hand plane technique

[charlie b]

Mike:

Try glueing some 60 or 80 grit sandpaper under the legs. Theory is that overcoming friction has to happen before things can get moving.

charlie b

[Dave Balderstone]

Funny, my rectilinear bench (4x4 legs, 2x8 stretchers top and bottom, solid core doo with maple T&G flooring laminated on top) supports any sideways load I plane at it.

Sharp blade, properly adjusted. Works a treat.

djb

[Dave Balderstone]

Oops. Forgot the link...

djb

[Dave Balderstone]

Um... That's solid core *DOOR*. I may not be an expert WW'er, but...

[Silvan]

That's what *she* said.

[Silvan]

No one seems to be raising an eyebrow at this. Maybe I have the concept wrong, but it seemed to me that *soft* wood would be better for the vise faces. I used some very soft pine for mine, and they seem to be working out great. They have some give to them, and shouldn't ever mar anything.

I haven't ever tried to plane it, so I can't answer that. If you're moving your entire bench, chances are you're doing it wrong though. I've definitely moved my ~250 pound bench around while planing, but I'm finding that it's much less likely to happen now that I have a feel for what I'm doing, and have really got my planes tuned up. (Tuning should't be much of an issue for you with those spendy critters though.)

I'm very much still learning myself, but I've found big, bench-scooting catches usually mean...

• I'm planing against the grain

• I'm trying to take off too much

• I'm hitting a knot or really rough patch

• I'm dealing with changing grain

Skewing the plane a bit helps considerably with rough patches and weird grain, but I have some boards with weird grain that I haven't figured out how to plane yet, and I've never touched anything more exotic than walnut.

Me too. I didn't even have a workmate, so I had to do some really unwieldy things.

My bench is non-standard in many ways, but the most curious thing is that I have two vises on the front. I bought a very cheap one just to have something. Once I got a taste for having a front vise, that gave me the incentive I needed to work at getting my beefy old (and free!) 7" Morgan vise restored to operating condition. I didn't see the point in throwing away the cheap vise, so I reinstalled it at the other end. With two front vises about 3' apart, I get a stable way to hold stuff on edge without having to screw with board jacks. I could use a tail vise, but so far I'm getting by OK using the pop-up dog on the Morgan to jam a board into oak dogs from the side. I haven't managed to dislodge a 4/4ish board with that setup yet, though it doesn't do very well at clamping really thin stock.

[Charlie Self]

Man, if that thing moves when you don't want it to, I don't want to play with your weight set.

Charlie Self

"Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things." Sir Winston Churchill

[Mike in Mystic]

Well, I understand what you're saying about marring the workpiece, but I want my vise jaws to be durable and not need replacing too often. The instructions for the Vertias twin-screw vise clearly say to use hardwood. I guess I assumed I would want to use the same material for the front vise. The twin-screw vise jaws aren't tapered, though, so maybe that's a critical difference. It isn't that hard to replace the wooden face on the front vise, but it would be a BIG chore to replace the twin-screw jaws. I'll have to think that over.

The only spend plane is really the Clifton and I got that at more than 50% off, so I still feel it was worth it. The Knight planes were also on sale thanks to Steve. The Stanley's were all from ebay, except the #7 which I bought straight from Patrick Leach. But, you're right, I've probably spent a LOT more $$ on planes than I should have, considering how poorly I know how to use them. But, having a #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, Knight smoother, Knight razee jack, Veritas low-angle block all lined up on the bench side by side sure looks pretty cool. hehe

I did try the skewing approach, and that did make a difference. I think the tuning of the plane is probably a big issue for me, although the Knight planes were tuned on delivery and I haven't used them very much, so I don't think that's their problem. Probably my set-up of the planes is an even bigger factor. I tried to take a very very light cut, but perhaps my impression of a light cut isn't really that light after all. I'm going to get the Vertias scraper plane for Christmas (SWMBO bought it from Lee Valley using my customer ID - she obviously doesn't realize that I can see that in my order history when I look at their webpage hehe. I'm evil, I know) so maybe that will be able to handle some of the screwy grain I run into. Still, learning to set up planes seems to be my biggest set back.

The two front vises idea isn't that unusual, I think. I know that during my perusal of woodworking websites over the last few years that I've seen quite a few benches set up like that. Once I get the twin-screw vise installed, I think the amazing flexibility of the Sam Allen joiner's bench is going to come shining through. The dog holes on the front edge of the bench, coupled with a side dog hole on the moving vise jaw of the twin-screw vise, will allow clamping of large panels for edge work. Using hold-downs on the dog holes in the legs, while holding long pieces in the front vise, will keep them extremely stable. And all the dog holes in the bench top will allow virtually any clamping arrangement I can come up with.

So, I guess I need to read some more plane tuning books. Any suggestions?

Mike

[Mike in Mystic]

Good suggestions, and probably a little of all of them are playing a role here. I did make sure to set the chip breaker only about 1/16" from the blade edge. Is this not a good placement? I'll have to double-check that it is fully seated along its width.

I found that most of the "checking" ocurred about 12-18" from the end of the board, so maybe the chip-breaker is getting clogged? Should I open the mouth up to allow clearance for these shavings? Man, I realize I have almost no instinct for this stuff hehe. Glad I'm still young enough that maybe in 10 years I'll be halfway decent so I can convince my son I know one or two things about woodworking haha.

Mike

[Fred the Red Shirt]

Good advice. I'll add that you should read the grain and plane in so that the grain rises to the surface in the direction you are planing. With practice you should be able to read the grain correctly at least half the time.

Or, if you catch or snag, try planing in the opposite direction. Skewing the plane can help too.

Curly figure is common in maple, if it is even a little bit curly it can be tough to plane because the grain will alternately dive and rise along the edge of the board.

Poplar planes easier than anything else I've tried. Beech has been the toughest -- it's like trying to make shavings from hard rubber.

[Juergen Hannappel]

[...]

But beech is still "soft" compared to wenge, where i could not get real "shavings" but only small stuff that looks like sawdust. Heck, the plane seemed to skid over the wood as if it was harder than the iron!

[JackD]

With results like that you might try planing blindfolded. Picking a direction at random is right half the time.

-Jack

[Dave Balderstone]

I can move it if I have to, but it tends to want to stay put.

djb

[Dave Balderstone]

That should be right. You merntioned chatter as a problem, so I wondered about that particular issue.

Another thought, if the problem is near the end of the board... Are you moving your qhole body as you plane, or extending your arms?

If the latter, perhaps you're lifting the front of the plane slightly at the end of your stroke, without realizing it.

djb

[John Thomas]

"Mike in Mystic" wrote in news:Lo6sb.23154$ [e-mail]:

Mike,

IME, if the chip breaker is clogging -- you'll know it. Either the whole 'shaving' will catch at the breaker, and sort of pile up, rather than spill out, or you'll get little bits of dust/shaving caught up under the breaker

-- it's all pretty obvious, and bad.

Regards, JT

[Fred the Red Shirt]

Congradulations. You got it in one.

[Mike in Idaho]

Mike (et. al.),

I've planed cherry, red oak, birch, hard maple, and pine. I'd definitely say that maple is a lot more difficult to plane than the other woods. I found that I was sticking the plane alot (it would get about half way in the stroke and stop). But after some practice I found that either I really muscled through the stroke in which case it worked fine, or I took the stroke a lot faster than with other woods and slightly less pressure and that worked fine too. The shavings didn't come out as full (width wise), so it (my knight smoother) was probably acting more like a scraper, and I ended up making two passes per one pass on other wood (mind you a single pass usually does it for me, so what's two passes anyway), but the end result was the same -- smooth as glass :)

Good luck, Mike

PS. I have lots of scrap maple sitting in a box waiting to be glued up for my workbench (vises still in their boxes as well). I'm jealous, wish mine were done. I'm just clamping a 1/2" thick piece of oak across my miter bench (mdf torsion box on sawhorses) and planing into it for now.

[snip]

[Eric Lund]

Ain't that the truth! I get a few shavings off of Wenge, but mostly it just crumbles. I tried putting it throught the old Delta 12" Snipemeister, but it turn it's nose up. Wouldn't even grab the wood. I thought I was going to have to clean up the rollers, but I tried a couple of other species (red oak and walnut), and they ran through just fine. Wenge is beautiful stuff, but hard to work is an understatement.

Cheers, Eric

[Conan The Librarian]

Assuming everything is set up and functioning properly, one more thing he might want to consider is taking a hunk of paraffin (the type you get in the grocery store for canning works fine; Gulfwax is the stuff we get here) and making a few "scribbles" on the sole of the plane. But be careful; the first time you take a pass, hold on tight or you might watch the plane go flying across your workshop. :-}

Also, on the idea of pressure: For problematic woods, I usually find that I have better results when I apply *less*, rather than more downwards pressure. And especially if you're trying to take a fairly substantial shaving, you'll end up sticking more if you are powering the plane downward. If you've ever used a scrub plane, this becomes apparent. The motion for scrubbing is a short almost "scooping" motion; if you keep too much downward pressure, the plane just tends to bog down.

Chuck Vance

[Mike in Mystic]

more good suggestions. I'll have to try just taking it easy and see how it goes. I guess I should try some poplar or other hardwood to maybe get a little easier result while I'm practicing, as well.

Mike