got my LV low angle Jack
Bob Fawcett
>I recieved my Veritas low angle Jack plane on Saturday. Its hard to understand how much nicer this plane is than the ones I can see at the local stores until you handle one and see it in person. I took out the iron and honed it on my King waterstones. Back in the plane, adjust the depth and I can shave toilet paper off the end grain of 2" hard maple. It came with the set screws for lateral adjustment set right out of the box.
After such great results, I decided to see how good I could tune my Stanley. This is a made in the USA Stanley #4 that is about 15 to 20 years old. I retracted the blade all the way and put it on 600 wet/dry paper on my granite tile. I kept hearing a click sound as I tried to sand the the bottom to at least remove the rust. Check the tote, no not loose, check the frog, the front handle, any other pieces I could, nothing seems to be loose. I got out my Starret combination square and put the blade across the bottom. The rear of the sole looks flat, as does the toe, but right around the mouth there is an obvious hump in the middle. I can see about 1/64" gap as I hold the plane up to the light at one end and I can rock the blade of the square from side to side. The click I was hearing was the plane rocking on the granite tile. This is a corrugated bottom plane and most of the sole looks flat except for the area on either side of the mouth. How can this happen? Hard to believe a machining problem. Can the metal move? There is a cast web across the mouth on the toe side.
Anyway, looks like I will need much courser sand paper to start to remove this much metal and get the bottom flat.