Lie-nielsen tuning advice

[kell]

Well I've waited and waited and I finally bought myself my first lie-nielsen no 5 1/2 which I tried and loved while on a course in Kent. Only problem is the course was about 6 months ago and at the time I had a very old plane and spent most of the time removing the rust from it while the others in the course polished up their new planes. I know I need to flattern the sole with wet n dry, sharpen the blade, angle the front of the mouth and I can vaguely remeber something about painting part of the frog with black marker and then runbbing this on wet n dry to get it flat but thats about it. If any one could fill the large gaps in my memory in that would be great.
cheers

 

[dedee]

Kell,
I will of course bow to the much more knowledgeable folk around here but personally I'd be extremely disappointed if I felt I had to do any of that on a new LN plane. My only LN is a 164 and that worked fine straight out of the box.

Andy

 

[Paul Kierstead]

With a brand new LN, I would first take it apart, clean it up, wax up the exposed bits of metal to keep it from rusting, hone the blade and give it a whirl. You could flatten the back of the blade a little too. If the plane works well that way, leave it alone until you have put lots of hours in with it and feel the need to tweak (might never happen)

 

[woodbloke]

I don't posses a large LN plane :-({|= (I have to slum it with something different :lol: ) but as I understand they should work straight out of the box, maybe a little truing of the sole if needed and honing the blade but that's about it. Whatever you do, take some care with it 'cos it ought to be pretty much spot on as it is - Rob

 

[Alf]

Saints preserve us...

Sorry if this sounds a bit blunt, but if you need to ask about how to go about it then additional tuning on an LN is frankly rather far above your current appreciation so I really wouldn't worry about it. Personally I wouldn't worry about it anyway, on the basis that any mucking about I do is likely to make it worse than it is straight from the box - and if it isn't then I'd take it back and say "ere, wot's going on?". On the other hand if someone wanted to pay me £X to teach 'em I think I'd be finding tuning I needed to do too... (Sheesh, I'm a cynical so-and-so.)

Sharpen the iron, make some shavings, enjoy yourself.

Cheers, Alf

 

[JesseM]

None of the LN planes I have required any tuning up. You may want to adjust the mouth to your liking and sharpen the blade, but thats about it. Unless something is horribly wrong in which case I'd send it back. Prepare to be overwhelmed :twisted:

 

[engineer one]

certainly in my experience as no expert (see alf an admission :lol: )
all that really needs doing is to clean off the protective coating, with white spirit, hone the back and the bevel on the blade, remove the wire edge, and rock and roll.

most reviews say that the sole is straight and flat enough for normal folks, and as said elsewhere, learn to use it and abuse it, before you start all the other things. certainly you could check out the fix on the frog, and also of the chipbreaker, but they are minor and should not stop the plane working almost out of the box.

use the charlesworth ruler trick on the blade back, and then remove wire edge, and make secondary bevel, put it back and take whisper cuttings

really works. :lol:

paul :wink:

 

[kell]

ok cheers guys, think i'll just give it a whirl without all the fussy bits of tuning.
thanks again

 

[ike]

Kell wrote,

the course was about 6 months ago and at the time I had a very old plane and spent most of the time removing the rust from it while the others in the course polished up their new planes.

Hi Kell,

Did you mean the old plane you've got is the one you want to tune or the LN?

Ike

 

[MooreToolsPlease]

thats what I was rather confused about...

 

[David C]

The only essential tuning required is to sharpen the blade and check the front edge of the chipbreaker/cap iron.

Polishing the sole will reduce friction, but this must be done very carefully so as not to upset the flatness.

Wax will also reduce friction.

A wpe over with a rag sprayed with Camellia oil, after use will help to keep rust at bay.

Hope you enjoy this wonderfully versatile plane.

David Charlesworth

 

[kell]

Thanks for the tips. I used it last night for the first time and must say I'm very happy with the results. As a newbie i'm going to make some simple stuff first and fingers crossed it will take off from there. Will post them on here as and when!

 

[bugbear]

... on a course in Kent.

Where/Who was the course?

BugBear

 

[Adam]

Doesn't Bruce Luckhurst run a workshop down there?

Adam

 

[kell]

I did a course with John Lloyd - furniture making 1. The course was actually in East sussex, I stayed in tunbridge wells, kent as some of my family live there. I'd recomend it.