78 Plane Tuning

Perhaps

Jim Reed @Tallahassee

>you should back off the blade a bit. My #78 works better when taking light cuts. There is nothing to jam under the lever cap because the shavings are all light, tight curls. I do have a problem with them jaming up the side of the mouth. Regardless of how you tune it, however, I think this plane likes to jam up shavings whenever it can. Good luck.

Re: 78 Plane Tuning

Ron Smith

>Hi Glenn - I have the same 78 and can offer a few suggestions. Check the blade bed to make sure the blade lays flat and can be adjusted fully to either side so a proper cut can be made in either direction. Take the paint of the chip-breaker where ot touches the iron and stone to assure even contact. When adjusted the chip-breaker will be about 3/16 of an inches from the cutting edge; When making proper, thin shavings it is of little consequences. Get the iron sharp, set it for a very light cut. The shaving should CURL easily as they are produced. The mouth on this plane is disorganized and tends to clog, so just keep pulling them out by hand.

NOW . . the technique. Let say you are cutting a rabbet in one inch stock 20 inches long. If you begin your cut in the end of the board nearest you the cutter will easily take a full-depth bite . . . as you continue there will be a tendency to make a continuous shaving of maximum thickness promoting a tendency to clog the mouth. Additionally this can cause a problem with the width of the rabbet; If you allow a little creep, and make a deep cut, it is difficult to go back and re-establish rabbet width.

WHAT TO DO: Start your cut at the FAR END of the board. Take short digging cuts making sure to hold register . . gradually lengthen your stroke by bringing the plane ever closer tto you body until you have sort of chopped a pretty good rabbet full length into the board. THEN . .go to full stroke starting at the near edge to finish the rebbet.

Sorry this got long and convoluted. . Good luck to you.

Re: 78 Plane Tuning

Glenn

>Thanks for the information. How do you sharpen the side cutter?

Chopsticks

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>I concur with others that this plane likes to clog. My current trick for dealing with this is to score one of a pair of chopsticks from the kitchen* and use it to poke out the shavings from the side of the mouth. The bamboo, being wood-like, doesn't damage the iron if it hits the cutting edge, and it also bleeds less than fingers when it does.

*Out here on the Left Coast, every kitchen has several pairs of chopsticks floating around in the silverware drawer. If this is not the case where you live, go out for dinner to a Chinese restaurant, ask for the chopsticks and then, if you haven't mastered them yet (it's not hard; just takes practice), ask for a fork. If you've already licked the chopsticks, they won't take them back.

* How�d you know that....

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Hummmm Bill...I've got in in my kitchen drawers too. Mine are always accompanied my little packets of soy sauce too.

Re: * How�d you know that....

Ted Shuck, Centennial, CO

>So, do you use the soy sauce to lubricate the mouth so you don't have to use the chopsticks to push the shavings out?

Too sticky...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>That's when you wiggle a egg roll or pot sticker around the mouth.

Soy sauce makes a good smelling wood dye...;^)