Problem adjusting cut depth on Veritas shoulder plane

[Roy Smith]

I yielded to temptation and bought myself one of those new Veritas shoulder planes that people have been talking about so much here on the wreck. It's the first shoulder plane I've ever owned, so I don't really have much to compare it to in the way of giving a review.

I tried it out for the first time and found I had a lot of trouble getting the cutting depth adjusted right. I opened up the throat, loosened the lever cap screw, and backed the adjuster out to get past the backlash zone. I then carefully ran it forward until I was getting just beautiful wispy shavings.

The problem came in when I tightened the cap screw again. Every time I have it adjusted just perfectly, when I tighten the cap screw, the depth of cut increases significantly. I go from barely touching the surface to taking off a 0.005" (by dial caliper) shaving when I snug the cap screw up 1/4 turn. Is this normal with a plane of this sort? Am I doing something wrong? Am I just expecting too much from the tool?

[Christopher]

I haven't done much with mine yet but didn't notice what you describe. I did notice that the throat adjustment was a little sticky but haven't looked at it closely yet and it's not that bad. I'll play around with the blade depth a little more and see if I notice a problem. I spent some time getting the screws set right to keep everything square and was adjusting the depth a lot in the process but can't say whether I really looked at the depth closely or even tightened down the screw until the end.

-Chris