ECE Primus Smoother, can't keep blade straight

[Jeff Johnson]

Decided to try a woodie, and these get high marks as smoothers, so I picked up one of these recently. Trouble is, I'm having trouble keeping the blade from canting on one side. The lateral adjuster is pretty imprecise, if you're used to a metal-bodied plane, and try as I might, I can't seem to keep the critter from going deeper on the left side.

Any of you gents have some advice?

[Chris Padilla]

Something really easy to try assuming you have it is to put a different blade in the plane and see if it makes any difference.

[Joel Goodman]

Two things I've found with the ECE --
Just move the blade itself forget the lateral adjuster, it's useless.
Tighten down the knob on the heel of the plane that tensions the spring a lot before you plane ( I release it a bit before putting the plane away) The spring holds the blade and cap iron tight and prevents chatter and the blade slipping out of adjustment.
Also in general using a small piece of say 1/2 X 2" X 5" stock to test each side (and the center) of the iron to see that it is really cutting evenly and with the shaving desired really helps to set up the plane (Thanks Deneb)
I have often thought that the ECE could use LV type set screws to keep the iron centered. I have a love hate relationship with the ECE -- it is a little finicky.

[Richard Dooling]

I agree with Joel’s advice and his comment that this plane is a little finicky.

If you bought your plane used you may not have received instructions for it. You can find them here. There are also some very good user comments attached.

http://www.fine-tools.com/G301047.htm (http://www.fine-tools.com/G301047.htm)

The spring tension is important in keeping the blade in position while allowing for depth adjustment. I do the gross blade adjustment with the spring at moderate tension. When you tighten the spring more it tends to pull up on the blade so you will need to advance the blade to compensate.

It takes a little back and forth between the blade depth adjuster and the blade spring tension to get it right. I do it this way because I'm not comfortable making major blade adjustments while the spring is highly tensioned.

Once properly tensioned, minor blade depth adjustments are easy. The process gets much more intuitive with practice. This is a very good plane but it does take a little getting used to.