressure well-adjusted, the blade is unlikely to move even under quite severe provocation. However, old habits die hard, I still automatically spin the adjuster 'forward' after backing-off, to take up the backlash...

Cheers,

Don't want to get too technical here but is the little lateral adjustment disc engaging in the slot in the iron?
The number 4 and 5 sized Stanley plane made around 1980 had a die cast frog which if the lever cap was clamped down too much would bend and therefore not engage the lateral lever disc.
This was an inherited cheapening of production that had been made by Pope and then continued by Turner and then Stanley thru company takeovers.
Schools and Tech Colleges had hundreds of planes with bent frogs when I was Education officer for Stanley in 1981.
H.

Originally Posted by clear out

The number 4 and 5 sized Stanley plane made around 1980 had a die cast frog which if the lever cap was clamped down too much would bend and therefore not engage the lateral lever disc.
This was an inherited cheapening of production that had been made by Pope and then continued by Turner and then Stanley thru company takeovers.

I believe this applies to Australian made Stanley planes only - I've never seen a diecast frog on a UK, USA or Canadian made Stanley (and I've never had the good or bad fortune to own an Australian Stanley [good irons, bad frogs]). I suppose the Australian Stanleys had die-cast frogs from the start of production in 1964.

Cheers, Vann.

Originally Posted by Vann

...... I suppose the Australian Stanleys had die-cast frogs from the start of production in 1964...

Not all of them. In fact I haven't seen one with a die-cast frog at all, so far. I've had a couple of Australian Stanleys, one from the late 60's (bought new from a hardware store), and the other was picked up at a sale in the 90s, so no idea which decade it belonged to. Both planes had cast-iron frogs. Incidentally, the #5 was a beauty, and worked well from day 1. The #4 was a lemon that I could not get to work well no matter what I did!
Cheers,

I don't use a jack much myself. I have an old Record T5 with a knob on the side which is used for shooting miters mainly and a Record 06 for rougher work. I'm no expert here but I've found it preferable when hand flattening to shave the diagonals with the bigger plane, and to actually hold the plane slightly skewed to the direction of cut. This "slicing" motion seems to work best in both straight & cranky grain.

Additionally, most timber has a definite direction in which it prefers planing. The timber & tool should "talk" to you, telling whether it's happy or not with the planing direction. Planing against the grain will mess up you work.

A jack also benefits from having a slightly "crowned" cutting edge that effectively prevents a side digging in, producing slightly scalloped cuts instead.

Originally Posted by Vann

I believe this applies to Australian made Stanley planes only - I've never seen a diecast frog on a UK, USA or Canadian made Stanley (and I've never had the good or bad fortune to own an Australian Stanley [good irons, bad frogs]). I suppose the Australian Stanleys had die-cast frogs from the start of production in 1964.

Cheers, Vann.

If that is the case for post 1964 Australian Stanleys then all my Aussie Stanleys are pre 1964 as they all have cast-iron frogs (No 3 to a No 7).

This doesn't mean that someone hasn't changed the die-cast frogs for cast-iron frogs as the only two I inherited were a No 6 and a No 4.

All the others where pick up at garage sales, ebay or gumtree.

So how do you tell when an Australian Stanley was made.