Help needed - jack plane

[Jason in Sudbury]

Like I mentionned in one of my previous threads, this planing thing is addictive!
Thanks again to all in here for getting me hooked on planing!!! :)

My problem is the following:

I have tuned up both my planes, and I am satisfied with my sharpening job, as I have no difficulty planing pine. I can produce some nice shavings and am planing knots with no difficulty. Tearout is almost non existent.

Question is, I tried planing some walnut last night, and I was finally able to plane the edge, but when I tried to face plane the board (approx 12" long), I could not really plane it at all. :(

Upon closer inspection, I see that the board has a bow in it (along the lenght of the board), so I figured that could be a reason (my plane was only touching the leading edge and the trailing edge of the board). I now turned over the board, and I thought that it would now plane the center of the board (the high part) and then I could finally make that side flat and then tackle the other side again.

I then tried to edge plane some maple, and the results were the same :(

I think the problem may be when I re-assembled the iron and the chip breaker (I think that's what it's called -please excuse my rookiness and correct me if I'm wrong :) )

If someone has a picture of where to properly set the chip breaker on the iron, that would be greatly appreciated. And any help on my planing techniques is also appreciated.

Thanks to all in advance

[planeguy]

i would experiment on a longer board, at least 3 feet

[Jason in Sudbury]

Hmmm...I will have to find a longer board then!
The maple was about 5ft long.

[JL in Ottawa]

Jason,

Trying a longer board is a good idea. A #5 is long, so it will go above "valleys" on your board.

Make sure your bevel on the blade is down first. Then, for the chip-breaker, mount it so the edge is 1/16" behind the tip of the blade.

Jean-Luc

[Jim in Burlington]

Have a look thru Jeff's website under planing notes.
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:0WVHxTjgm1cJ:www.amgron.clara.net/+jeff+gorman&hl=en

[Darrell]

Jason,

Take your straight edge (or in my case straight-enough edge) and check both the stock and the sole of the plane. When I found a plane that wasn't cutting when I expected it to, the culprit was sometimes a concave sole (more often on wooden soled planes than metal). The other reason for lack of cutting was a dull iron. I've planed pine and basswood just fine with a "reasonably" sharp blade, but when I took the same plane to ash or maple, it simply would not cut.

Darrell

[matt]

Have a look thru Jeff's website under planing notes.
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:0WVHxTjgm1cJ:www.amgron.clara.net/+jeff+gorman&hl=en
here is the uncached link...

http://www.amgron.clara.net/index.htm

[Jason in Sudbury]

Thanks all for the info...

I will have to do a few things:
1. Re-install my iron and make sure that the chip breaker is 1/16th away only.
2. Give the iron a few more laps on the sharpening stone (oops, this should be #1 and not #2 - kinda hard to sharpen once the iron is installed!!! :) )
3. Check the flatness of the sole of the plane as well as the wood I'm planing

And last but not least............

Convince myself that I now need a No 4, and a 4 1/2, and a...... the list will be getting longer :D

[matt]

Hey Jason,
Here is something I've learned (I've just started into planes this year myself). What you think is sharp now could be dull. I remember when I first started thinking I had blades pretty damn sharp. I'd then come back to a blade maybe a month later and wonder if it was capable of cutting butter... Just a thought