«
»

Podcast #35: Tuning a Hand Plane for Performance

If you’ve checked out a copy of Woodsmith or ShopNotes in the last couple of years, you may have noticed that articles about hand planes and their use have been showing up a little more often. That’s mostly because we have an editor who takes an active interest in promoting their usage — Randy Maxey.

Randy will spend an hour during this Woodsmith Woodworking Seminar Podcast to give us his tips for tuning up a hand plane, a very important procedure if you’ve ever tried to use one. As you may know, an out-of-tune plane, with a dull or nicked iron, can be a real pain to use. This seminar is for “users,” not “collectors.”

Be sure to check out the Woodsmith Podcast Store for links to a few products that Randy used during this seminar. There are also links to Seminar Guide at PlansNow.com

 
icon for podpress  Flash Video [1:04:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
icon for podpress  MP4 Video [1:04:02m]: Download
icon for podpress  WMV Video [1:04:02m]: Download

Posted on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 10:37 am. Filed under Podcast.
You can leave a response, trackback from your blog, or follow this thread in the RSS feed.

4 Responses to “Podcast #35: Tuning a Hand Plane for Performance”

Keith Cruickshank said,

Nicely done. I’m a big believer in saving and restoring these old standbys!!

(posted on June 18th, 2008 at 7:03 pm)

Bedrock Bob said,

You did a very good job on the podcast.
One thing you failed to mention was that the Lie-Nielsen hand planes are based on the bedrock-type planes. The major advantage of this design is that you don’t have to remove the blade to adjust the size of the mouth. From the back of the plane you can loosen the two locking screws and move the adjusting screw to adjust the mouth size. Then tighten the two locking screws.

(posted on June 30th, 2008 at 8:41 am)

Todd said,

Excellent show. This would have saved me years of reading and trial/error. A little late now but I always enjoy your videocasts. People always ask me the difference between a $40 hand plane and a $200 one. Can the $40 plane suffice? I also have friends who will buy a rusty old plane and now know how to restore it for use. This show covered much of that. I would add the advice to check/file all mating surfaces, including the frog and backside of the mouth (where the blade rests).

(posted on July 6th, 2008 at 4:54 pm)

John B. said,

Thanks for a fantastic podcast! I have the “old-tool-bug” and have been restoring plenty of vintage tools recently.
The one comment I would like to make is, when flattening the sole of an old plane, I like to keep the entire plane assembled (with the blade retracted). I find the added tension the complete assembly applies to the body will slightly change the shape of the sole. Since I use the plane fully assembled, I want to flatten the sole fully assembled.
Thanks again and keep the great info coming!

(posted on July 18th, 2008 at 3:05 pm)

Leave a Reply