About tuning a plane

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Ron Daves
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About tuning a plane

Post by Ron Daves »

I've recently acquired a Stanley Bailey #4 plane. Here's how I tuned this plane:
1.)Scrubbed the sole on #80 grit sandpaper. I got the sole flat except for a shallow spot a little bigger than a pencil eraser about an eighth inch behind the throat.
2.) Hollow ground the blade and sharpened it to 25 degrees with a back bevel. I polished the back of the blade and it looks like a mirror, except for a small dot about the size of a pencil eraser about 1/8" away from the sharpened edge. Finished with a polishing wheel and the back looks like a mirror. Even the little spot I couldn't get rid of polished up nicely.
3.) Flattened the chip breaker so that it fits nicely to the plane iron.

Questions:
1.) Have I missed anything?
2,)Can't check sharpness by shaving-not hairy. I can slice a piece of paper with no problem. Any other tricks
3.) It'll take hours to scrub these spots out. Is it worth the effort?
Frustrated luthier wanna-be
Adam Savage
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Re: About tuning a plane

Post by Adam Savage »

Howdy,
A couple of things spring to mind.
1) What will be the main purpose of your plane?
2) Any particular reason for honing a back bevel, as its normally a technique for taming awkward/gnarly grain? Also, 25 deg is a wee bit shallow, but might be fine.
3) I wouldn't use a polishing wheel as you might inadvertently round over the cutting edge. You don't need the whole rear of the blade polished, just the area directly behind the cutting edge.
4) You don't mention if you have adjusted the frog to close up the throat a little, but may be worth doing so.
5) It may also be worth swiping the sole a few times on a very fine wet n dry paper to take the roughness of the peaks of the scratches left by the 80 grit. You don't need to polish the whole of the sole, just the bits that are in direct contact with the wood.

That's all I can think of, good luck with your plane,

Adam
Nick Middleton
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Re: About tuning a plane

Post by Nick Middleton »

I will echo Adam's advice about setting up the frog for a tight-fit at the throat. I also agree you might want to sand up to a finer grit on the sole of the plane. At least 120 (or 220 if you're ambitious). Also, lightly dull the edge of the sole along the whole perimeter so there is no chance you'd mar your work surface with any burr or the nice 90-degree corner that you will have developed. I forgot to do that once and had made a pretty good scraper with the edge of the sole by accident!

Finally, use a little paste wax on the sole to prevent rust and allow the plane to glide smoothly while using it.
Ron Daves
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Re: About tuning a plane

Post by Ron Daves »

Adam Savage wrote:Howdy,
A couple of things spring to mind.
1) What will be the main purpose of your plane?
Thinning the timber for the musical instruments I make.
2) Any particular reason for honing a back bevel, as its normally a technique for taming awkward/gnarly grain? Also, 25 deg is a wee bit shallow, but might be fine.
I can't recite the technical aspects of a back bevel, but I bought a book by Luthier Brian Burns and he says do it.
3) I wouldn't use a polishing wheel as you might inadvertently round over the cutting edge. You don't need the whole rear of the blade polished, just the area directly behind the cutting edge.
Good point. I was wondering if using a polishing wheel gots the plane iron flat. Probably a better plan is to use increasingly finer grits of sandpaper. This plane was well used for more general purposes and had a little rust here and there and the sole was in need of smoothing. I will be using it for really fine woodworking on guitars and ukes.
4) You don't mention if you have adjusted the frog to close up the throat a little, but may be worth doing so.
I'll give it a try.
5) It may also be worth swiping the sole a few times on a very fine wet n dry paper to take the roughness of the peaks of the scratches left by the 80 grit. You don't need to polish the whole of the sole, just the bits that are in direct contact with the wood.
Looks like I have a bit more scrubbing to do.

That's all I can think of, good luck with your plane,

Adam
Frustrated luthier wanna-be
Adam Savage
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Re: About tuning a plane

Post by Adam Savage »

Hi Ron,
Ok, taking your points a little further :
1) For thicknessing timber, unless you are working with something that doesnt plane easily with a 'standard' bevel of around 30 degrees (for instance heavily interlocked grain, highly figured grain) then I wouldnt worry about the back bevel - just one more complication to worry about. Having said that, purchasing a second blade to fit in your No4 that does have a back bevel is a quick and easy way of having a plane that will perform well on 2 jobs. In fact, depending on how much money you have at your disposal for this, purchasing an upgraded blade/chipbreaker combo from the likes of Ron Hock will do wonders for your planes' performance (I have a Stanley 7 with such a blade and until I bought a Clilfton 6 second hand, it was my goto plane for most tasks).
2) I will also echo the comments made by Nick regarding a quick file/swipe of any sharp edges around the sole of the plane (front, rear, sides).
3) The sole does not need to be mirror-flat, it merely needs to be co-planar between the front, the front and rear of the throat and the rear of the plane. It also needs to have no twist in it. Have you used the 'scribble lines across and see where they are removed when sanding the sole' technique? Again, I will echo the use of paste wax (in fact I just use a quick swipe of an old candle on the sole) to reduce the friction of the sole against the timber.

Cheers,
Adam
Michael Lewis
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Re: About tuning a plane

Post by Michael Lewis »

I commend you for getting the double bevel sharpening book by Brian Burns. I know him and he really does know his stuff about sharpening. The sharpening angles you choose should be selected for the type of wood you are going to work. Low angle (more acute) for straight grained and softer woods, and higher angle (less acute) for harder woods and gnarly grain.
mike wingate
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Re: About tuning a plane

Post by mike wingate »

Unscrew the frog and clean away any paint on the mating surfaces. I use thicker blades and cap irons to imprve the cut. I grind on a water cooled Tormek so not to burn the blade, followed by diamond stones (220 - 1200) with the blades held in a jig , followed by an 8000 ceramic stone, then stropped on a chromium oxide charged leather strop. Sharp enough to shave with.
Patrick Hanna
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Re: About tuning a plane

Post by Patrick Hanna »

Do what they all said. Then, in addition, hone the mating surface of your cap iron to fit tightly to the top surface of your plane iron. You can find out how to do this with a google search or a youtube search on "plane cap iron."

Don't worry at all about the little dimple on your sole that isn't flat. But DO make sure that the edge of your iron is ground and honed absolutely parallel to the sole at the back of the mouth. Then, depending on how you want to use your plane, it might not hurt to hone in a very subtle camber or curvature along your cutting edge. FINE WOODWORKING magazine recently featured an information-filled article about this, and you can probably find that online, too.
Tom Sommerville
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Re: About tuning a plane

Post by Tom Sommerville »

Check the sole for flatness again, but with the blade installed. Clamping the blade will stress the sole and distort it, often creating a vexing convexity behind the blade.
For this reason it's best to flatten the sole with the blade installed but safely retracted.
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Murray MacLeod
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Re: About tuning a plane

Post by Murray MacLeod »

Patrick Hanna wrote:... But DO make sure that the edge of your iron is ground and honed absolutely parallel to the sole at the back of the mouth....
Surely the aim is to grind and hone the edge absolutely square to the sides of the iron itself ?

That done, then as you say, you can impart a slight camber if required.

Parallelism of the edge to the sole can be taken care of with the adjustment mechanism.
Patrick Hanna
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Re: About tuning a plane

Post by Patrick Hanna »

Hi, Murray, I was referring to the line of the cutting edge itself. If it's absolutely straight and parallel to the sole, it can leave tell tale lines at each corner of the iron (blade) upon each stroke of the plane. For that reason, many plane users bear down slightly on each corner when honing, to form a subtle curved cutting edge. VERY subtle in many cases, but sometimes quite a lot of curvature if the plane is to be used to hog out a lot of preliminary waste. As I said, it depends on how the plane is to be used. There is a good article about this in a very recent edition of FINE WOODWORKING, with photos of plane tracks after various methods of honing. I'm sure it's available online.
Best to all,
Patrick
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Murray MacLeod
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Re: About tuning a plane

Post by Murray MacLeod »

I got no argument with any of that, Patrick that's exactly what I do myself ...and may I say that after 40+ years of freehand honing I eventually invested in Brian Burns' excellent honing jig, and I couldn't be happier ...square edges guaranteed every time, with a secondary bevel taking only seconds ...

I can't help airing one of my pet hobby horses here ...seems to me that every time anybody posts on a forum about truing a plane sole , they invariably start off with 80 grit. What's that about ?

If you want to do a radical flattening of your plane sole, start off with a cloth backed strip of 36 grit aluminum oxide, clamped down to your surface plate or machine bed. That's right, 36 grit. This will leave a corrugated surface, but it will be flat. Then, once all the dimples are gone , go to 60, 80 and finally 120. No need for anything finer. Doing it this way will save you hours of tedious work.
Arnt Rian
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Re: About tuning a plane

Post by Arnt Rian »

Better yet, use a long belt sander. Draw a crosshatch pattern with a Sharpie over the whole sole first, to give you a visual indication of your progress as you grind, and check with a straigt edge as you go. I've used 80 grit on the sander, and I haven't bothered to polish it up after, it seems to work just fine straight off the sander. I've given new life a few absolute dogs from the flea market this way, in a few minutes. I do the same thing on badly chipped or pitted irons or chisels, before polishing up the back and honing a fine secondary bevel, which is what matters for the cutting action. I use a cheapo side clamping honing guide, both on the sander and for honing.
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Murray MacLeod
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Re: About tuning a plane

Post by Murray MacLeod »

Arnt, the success of your method does rather depend on having an absolutely flat platen on your belt sander, and if you are fortunate enough to have a machine with such a pristine platen, yes, I can see that that would yield acceptable results. Although ...saying that ...that is exactly how Stanley and Record finish the soles of their planes, and I have yet to see a Stanley or Record plane with a totally flat sole ex-works.

For OCD masochists such as I, however, the sheer pain of lapping the sole on a surface plate with successively finer grits, and the satisfaction of knowing that the whole sole is totally ( and probably unnecessarily) flat, is what makes the whole experience worthwhile ...
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Bob Gramann
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Re: About tuning a plane

Post by Bob Gramann »

I have used a variant of Arnt's method with great success (I dress the platten on my belt sander to keep it flat). After leveling the plane sole on the belt sander, I take it to a piece of sandpaper glued to a plate of glass. On that, I sand the sole with a swirling motion. When the whole sole has swirly scratch marks on it, I'm done. I've found that it's well worth the trouble to get the sole really flat (though not shiny--I can live with the swirl scratches).
Alan Carruth
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Re: About tuning a plane

Post by Alan Carruth »

My understanding is that one of the reasons so many planes have flatness issues these days is that the castings are not properly aged. There can be a fair amount of built-in stress in a new casting, and this will work it's way out over time. The problem is that it costs money to store castings for a year or so to allow them to 'season', so they just work them up. They season on the shelf, and end up a bit different shape than they were when they left the plant, and you have to deal with that.
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