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Development in the wrong direction (long) *LINK*

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Development in the wrong direction (long) *LINK*

#1

Development in the wrong direction (long) *LINK*

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>Since I don't have the time actually to work with my new bullnose plane, I've been tinkering with it in moments between kitchen tasks (painting today; waiting for the primer to dry before we get one topcoat on, then the other tomorrow, then the cabinets), and have realized that Record, like Stanley, was busy since WWII developing in the wrong direction.

The drawing of the Record 077A in "Planecraft" (original copyright 1934, with a couple of revisions in the 1950's) shows that, at the time the book was published, the 077A had a dog-leg lever cap, similar to that of the 073*, except that, right where the cap turned down toward the iron, the casting had a little finger rest for the index finger.

Mine, clearly newer (anyone done type studies of these? Bugbear? Alf?), has a gracefully curved lever cap (see pic), no doubt easier to manufacture - but the finger rest is lost. I tried resting my finger on the lever cap, but it then blocks the escape route for shavings; and the front of the opening at the top of the casting is a relatively sharp right angle. When my round tuit reserve is built up again (when this kitchen remodel is done), maybe I'll file myself a little finger rest there.

"Planecraft" says that, with both shims removed, you can take "...a shaving less than 1/1000th in. thick." This implies a pretty fine mouth. The mouth on mine, with both shims out, is 0.041". With both shims in, it looks like you could slip a fairly plump cat through it. Until I find a surface grinder at a garage sale, I think I'll have to live with this, but that's OK: with the softwoods and mild North American hardwoods I tend to work, sharpness of iron is more critical to shaving quality than fineness of mouth anyway.

By the way, I found a use for my No. 75. We needed to knock off some built up paint on the kitchen doorway, where the wainscoting used to be, and it's dynamite for that. I recall that the one No. 75 I sold on eBay went to a painter, and also recall noticing painterish tags on the buyers of some other No. 75s (and no, Scott, I'm not obsessively checking). Maybe this is its right and highest use; certainly furnituremaking isn't.

*Lie-Nielsen copied this design without significant change; see the link below if you're not familiar with it.


img

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?sku=073

Re: Development in the wrong direction (long) *LINK*

#2

Re: Preston version ****

MikeW

>Hi Bill,

Not certain the difference in caps makes too big a difference. I cannot rest my finger where you indicate with my earlier, Preston version. In the photo below, you can see a wear spot where my right index finger does rest, though.


Main issue is maintaining positive contact on the nose, else the plane can rock back due to the length of the lever cap.

Chip ejection due to the lever cap shape is probably different between them, though. Depending on the thickness of shaving, the shaving side-ejects without intervention. A thick shaving still tries to go right up and out the top.

But I only use mine for the last bits of a stopped rebate, so that might affect how often I experience it as well because it is usually set to take a fairly thin shaving.

btw, even with my shims out and the iron set fine, it too has a bit wider mouth than indicated in Planecraft--which is a sales piece for Record. (A pretty darn good resource, though.)

Take care, Mike

Re: Development in the wrong direction (long) *LINK*

#3

An idea for modification

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>"Planecraft" says that, with both shims removed, you can take "...a shaving less than 1/1000th in. thick." This implies a pretty fine mouth. The mouth on mine, with both shims out, is 0.041". With both shims in, it looks like you could slip a fairly plump cat through it. Until I find a surface grinder at a garage sale, I think I'll have to live with this

Bill

There are many ways to skin a cat. In other words, there is another way to close up the mouth of the plane without a shim.

I assume that you are talking about a shim that causes the front of the plane to move away from the blade edge. In other words, this distance is increased/decreased according to the number of shims that is added. If so, then here is another method...

Simply add a piece of packing (either mild steel, or brass, or epoxy) under the back of the blade, thereby raising it a tiny fraction of an inch. As long as you can retain the squareness and rigidity, the plane will function perfectly.

Here I have a Slater Bullnose plane I bought quite cheaply on eBay. I must admit that I did not look closely enough at the mouth - the seller said (!) that it was fine (yeah, right!). Later (a week ago), when I got around to looking at it closely, I discovered that someone must have taken a file to it. The seller will not reply to my emails and, unfortunately, 2 months have gone by since I bought it. Too late for Paypal protection. So I am going to restore it - similar process is recommended for you, but yours does not need to be my permanent version. Here is wghat I mean ...

eBay pic - I should have seen this coming:



The reason the mouth is wide is that the blade is seated too low:



See what happens if you raise the blade:



I plan to silver solder in a spacer (and replace the wood, etc). I think that you could get away with a spacer under the blade, one that is large enough to provide good support.

This is one case where a thicker blade will not work - unless the blade was stepped.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Development in the wrong direction (long) *LINK*

#4

Another way to shut your mouth

Neal in San Jose

>If you hone a back bevel (a bevel on the non-bevel side, as opposed to a micro vevel on the bevel side), it will move the cutting edge up. You then have to move the blade forward to counter the new geometry, and, voila, a tighter mouth. I've used this successfully on other fixed-mouth planes, like the ubiquitous Stanley 220.

Don't get carried away, and keep in mind that the back bevel must be less than the bed angle of the plane. On a low angle plane, I'd limit the back bevel to about 5 to 7 degrees, so that I maintain at least a 5 degree relief angle to the stock.

Might be easier than putting in shims. Neal

Re: Development in the wrong direction (long) *LINK*

#6

Obsessive...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>You? Naaaa!

I've never seen a lever cap like that on a Record plane. It almost looks like the dog leg was broken off. I'll have to poke around my Record lit. and see if I can find anything out.

Thanks for the tip on a true use for the 75 too. Guess I'll keep mine for such tasks.

Re: Development in the wrong direction (long) *LINK*

#7

Re: Development in the wrong direction (long)

Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI

>I can honestly say that I have never sat in a meeting where the owner of the business wanted to discuss ways to increase the quality of our products. On the other hand, there is constant discussion of ways to make things faster and cheaper. As near as I can tell this is the only drawback of the capitalist economy.

Re: Development in the wrong direction (long) *LINK*

#8

Re: Development in the wrong direction (long)

paul womack

> As near as I can tell this is the only drawback of the capitalist economy.

As near as I can tell, capitalism and the free market is working well for Lie-Nielsen, whose USP is quality.

BugBear (happy that this is the case)

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