Some of you may have seen the review I wrote on the LV plane kit in the last issue of AWR. The kit is reasonably priced and pretty easy to put together, though as I said in my review, there are a couple of steps that the instructions don't cover very well. In particular, they don't give you much detail about how to make the 'lever-cap' wedge, and I bumbled my way through that as best I could, but wasn't entirely happy with the result. The plane worked well enough on the test drive, but when I put it to serious work, I discovered a problem. The wedge loosens itself if you back off the depth setting, which is a nuisance, because if you are not being careful, the adjuster easily slews, which throws off the lateral adjustment. :~
Today I took a bit of time to investigate the problem & try to fix it. I considered making a metal lever cap, but rejected that for a number of reasons, one of which being that the holes in the sides for the brass cross-pin were in the wrong spot for lever-cap screws, & I would have to make brass inserts, large enough to fill those holes & give me enough room to drill new ones for the lever cap. That seemed like a lot of fuss, so after some head-scratching, I decided on a much simpler path. I just remade the wedge, but pre-drilled it so that when the end was cut away, there was a nice neat groove for the cross-pin to fit into, and lock in place when the thumb screw is tightened. Lever caps.jpg
Don't know why I didn't think of it first time. It's a bit of an odd shape, not a wedge, but a parallel piece with the front cut away so it can just slide under the cross-pin with the blade in place. I wanted to keep it as thick as I could so it doesn't bend when the thumbscrew is tightened. The blade has to go in first, because the spigot of the adjuster won't allow it to go in if the wedge is inserted first. A bit of careful planing of the back & shaping of the nose got it right, and it now locks firmly in place as soon as a bit of pressure is applied with the thumb screw. I can now make small adjustments to the depth of cut without losing tension or having my blade slew one way or the other. Less fine.jpg
When I wrote the review, I questioned the need for a depth adjuster at all on a simple woodie, and I would have been just as happy without it, but now that it's working a lot better, I am finding it convenient, because I find I do alter the depth of cut quite a bit when using this particular plane. The little coffin smoother I made a while ago is a 'set once & leave it there' plane, so I don't miss not having screw-operated depth adjustment on it. The two make a very handy pair for all sorts of small jobs.
small smoothers.jpg
Cheers,
Today I took a bit of time to investigate the problem & try to fix it. I considered making a metal lever cap, but rejected that for a number of reasons, one of which being that the holes in the sides for the brass cross-pin were in the wrong spot for lever-cap screws, & I would have to make brass inserts, large enough to fill those holes & give me enough room to drill new ones for the lever cap. That seemed like a lot of fuss, so after some head-scratching, I decided on a much simpler path. I just remade the wedge, but pre-drilled it so that when the end was cut away, there was a nice neat groove for the cross-pin to fit into, and lock in place when the thumb screw is tightened. Lever caps.jpg
Don't know why I didn't think of it first time. It's a bit of an odd shape, not a wedge, but a parallel piece with the front cut away so it can just slide under the cross-pin with the blade in place. I wanted to keep it as thick as I could so it doesn't bend when the thumbscrew is tightened. The blade has to go in first, because the spigot of the adjuster won't allow it to go in if the wedge is inserted first. A bit of careful planing of the back & shaping of the nose got it right, and it now locks firmly in place as soon as a bit of pressure is applied with the thumb screw. I can now make small adjustments to the depth of cut without losing tension or having my blade slew one way or the other. Less fine.jpg
When I wrote the review, I questioned the need for a depth adjuster at all on a simple woodie, and I would have been just as happy without it, but now that it's working a lot better, I am finding it convenient, because I find I do alter the depth of cut quite a bit when using this particular plane. The little coffin smoother I made a while ago is a 'set once & leave it there' plane, so I don't miss not having screw-operated depth adjustment on it. The two make a very handy pair for all sorts of small jobs.
small smoothers.jpg
Cheers,
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