chip breakers (Lie-Nielson)

I was looking at a Lie-Nielson plane today and noticed how different the chip breaker is. It is a flat piece of metal that looks like it has been ground on the blade side so that a little lip stick up at the end. The grinding marks really puzzled me. Like, how can they make it that way? The grinding for the majority is along the length of the breaker all the way down to the little lip. It's the all the way part that made me wonder what was going on. How can they do that?

What is the advantage of their chip breaker style over the bent Stanley type? What are the Hock breakers like?

Reply to
petermichaux
Loading thread data ...

I don't have the newer style cap-iron that L-N is producing now, but from seeing the pictures, it looks like it is thicker at the business end, and thus would help dampen vibration better than the old style cap-irons. (And dampening vibration is the primary function of a cap-iron, rather than "chip-breaking", at least on a plane set up to take a very fine shaving.)

Ron is also making that thicker style cap-iron these days.

Chuck Vance

Reply to
Conan The Librarian

I have a couple of those, the screw is too far back from the end and so the gap between it and the blade is too loose, it makes tight contact but easily takes in shavings, jamming in there when the screw is as tight as it can get.

Reply to
AAvK

FWIW, I know Mr. Lee follows this group, so you may want to repost this with something like "Attn: Rob Lee" As he is the guy responsible for making so many of us drool over those Lie-Nielsons, he may be the best equipped to answer your question.

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

Reply to
Prometheus

Mr. Lee does follow this group, but he is the genius behind Veritus (Lee Valley). BTW, there is a great article in Popular Woodworking this month comparing the two planes.

Glen

Reply to
Glen

Yours is the first I've heard of such a problem, and we've sold a lot of those breakers (and received many testimonials to their efficacy). The screw location is a Stanley function. It has to fit the plane/frog/depth-adjuster. And they're ground to a sharp edge that can't lift off the back of the blade. The small bend in the breaker often springs the blade slightly and the whole assembly then gets clamped down tightly by the lever cap. I can't imagine how you're getting shavings under the breaker. I would appreciate it if you'd contact me directly with specifics. I don't want to post my email here (enough spam already) but if you go to the website, you can contact me from there.

Thanks, Ron

Reply to
Ron Hock

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.