Combination Plane and Lee Valley feedback

[Patrick Chase]

Lots of good information here! After some more time moving my fence around I see for right handed use my fence is crooked. The front end is level with the skate the back end is below. I have twice as much wood at one end to the other above the casting. There is a very small gap between the skate and the fence. Derek's idea of planing a bit off the fence is good. In my case mostly off the front. Easy to see why having it under the cutter seems impossible, certainly in any working way.

No, it is not "easy to see why having it under the cutter seems impossible". The wooden fence only extends <0.01" above the casting on that plane (I just went and measured mine), so even if there were "twice as much wood" at the front as you describe you would still have plenty of clearance for the iron.

Reasonable cutter extensions in planes like this are on the order of 1/100", and and less than that for good surface quality. Can you position the fence under the main skate and use shims to measure the actual clearance at the iron? If it's more than, say, 1/32" you're good to go, period (I just measured mine at 0.045"). The situation you describe would only "seem impossible" to somebody who has absolutely no sense of how the tool is supposed to work. Minimal fence clearance in a plane like this is a feature, not a design or manufacturing flaw.

If you get in over your head like this in the future then you might consider asking for help instead of providing "feedback" about "wracking".