New Toy

[MMUK]

This has gone some way to cheering me up after the last few weeks :mrgreen:

Excuse the shakey pics, my knees aren't very stable these days

Not been used for years and years. It's circa 1965 or thereabouts, bought by my dad for a specific job and probably only used three or four times since.

Shame I don't have a workshop now. Oh well, it should be perfectly fettled by the time I am set back up again :lol:

 

[AndyT]

Very handy.

At risk of teaching people how to suck eggs, I'll just give a reminder that the best and clearest instructions on getting the best out of one of these or any similar combination plane are on Alf's website at http://www.cornishworkshop.co.uk. Alf used to post on here a lot and was a great advocate of hand tools. She seems to have abandoned woodwork at present though, and is filling her blog with info on calligraphy!

 

[KevM]

My breakthrough with a Record #50 was when I realised I'd been using it backwards. Well, not quite backwards, but rather than working the board from right to left as I'd do with any normal plane, I should start on the left hand exit of the cut and move right refining the cut as I move along the board from left to right while making short right to left cuts. Hmm, my explanation there is clear as mud - I'm sure someone can explain it better/explain that I'm a numpty for using it that way...

 

[carlb40]

Oooh excellent.

I meant to bid on one myself the other night. Then went to bed and forgot about it. #-o

 

[Grahamshed]

Doesn't take much to keep you happy does it

 

[Eric The Viking]

What a coincidence -- my father-in-law gave me his #50 at Christmas.

Like yours, MM, it's had very little use. I just about got the 7/16" beader to work last week, but at some point the cutter has been dropped onto a hard surface and one of the corners is chipped. The bigger one and all the smaller ones are fine (I made the wrong choice to start with!).

I think you'll need a vernier calliper: I found that it was really hard getting the two runners parallel. If they toe-in or out, the thing tends to jam. Once I realised and got them parallel, AND got the thing tight enough so the blade depth couldn't move easily, it worked very well. Until then it was very disappointing.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of finish I got in softwood. It would have been even better in hardwood.

I'm not looking forward to re-grinding that cutter though - I'll have to lose about 1/16" to get it back to the proper chisel edges at the extreme end, and that means a lot of work on the profile. Either that or settle for uneven depth in the two grooves either side of the bead. Dodge suggested just polishing the back and only working on that as the easiest way to keep them honed. I did that with the 7/16" one and it did bring up a good edge. I'll have to hone some of the others though as there are spots of rust upsetting the profiles and sharpness.

Have fun!

E.

PS: I haven't a clue how you might sharpen the spurs. Mine are blunt. I doubt you can get replacements, and they're single ones (the #55 and #45 have three blades per spur). I'm considering just defining a dado with a sharp marking knife, rather than using the spurs, as it seems easier!

 

[Racers]

I think it was BB who screwed the spurs to a length of wood to make sharpening easier.

Pete

 

[Eric The Viking]

Thanks Pete - good idea.

E.

 

[undergroundhunter]

I'm sure Roy Underhill has said that the fence and the skate should not be parallel but the back end should have some slight relief, can remember what his reason was but my Stanley 50 does that anyway and its never caused me a problem. Thinking about it it was on one of his recent woodwrights shop shows, still cant remember which one though.


Matt

 

[Eric The Viking]

I think he meant vertically.

All I can say is that it worked *a lot* better when I got the skates as parallel as I could.

Your mileage, etc.

E.

 

[undergroundhunter]

on mine the relief front to back is less than half a mm seems to not bind as much.

Matt

 

[blackrodd]

Somebody will end up with an arm like Charles Atlas, not that any of you will know who that was!
Rodders

 

[bugbear]

I think you'll need a vernier calliper: I found that it was really hard getting the two runners parallel. If they toe-in or out, the thing tends to jam.

I just set a small combo square, and use it to set both ends. (effectively a configurable gauge, in engineering terms).

BugBear

 

[carlb40]

Somebody will end up with an arm like Charles Atlas, not that any of you will know who that was!
Rodders

He was the man whom invented the A-Z :mrgreen:

 

[Eric The Viking]

I think you'll need a vernier calliper: I found that it was really hard getting the two runners parallel. If they toe-in or out, the thing tends to jam.

I just set a small combo square, and use it to set both ends. (effectively a configurable gauge, in engineering terms).

BugBear

Fairy-nuff. It's only the go/no-go thing really.

I have one on the bench most of the time and find it convenient. And if I'm wrong I can quickly find out by how much.

E.