I have been working on my hand tool skills lately, especially bench planes and my question is, "when increasing the cutter depth on say a #4 or #7 must the cap iron pressure be released before turning the adjustment knob, or can the plane iron still move with the cap iron in place and tensioned? Up till now I always would release the cap iron lever. What is the proper way? Thank you for helping a wannabie knuckledragger?
Ken
Set the screw on the cap lever so that the side-to-side adjustment lever works properly and so that the lock is tight but able to be released with one finger. Use the adjustment knob w/o removing the lever cap. If you get chatter, try adjusting the levercap hold down screw, assuming that your frog placement is correct and that the blade is SHARP.
Dave in Fairfax
You should be able to adjust blade depth without loosening anything, if you can't, it is too tight. Always take out the adjuster backlash by turning the knob in the "cut deeper" direction last so that the adjuster tab is holding the blade at depth rather than friction.
Thanks for that advice. I had hoped for just that answer, will sure make setting the cutter depth easier. Also I think I have the backlash thing figured out as was mentioned. ......I can already feel my knuckles touching the shop floor. :-)
And also, silly as it sounds, make sure your cap iron has a spring on it. I bought a blue ('60s vintage, after their quality went in the tank) Stanley #5 on eBay and the cap was defective. No spring. That thing chattered like a bastard until it finally dawned on me that it didn't have a spring on the lever cap. Duh.
(You already know this Dave. I'm talking to the OP.)
Affirmative on the spring thing. I also replaced the standard iron with a LV replacement. It makes very nice wispy shavings on poplar/cherry/mahogany. Birch is another story, way to much chipout. Can a #4 stanley bailey, even with a narrow mouth setting, and a scary sharp blade be expected to handle birch. Is a more refined technique required ? Speaking of plane colours, I have a blue # 4, which I guess isn't very old and a wine coloured # 4 which has no adjustment screw on the frog. I wonder when and why Stanley made a #4 with no frog adjustment screw??.
Dunno. Someone with more time in the saddle than I have might do better. I have a #4 that I tuned to take ultra whispies, and I never have managed to get satisfactory results on a piece of birch I bought. The grain is too tangly, and it's tearout junction. My power jointer leaves a better finish on this wood than that plane.
I think this is what scrapers were invented for. I haven't tried scrapers on it yet.
Also, maybe one of Steve Knight's magical smoothers might tame it.
I don't think either one of these is very old, but that probably doesn't have that much to do with it. I have two #4s. One is modern, and one is right around a hundred years old. The old one is amazingly better than the new one, but neither one of them can tame this stupid birch. Not in *my* hands anyway.
Some comfort at least, in knowing others struggle with smoothing birch as I do. I'll have to stick to machines, and card scrapers for birch.
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