Hi all-
I inherited an infill shoulder plane, and it seems to have some issues. But not knowing about shoulder planes, I'm hoping somebody can clarify a few things for me:
1) Below the blade, there's a wooden wedge that's loose. It kind of looks like it may have been glued in, but given that there's a screw adjustment at the back end of it, that seems unlikely. So it's not supposed to be glued, right?2) I assume the wedge is supposed to be coplanar with the metal bedding near the mouth. But if it can be moved back and forth by the screw, it will only be coplanar in one spot. Is there a particular place where that spot is supposed to be?
3) The screw is not attached to the wedge, it just bears against the back of it. This means that you can advance the wedge, but backing off on the screw doesn't bring the wedge back with it. Is the wedge just supposed to squirt back when the pressure is off? I guess my question is, what exactly is the screw supposed to do?4) It looks like the upper wedge had thin shims glued to it top and bottom. The top one is still glued on; the bottom one has separated. I don't know if the blade is original, but I would guess not, given the shims. (Although, they look like they're exactly the same wood. It's odd.) If I get a new (custom) blade, I should get one to fit the current configuration, is that right? Or should I (re)shim or shave the wedge to accomodate some standard blade thickness?
5) It's hard to tell, but it doesn't seem quite like the upper wedge bears fully toward the front of the blade. That is, the wedge may be tighter near the back of the blade than at the front. I should guarantee that it bears most near the front of the blade somehow, right?It seems like a nice plane, and I'm really looking forward to having it be fully usable, so thanks in advance for your help.
-Tom