Todd Keesal
03-20-2005, 12:39 AM
Hi all, new here and a fairly new woodworker. Mostly my hobby is working on cars but winter (and no garage) forced me indoors and recent diy home remodeling brought out an interest in working with wood. My dad always has (but can't even change his oil, hehe), but sadly putting a nail through my foot at age 7 ended my being allowed in his woodshop (mom ruled with an iron fist), and put him in the doghouse for a week for leaving a board with a nail in it face up.
Anyway the wife has been very kind in allowing me to get tools, assuming prices don't make her faint. Actually she made me a small present today of a Groz low angle, 60 1/2 style, see I do know something. It adds to the recently picked up No 5 type 11, #80 (new), No 4 newish English Bailey actually had this one about 3 years but never used it much, I know people don't like the new ones but it works pretty well for me.
Huh what was I talking about, oh right the Groz..... Well needless to say I'm probably not the best person to review this one, but since it seems like no one else has, I'll give it a shot.
Casting is rough in lots of spots, jappaning seems to cover the places it should, and a bit into where it shouldn't, but not excessivly. Sole is flatish and mostly square but really needs to be lapped, I started on that but more later on that.
The adjustable mouth is nice and snug and locks into place well. The depth adjuster is stamped sheet metal and seems a bit cheezy but does the job fine. The lateral adjuster is the same way cheezy but works.
Knowing it would need work I felt the best thing to do was spend hours lapping the sole, flattening the blade, honing, etc. NOT!!
Right out of the box it actually cut wood, fairly poorly but shavings were made, nothing slipped out of place, chattering was not unbearable.
Ok so I figure its gonna work, so I start flattening the blade, give it a small micro bevel and get ready to get to work on the sole. Then I notice disaster (such drama) the mouth is gouged on one side. For some reason the blade sits too close to the left (from the top) side and has gouged the mouth and started a small crack (1/32 inch or so) lateral adjustment only makes it worse.
Figuring I already put in too much time to give up now, I toss the blade back in and cut some more shavings. Now I'm actually prettty impressed, popular is pretty soft but it gives nice thin shavings on the edge and smooths up the end fairly nicely. The end grain did take some work and some chatter was involved, probably in no small part due to my lack of any apparent technique.
Anyway I'm fairly impressed, the question I have is should I take it back and try to get one that the blade is straight on, or can I file the mouth wider on that side and be fine with it?
I hate to put any more work into it until I solve this problem, but overall I'm pretty happy with how it works
Anyway the wife has been very kind in allowing me to get tools, assuming prices don't make her faint. Actually she made me a small present today of a Groz low angle, 60 1/2 style, see I do know something. It adds to the recently picked up No 5 type 11, #80 (new), No 4 newish English Bailey actually had this one about 3 years but never used it much, I know people don't like the new ones but it works pretty well for me.
Huh what was I talking about, oh right the Groz..... Well needless to say I'm probably not the best person to review this one, but since it seems like no one else has, I'll give it a shot.
Casting is rough in lots of spots, jappaning seems to cover the places it should, and a bit into where it shouldn't, but not excessivly. Sole is flatish and mostly square but really needs to be lapped, I started on that but more later on that.
The adjustable mouth is nice and snug and locks into place well. The depth adjuster is stamped sheet metal and seems a bit cheezy but does the job fine. The lateral adjuster is the same way cheezy but works.
Knowing it would need work I felt the best thing to do was spend hours lapping the sole, flattening the blade, honing, etc. NOT!!
Right out of the box it actually cut wood, fairly poorly but shavings were made, nothing slipped out of place, chattering was not unbearable.
Ok so I figure its gonna work, so I start flattening the blade, give it a small micro bevel and get ready to get to work on the sole. Then I notice disaster (such drama) the mouth is gouged on one side. For some reason the blade sits too close to the left (from the top) side and has gouged the mouth and started a small crack (1/32 inch or so) lateral adjustment only makes it worse.
Figuring I already put in too much time to give up now, I toss the blade back in and cut some more shavings. Now I'm actually prettty impressed, popular is pretty soft but it gives nice thin shavings on the edge and smooths up the end fairly nicely. The end grain did take some work and some chatter was involved, probably in no small part due to my lack of any apparent technique.
Anyway I'm fairly impressed, the question I have is should I take it back and try to get one that the blade is straight on, or can I file the mouth wider on that side and be fine with it?
I hate to put any more work into it until I solve this problem, but overall I'm pretty happy with how it works