Hand plane adjustment

[Darren Wright]

I have several planes, but honestly don’t use them as much as I should.

One thing that I’ve had issues with is adjustment, many of my planes require me to loosen or unlatch the cap to make adjustments, which makes fine adjustments hit or miss.

Should I be able to make lateral and depth adjustments without loosening or unlocking the cap lever/latch?

 

[glenn bradley]

IMHO, yes. What format of plane are we talking about? I fool about a bit getting the right amount of pressure when the lever cap iron is latched if it is that format. Once dialed in I can adjust things pretty freely. The Veritas planes have set screws to retain the iron position which is a cool feature. My Millers Falls are "stanley-like" and use the lever cap.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Yes. At least for most minor adjustments. There are basically several things you can do here that I know of (waiting for Bill S to weigh in as well.. for more points).

First make sure everything is moving smoothly in all of the adjustment mechanisms and clear out any of the crud in and around the blade bedding area so everything moves nicely. A little wax in there isn't entirely out of line either.

Second back off the cap screw a touch. I never get this perfectly right on the first (or second.. or sometimes third try..) but it basically just needs to be barely down enough to hold things together for what you're doing and no more. Over tightening the cap screw is.. I think.. one of the main causes of poorly adjusted (or hard to adjust) planes. The difference between to loose, to tight, and just right is often about 1/8 of a turn or sometimes even less of the screw.

Finally for really minor adjustments - especially laterally.. I'm inclined to often just tap the blade a touch. The adjustment mechanism, especially on a lot of older planes is .. not precise.. to say the least. So I'll get it close or perhaps over adjust it a touch and then tap it into position. I've also been known to smack the back of the plane with a piece of wood to widthdraw the blade a wee bit or tap it to adjust it forward just a touch (not so much on say my veritas.. but on some of my old Stanley.. well.. they're loose as a goose so you can get that 1/64" final adjustment that way on some of them)

For depth adjustments I tend to back the blade mostly to "just not cutting" then ease it forwards a bit at a time until I get the cut that I want. For finish cuts this is barely cutting at all.. but for roughing cuts I might be taking 1/16" or even more off of the wood at each pass (especially with soft woods with a scrub plane.. up to 1/8" is possible..). My theory is that you should take the coarsest cut that does the job you want it to do. In some cases that's a bare wisp to leave an almost polished surface and in other cases.. well.. you're removing wood so remove it as fast and efficient as possible.

 

[Darren Wright]

Most are Stanley/Bailey planes, a couple of Dunlaps. Half have a lever, the rest a thumb screw to hold the cap.

Most need a good cleaning, so will start there.

 

[Darren Wright]

Found this to be helpful, and he shows the adjustment for the cap. I have this same #5.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Found this to be helpful, and he shows the adjustment for the cap. I have this same #5.

Yeah the lever cap screw is what I was talking about needing a fine hand adjusting.

For setting the chip breaker the most repeatable way I've found is to simply mate it with the blade but don't tighten it down 100%. Then place the chip breaker & blade assembly sharp end down on a soft piece of wood and push the chip breaker down. It's now right at the very edge. If you then lean the assembly forward a smidge it'll push the chip breaker back a wee bit from the edge. Now tighten down the screw some. With a little practice you can get it set pretty consistently from the edge that way.

 

[Bill Satko]

Should I be able to make lateral and depth adjustments without loosening or unlocking the cap lever/latch?

For the most part, yes. For very rank cuts, I could see where you might tighten the cap lever more than usual making your adjustments more difficult. But for more moderate and fine cuts, you should not have the cap lever tightened to such a degree that you have any difficulty making any of these adjustments. If you are needing to tighten the cap lever to such a degree making those types of cuts to keep the blade from moving, something is either wrong with the bedding of your iron or your blade is dull.

Blade dullness can have a huge affect on this. A very sharp blade cures many ills.