Hand Plane Head-Scratcher...

[Derek Arita]

Couple of years ago, I purchased a WoodRiver #4 from WC and it worked so great that about a month later, I purchased another #4 in a 3 plane set. Cut to now...I broke out the unused #4, cleaned it up, sharpened the iron and for the life of me, I couldn't get it to give a nice, fine consistent shaving. I even tried switching iron/cap iron assemblies, but that didn't work either. I finally called TS at WC and after a few steps, he said it could be the frog casting and I could take it back to the store to get taken care of. Now I did notice that it had the old style, angled yoke tip, rather than WR's newer rounded style yoke tip.
Anyhow, took it back, got a new one, cleaned and sharpened the iron and voila...nice, clean, thin consistent shavings. So, was it the sole, the frog, a loose nut behind wheel or what? Gotta say, these are nice planes.

[Tom Trees]

Did you check if the frog was parallel with the mouth....as in not skewed ever so slightly?
It would be helpful if you could describe what the plane was acting like....
Something more descriptive than you couldn't get it to give a fine consistent shaving.

Did you try and see what happened if you took a big heavy shaving?
Did you notice any chatter? or abrupt stop in use?

I have one plane, a 70's maroon Stanley that hasn't got much surface area on the frog bedding
I find it can get misaligned ....hardly enough to see though, as everything's not perfectly square like which the Wood river presumably is
Thats what I'd say the problem was
Nice to have one plane with truly square sides for shooting with.

Tom

[Derek Arita]

How to describe the...well...as I make a pass of one foot, the plane will cut, then not, then cut, keeping in mind the cut is a very thin shave. Next pass, it will act differently. Yes I did make sure the frog was parallel in the mouth. I also adjust the mouth opening from large to small, with no success. Moving the lateral adjuster again, gave inconsistent results. I kept having to move the adjuster, kinda chasing the cut position. I could never get an even cut.

[Tom Trees]

Did you check the mating surfaces of the frog?
It still sounds like to me like the frog was askew
Maybe the frog wasn't ground 90 degrees and you lined up the side of the frog with the wall/cheek of the plane?
You really would be hard pushed to notice this on the plane I have by looking, and my eyesight is pretty good.
It is called the Azimuth error

No reason to have the frog forward ever, guessing you had felt the frog flush with the ground 45 sole...could it have been the sole wasn't an even thickness ...eg
if you got calipers and checked each side for the same sole thickness ?
Doubt this would happen with CNC grinding though.

Tom

[Derek Arita]

Thanks Tom. Kinda tough to check those angles, especially for someone with old eyes. I think this one is above my pay grade. I am happy with WC and that they replaced the plane with no issues. I have some LN planes, but for a lot less $, these WR planes work just as well, unless you get one like the one I had.

[Tom Trees]

I forgot to mention another way which would be of serious benefit, effectively killing two birds with the one stone,
would be to check the plane out with a straight iron...no silly rounded corners on the iron , just one single thick hair's relief of a camber on your iron.
That's hard to see, but it can be done with methodology.

If your frog is not skewed and has no QC issues, which I doubt it did, anythings possible though...
First sighting down the plane from the toe, with the lateral adjuster set equally, for an even cut,
Checking afterwards, the iron should perfectly be in line with the mouth, looking dead on at it

If you've got this frog true, and have that exact amount of camber on your cutting iron, a breath, and no more, then you should be able to set the cap iron
to the very edge....
You will have to hone the edge of the cap iron to 50 degrees, and make sure it mates with the cutting iron perfectly, by looking for light between the two
at the edge, and making sure it is indeed pressing hard against the cutter, then your good to plane in any direction with any timber, with absolutely no
tearout!
You can experiment with the cap iron distance for reduced tearout/if your hogging off material, and then set it to have full influence when smoothing.
The distance between the cap and the iron should be relative to the depth of shaving your wanting to take.

You will know you've hit the sweet spot (a productive setting) when the shavings come out straight and not curled...
This will happen differently with thickness shaving/different species
so sometimes you need to go a bit closer if you experience tearout.

I wish you many years of fun with your new plane

Tomas