Warning of doom greater than a spinny vortex

Okay dont say i did not warn you if you end up like me.

So for those of you that read my post the jointer finaly arrived just before my trip to Michigan. When i saw Larrys wide belt sander i thought gee why did I not bring my bench top down to his place and it would have been flat.

But after taking my jointer out of the packaging and merely sharpening the blade boy am i glad i did not.

In less than 1 hour i now have a flat workbench and i have to tell you working with sharp planes is highly addictive. I had to conciously decide to stop or there would be nothing left of my bench top.

Pictures will follow in my workbench thread when i get out to the shop again.
But i just had to share the experience of planing that top here. I know i paid a little on the high side for my jointer especially when i include the shipping but man i am delighted with its performance and its still less than half of what i would have paid for new one at LV or having my top sanded by some pro shop.

Be warned picking up hand planes has no end.

Now i need someone to give me some advice. Bill will you chime in here please.

I took the smoothing plane out for a whirl after using the jointer. Trying to get the extra thin curlies you mentioned by closing up the throat. I did this by moving the frog ever so slightly but seem to be having issues now with getting any shavings at all. Have been experimenting with no success. What i am getting is shavings that are akin to having used a rasp.

One other thing, any tips anyone has for getting your tool rest properly square to the wheel of the grinder. I get a good grind but always seem to be out of square by the time i fit the blade to the plane. Leaves an uneven space on the gap that the "chip breaker" has between the edge of the blade and the front of the chipbreaker.

Also any tips on getting the overlap right when jointing. I initially did not pay attention to this i was enjoying myself too much just making curlys and seeing the flatness occurr. Then noticed i had streeks across the bench that need cleaning up.

Hey Larry it was quiet the workout but oh so enjoyable i challenge all the spinny guys to try out a plane. Maybe more of them would become flatwork guys then.

Another thing is how to decide when to stop. What i am realizing is its one thing to read and get a understanding of the art, its another thing to put it into practice. Guess there is no substitute to experimentation and on the job practice.

By the way for anyone wanting to learn to sharpen and really understand whats going on, get hold of this book, it covers everything you can sharpen from A to Z.
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Sharpening-Leonard-Lee/dp/1561581259

Thanks for reading and sharing in my new adventure any tips you have would be appreciated.

streaks??? if i understand yu correctly rob yu are gettin streks from the plane iron not being rounded on the outside corners ever so slightly.. also in flatting i believe yu go at +45 degrees first then -45 degress the other way then straight with grain to get flat. as for the dust and not thin shavings,, sounds like yur not gettin the iron to the wood .

Rob, see the link to a recent post on Christopher Schwarz's blog. The post covers how to set up a smoother. It may shed some light. http://blog.woodworking-magazine.com/blog/Superspecific+Smoothing+Plane+Specs.aspx

As always, Larry is correct that some people relieve the edges or hone a camber on their jointers, but not everyone does. There are two camps to this. Some prefer that their jointer blade remain straight and use their smoother to clean up the tracks.

A lot of people do hone a camber on their smoother to avoid leaving any tracks. Chris's blog explains this. As for not pulling a shave after moving the frog, I think it could be you moved it too much and can not extend the blade enough like Larry suggested and/or the blade is not sharp enough. You can make a shaving with a dull blade when taking a rank cut, but you need a really sharp blade to make a shaving with a very fine cut. Every day I sharpen a blade, my perception of what constitutes "sharp" changes. It is a moving target that makes me wonder if I will ever catch it. Maybe the best I can hope for is "sharp enough".

Being a plane addict myself I'll confess you something, there are days that I arrive home so tired and stressed or upset from having to deal with stupiditiness that I do not do any woodwork for fear of making mistakes that I'll regret later (as has happened before).

Well those days, what I do is pick up a plane, usually one I made myself, hone the blade a bit or not, pic a scrap of pine or oak (I like the aroma of both) and just make shavings.


Swissssss, Swissssss, after each pass I touch the wood, feeling its silky smoothness, looking at the shine, and again swisss, swissss, after a few passes I feel better and relaxed, the only drawback is that then I have to sweep the floor.

Toni Ciuraneta said:

Being a plane addict myself I'll confess you something, there are days that I arrive home so tired and stressed or upset from having to deal with stupiditiness that I do not do any woodwork for fear of making mistakes that I'll regret later (as has happened before).

Well those days, what I do is pick up a plane, usually one I made myself, hone the blade a bit or not, pic a scrap of pine or oak (I like the aroma of both) and just make shavings.


Swissssss, Swissssss, after each pass I touch the wood, feeling its silky smoothness, looking at the shine, and again swisss, swissss, after a few passes I feel better and relaxed, the only drawback is that then I have to sweep the floor.

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Gotta agree with everything you said, Toni. Nothing quite so satisfying as the sound and feel of a sharp plane on wood.

Rob,
Now that you're hooked, maybe you should build a BIG cabinet for the ones you're about to acquire...

Jim DeLaney said:

Gotta agree with everything you said, Toni. Nothing quite so satisfying as the sound and feel of a sharp plane on wood.

Rob,
Now that you're hooked, maybe you should build a BIG cabinet for the ones you're about to acquire...

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i too agree with toni and well jim dont tell him that yet yu have to sneak up on them

I guess I'm in double trouble, cause I enjoy working with hand tools and also turning..

hey don every now and then we get a mutation in every spicies

Hey Guys thanks everyone of you for the insight. My trouble is calming down. Hey i am like a young pup when i get out in my shop. I need to calm down and slow down but the excitement gets me going. As i said i think i need to experiment with exactly what an adjustment means. Never thought about it but I guess fine adjustment should mean fine Eh!

Jim I dont know about hooked as bad as you have it. You simply look addicted. Man i cannot see myself with two or three of each. But i have to say with Tonis inspiration i am rapidly dreaming of making my own wooden plane.

Toni I can relate to that story of yours. Thats exactly what i did a week ago. Darn near planed a whole piece of ash and cherry into curlys.

Boy I really wish my Dad was able to travel and be able to visit my shop .
He and i used to have so much banter between each other over who wrecked the chisel edges and never mind the plane and that was at a time when i was not even allowed to touch them. So guess who was doing the damage and who had to take the blame.

To be fair to him he never had the advantages of books and internet we have at our fingertips. But i feed him pictures and tease him via email.

I will report back with pictures and my findings after i have another go this weekend. Will sharpen the blade again Bill even after i followed Dons advice last time and sharpened right up to 2000 grit before honing with old Herbs yellowstone on a piece of hide. Dont have much hair on my arm left to shave off though so i guess the legs will be next. Loml is getting worried about my naked arm.

Hey Don i also enjoy the Spinny thing but I am getting over my lathes weaknesses at the moment. After seeing what some old timers have used and still produced fine work with I am self motivating myself to come to terms with nuckling down and making do with what i have. When i get there you will see some more spinny stuff from me. Still have a hunk of Larrys wood to turn.

Rob, be careful you don't round over that fresh edge stropping with Herb's Yellowstone. I only leather strop (with Herb's) my chisels. I hone my plane blades on an 8000 stone and stop there, but am thinking of going to a diamond paste on a block of wood after my 8000 stone. Have any of you out there been doing that? I would be interested in any input. Sorry for the hijack Rob!

I fail to understand why people compare using hand tools with turning or prefer one over the other.
I can understand if someone prefers hand tools over power tools or green-wood turning over segmented turning. It is a matter of personal choice.
As far as the soothing-effect goes, any favorite hobby\tools can be a source of relieving stress. I tried to learn chip-carving in the past but found it too frustrating. That does not mean that chip-carving cannot be a stress-reliever. Some students in the same class really enjoyed it.
A few years ago I took a hand tools class to learn how to sharpen chisels and tune planes. I liked what a finely tuned plane could do but didn't enjoy it so much that I would prefer a smoother over a planer.

Bill I make sure to keep the plane blade in the honing guide and i only pull in one direction and only do it a couple of times. Then i make sure to lap it once on the flat side to remove the micro burr. But I will give it a try without this and see if i get it sharper. It does take hair off my arm without even trying though. Any better test you can think of ?

I think my biggest issue is fine adjustment and getting my blade ground square. Need to fiddle a little.

Rob Keeble said:

...Jim I dont know about hooked as bad as you have it. You simply look addicted. Man i cannot see myself with two or three of each. But i have to say with Tonis inspiration i am rapidly dreaming of making my own wooden plane. ...

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Rob,
Not addicted...I can quit...maybe...

As for more than one of a kind - there are plain-soled and corrugated, and sizes 1~8, then there are the many and varied rabbet, compass, dado, edge forming, etc. It can just go on and on...

Also, as Larry and Rennie can attest, what you see in the picture is only about half of them. I think I've got over a hundred, now, but I haven't counted lately.

I will be staying away from you Jim, I dont have the space for all those planes and with what i paid for this one on Ebay i dare not try for any more. I will settle on well maybe one more oh make that two okay three that i am missing.

Still have in mind to get a shoulder plane, then a good Jack plane and then i need to think of one of those wooden scrub planes.

Oh Oh looks like i got this disease pretty bad.

Rob Keeble said:

I will be staying away from you Jim, I dont have the space for all those planes and with what i paid for this one on Ebay i dare not try for any more. I will settle on well maybe one more oh make that two okay three that i am missing.

Still have in mind to get a shoulder plane, then a good Jack plane and then i need to think of one of those wooden scrub planes.

Oh Oh looks like i got this disease pretty bad.

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make your own scrub plane rob from a cheaper model of bailey or stanley a no. 5 works well 5.25 is what seemed to be prefred but i used a 5 and 3 for the ones me and clardy made. the 5 feels better.

larry merlau said:

make your own scrub plane rob from a cheaper model of bailey or stanley a no. 5 works well 5.25 is what seemed to be prefred but i used a 5 and 3 for the ones me and clardy made. the 5 feels better.

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Yeah, a 5 works well. So does a 4, and they're probably the two cheapest versions to buy. In fact, a rusty, otherwise unusable 4 or 5 will make a good scrub, since a clean, flat sole isn't a necessity.

Just set the frog back so the mouth is wide open, and grind a good radius on the blade. An 8" radius works well.

Of course, it'd really be neater (better) to have a 40 and a 40½...

yeah yeah.... i had a 40 and a 40 1/2 in my hands but didnt part with the green,,

Rob Keeble said:

I
Still have in mind to get a shoulder plane, then a good Jack plane and then i need to think of one of those wooden scrub planes.

Oh Oh looks like i got this disease pretty bad.

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For 45 to 50$ you can get Hock plane blades, making yourself a wood plane is not that difficult I've made already 5 of them, it takes about 3 hours four or five if you count the glue drying time.

The last jack I made (see post http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=15847&highlight=jack+plane) I started it at 10:30AM glued it before lunch, had 1 hour siesta and around 4:30PM I was making shavings.

the advantage is that if you mess it up, you can keep the blade and start all over again. I understand perfectly why Jim Krenov used to make a plane when he was stuck or not feeling like working.

It is a quick and very rewarding project.