Plane Blade

[Dr. Deb]

I bought a Stanley No 7 from Ebay and the blade was "Not in the best shape" shall we say. So. I ordered a Veritas blade and cap iron from Lee Valley. The cap iron was back ordered and I just got it today. I paired it with the blade and gave myself a 32nd inch blade exposure and mounted it in the plane.

First the good news is, it makes wonderful shavings.

The bad news is, I have to adjust the screw all the way out to get the blade to engage. By "all the way out" I mean that the adjusting knob is half way off the screw and the wishbone is almost out of the groove in the nut.

So, is this normal or is there something I am not doing?

Deb

[Leon]

What does Lee Valley say?

[Dr. Deb]

They were closed by the time I got the cap from UPS and installed. But I will call them Monday.

[Leon]

It certainly does not sound right.

[woodchucker]

so generally the cap iron controls the depth of blade. Since the notch for the blade height on the no 7 is cap iron. Move it closer to the edge of the blade., if not, if the blade is that long, they have given you many , many years of sharpening. Which blade did you get, O1, A1, or PMV11?

[John Grossbohlin]

It could be normal but not right at the same time as the lengths of the chip breaker/cap iron varied over time on Stanley planes. Lie-Nielson mentions this issue on their site

I guess the first question would be, How do the dimensions of the Veritas cap iron match up to the dimensions of the original Stanley? If it varies more than the .01" that L-N mentions then perhaps you need a custom cap iron.

John

[Dave]

On Fri, 12 Apr 2013 19:46:11 -0500, "Dr. Deb"

My suggestion is that you email them instead, possibly with a picture of the plane and new blade.

Call one person on the phone and you *might* talk to two or three to possibly get a possible answer. Email them and you may get an answer from a much larger knowledge pool.

[Sonny]

Can you see if the blade is flat onto/against the frog? I am wondering if it is not (properly) flat against the frog. If I'm understanding the problem correctly, loosen the frog and move it forward a bit.

Sonny

[joeljcarver]

to engage. ...

Try moving the frog back a bit.

[joeljcarver]

blade to engage. ...

Whoops! I should have said to move the frog forward ....

[scritch]

to engage. ...

Try moving it side-to-side.

[Dr. Deb]

A2 blade with the cap iron. Of course its the cap iron that is causing the problem.

Deb

[Dr. Deb]

\For th ose of you who suggested moving the frog. I did but it made no difference.

John mentioned that the cap irons might be different and he may be on to something. I put the old cap iron on the Veritas blade and made wonderful shavings with the adjuster having about two or three threads showing.

BTW, this plane has the Bailey style frog adjuster on it. Would that make a difference?

Deb

[Dr. Deb]

Final, followup.

I called Lee Valley. Their only answer was to sent the cap iron back for a refund. It seems Vertias only makes one cap iron, which takes us to the Lie Neilson link and a custom cap iron. EXCEPT for the fact that the original cap iron does a great job ! I am pulling gossimer thin shavings and it just does not get better than that, at least, not in my shop. :-)

Thanks for all the imput.

Deb

Deb

[John Grossbohlin]

That works... !

From a practical standpoint, thicker irons and chip breakers come in handy for reducing/eliminating chatter on hard wood (physically, not type) but for many woods you will not see a difference anyway. Also, a No 7 is generally used for flattening / jointing surfaces and other planes, e.g., No 4, used for finishing. As such a bit of minor chatter may never negatively impact your work anyway.

John