Squaring the sides of a plane?

[Christian Thompson]

Guys,

I just started to get into woodworking a few months ago and am in the process of aquiring some tools. I bought an old number 7 jointer plane (plastic depth adjustment nut - WWII era?) and spent the last week restoring it. It came out great, but... one thing I noticed was that the sides are slightly out of square with the sole (maybe a 16th of an inch at the worst place). I'm planning to use this plane on a shooting board and with a fence so it would be nice if the sides were square. This isn't something I have seen anyone talk about in all the various handplane tuning videos and articles. Is this something you guys normally try to fix or would you just use the lateral adjusting lever to get the blade square to the fence / shooting board? If it is something you fix, how?

Thanks,
Christian

[Jim Koepke]

Guys,

I just started to get into woodworking a few months ago and am in the process of aquiring some tools. I bought an old number 7 jointer plane (plastic depth adjustment nut - WWII era?) and spent the last week restoring it. It came out great, but... one thing I noticed was that the sides are slightly out of square with the sole (maybe a 16th of an inch at the worst place). I'm planning to use this plane on a shooting board and with a fence so it would be nice if the sides were square. This isn't something I have seen anyone talk about in all the various handplane tuning videos and articles. Is this something you guys normally try to fix or would you just use the lateral adjusting lever to get the blade square to the fence / shooting board? If it is something you fix, how?

Thanks,
Christian

The plastic depth adjustment nut does date it to WWII.

As far as the side being out of square, there are a few things I would check before doing anything to correct this.

First, my check wouldn't be sole to side. Instead, lay the plane on a flat surface and check the sole to surface.

Second, try it on a shooting board and see if the lateral lever can be adjusted to make square cuts.

If it will work as is, I would leave it as is. It is always possible to lap it in the future if necessary.

jtk

[Christian Thompson]

OK. Thanks. That's what I was hoping to hear :-). I am able to get square cuts by adjusting the iron so I'll just go with that for now.
Christian

[george wilson]

I could mill the sides square. The trouble is,you'd have to take off enough metal to get to the bottom of the LOWEST point of the sides which is not square(poorly worded). That means the sides might become pretty thin by the time they are square. And,metal can unstress and move some MORE after you take some off.

I wonder how well just setting the iron square will work? For a hill billy fix,you could glue a piece of hardwood onto the side,and plane it until its surface is square with the sole. Then,the blade won't be sticking way out in space,and you won't have to go to the trouble of trying to set it square every time you use it for shooting.

[Christian Thompson]

I had actually started down the path of filing / sanding the sides and had the same thought - I would need to take off a decent amount to get it all square. So far (my one try last night) setting the iron square isn't too bad. Since it isn't all that out of square it doesn't look like it is cranked way over with a lot of iron sticking out on one side. It would be nice to not have to deal with it, but I guess that is what I get for not spending 3 or 4 hundred on a new, high quality plane :-). Everything else seems good so I think I might just live with it. If it gets to be a pain, I might try your hill billy fix :-).

Just as a general question, do you guys find that most planes you get have perfectly square sides? I checked the other two that I have (one old Stanley block plane and another Home Depot special) and they are better, but still not dead square.

Thanks,
Christian

[David Weaver]

Old planes, square to a machinst square? No.

Not unless you get them milled. They are quite often close enough to use, anyway, you're working wood, not making parts for CNC mills.

Sometimes they are WAY out, though. I wouldn't bother to get an old plane milled - spend the money on a premium plane if you want to have a plane in the shop that is dead square - it won't be money thrown away if you go to resell a plane, and you won't have to waste off material to do it.

I like george's hillbilly fix, too.

I would be willing to bet that someone with decent hand skills could get a plane that's way out lapped a lot closer to square if they needed to, just by spending an hour or a half an hour on a plane and concentrating on removing metal where you want it to be removed.

But before I did that, I'd shoot a miter with the plane and if it turns out to be laser tight at the top and bottom and both ends, I wouldn't waste my time.

I'll bet a lot of old timers did their miters in a donkey's ear and didn't use the shoot board for too much other than small square parts, and if they needed a square plane, they probably picked the closest they had to square and used it.

Anything bigger than small stuff is a pain to use on a shoot board and you can work to your knife mark in a vise with a sharp bench plane without using a shooting board.

[Jeff L Miller]

Since you're getting into old planes, really get into them and look for a #4 size for your shooting board. If you need to fettle it and make the sides square as well, you have a lot less material to remove than with the #7. The #7 is a great jointer because of its long sole, I think it would be a bit cumbersom as a shooting plane, just my opinion.

There are a ton of #4's out there and its my go to size for shooting small parts with a bench hook.

Jeff

[Mike Davis NC]

Shooting planes were made for that purpose with long soles, tight mouthes and square sides. I doubt you'll find a bench plane ready to shoot and trying to make one type do for the other job could be a waste of time.

Get a proper shooting plane and save yourself some aggravation.

[Christian Thompson]

OK. Thanks for the input guys. That answers my questions. I bought it mainly for jointing which it performs well. I'll live with it for now and see what else I can find for shooting.

Thanks again,
Christian

[Joel Goodman]

Another way is to put a shim (a long thin strip of wood) on the "ramp", if that is the right word, that the plane's side sits on when shooting, to compensate for the out of square side.

[Jim Koepke]

The many different styles of work among us have different needs of our tools.

For some things my block planes do fine shooting for other things a wide blade of the #8 may be the only thing that will shoot a wide edge.

If my #62 isn't wide enough, then my first choice is often a #6. It has a bit more blade than the #62 and it has a long toe for registration and getting a little momentum before the blade hits the wood.

Most of my planes are fairly close to square. One or two of them are right one. Some of them are out enough that they aren't even considered for shooting.

jtk

[Tom Vanzant]

Jim, of my stable of working lanes I have ONE with the right cheek and sole square to each other... a Bedrock 607 with a Hock iron. That's the one I use on my shooting board. The extra weight is good for momentum, even @ .001" per pass.

[george wilson]

Actually,I like Joel's hill billy solution better than mine.

[Terry Beadle]

David Charlesworth has a video on shooting. In it he uses thin pieces of paper to adjust the work piece on the shooting board and not trying to square the sides of the plane. I've used this technique successfully using postit notes. Works great. You just put 1 to 4 postit notes on the fence or on the bed of the shooting board near the end to lift or near the body to lower the cutting angles. You can get it dead on no problem.

I also do not recommend doing metal work on the sides of the plane.

As an alternative, you can buy a $10 plane blade for a Hong Kong plane and build a woody shooting plane out of hard wood scraps. Very cheap and since it's a woodie, getting the sides dead square is no problem.

Enjoy the shavings !

[Christian Thompson]

Building a few wooden planes is on my list of things to do (it's getting very long :-) so I definitely considered this as an option. The post-it note thing is a good idea. I had to use something similar last night since it turns out my shooting board fence isn't square either... One of these days I am going to get a jig right! So far I am about 0 for 4. On the bright side, with a cardboard shim and the lateral adjuster I was able to get some pine boards squared up to an acceptable level. I am trying to build some drawers and was able to cut my first dovetails last night. So some progress at least :-).

Thanks,
Christian

[Zach England]

I use my benchtop belt sander to square the sides. Usually I don't use anything to square the sides, though. I have a Veritas plane for shooting and it is dead square.

[Jim Koepke]

I had to use something similar last night since it turns out my shooting board fence isn't square either...

Do not feel bad. I have had to tune my shooting boards for seasonal changes. I make the screw holes furthest from the planing side a little big to allow for adjustments.

My sawing is improving enough that the shooting board doesn't have to do as much work beyond perfecting the edge.

jtk