2 lessons learnt

[dedee]

Well, my week home alone was not as productive as I had hoped. Hand planning timber takes time - especially when a small piece of grit takes not one but two chunks out of a plane blade and left two nasty scratches on the plane sole (LN 164). It took me half a day to get the scratches out of the sole and even now they are still visible on the adjustable mouth.

I should have used an older plane for the roughing down stage but the wood I am working on (cedar) is soft & with the mouth open and blade well down the curlies just kept coming....

The other faux pas was on the table saw. I was cutting some tenons flat on the table saw using a secondary fence clamped to the main fence and well short of the blade. I had cut a number of them the previous day without a hitch.

The second batch did not look right, the first tenon seemed longer than the ones I had cut the day before. For some reason I did not stop to check. It must be right I thought - just an illusion.

When finished I placed the tenoned pieces over the the upright parts of the frame and measured - I had lost 1 cm. How?

Well that secondary fence although perfectly straight had one side shorter than the other - I had somehow managed to turn it over before clamping it to the fence. I stopped for the day and had a beer!

As it turns out that 1 cm will not affect the finished piece but 2 lessons learnt. 1) Cut all the tenons for a project in one go
2) Measure 20 times and cut once.

Andy

 

[Philly]

Andy
At least we learn a lot from those pesky mistakes!
Join the gang,
Philly

 

[Chris Knight]

Andy,

Don't worry about a few scratches on the sole of your plane - they won't really affect performance as long as there is no sharp, raised splinter of metal digging into the workpiece.

 

[Alf]

Don't worry about a few scratches on the sole of your plane - they won't really affect performance as long as there is no sharp, raised splinter of metal digging into the workpiece.

Wot he said. Just consider it a customised corrugated sole. :wink: My #164's sole somehow got knobbled by a light smattering of rust and I was inconsolable for weeks afterwards - felt terribly guilty too. But it has meant I've stopped treating it with so much care that previously I often didn't use it in case I damaged it. :roll: #-o The fence thing; well anyone who says they haven't done something similar is either a liar or can't predict the future very well. Not for nothing is a marker pen one of my most useful tools; arrows, "this side up", "front" and other runes can help a lot when you can't get all similar cuts done in one go. Ah, the joys of learning these valuable life lessons... ](*,) :lol:

Cheers, Alf

 

[dedee]

Don't worry about a few scratches on the sole of your plane - they won't really affect performance as long as there is no sharp, raised splinter of metal digging into the workpiece.

Wot he said. Just consider it a customised corrugated sole.

You are both quite right of course, can I patent the first plane with angled corrugations?


Andy

 

[Anonymous]

Andy

commiserations I flattened my bench top last year and found the pieces of grit after planing with the LN 4 1/2, Clifton #5 and LN rabbet plane :roll:

Not all of the scratches are removed 7 months later

 

[Philly]

If its any consolation at least it proves you guys are "users" not "c#ll##t#rs"! :lol: :lol:
Cheers
Philly
Still looking for that cheap #1