Depth adjustment on BU planes keeps coming loose

[Sam Shankar]

Hey folks,

I recently acquired a Veritas low-angle jack and BU smoother. Both have the same depth adjustment mechanism. And with both, I find that the depth adjustment screw comes loose after several strokes with the plane. The blade is still in the right place, held down by the cap iron. But the adjuster is rattling around loose. It's not a huge deal, but it doesn't seem right.

Is this just a "feature" of these planes or do I need to further tighten the clamping screw (which LV warns over and over again about over tightening).

--sam

[Jim Koepke]

Sam, my first action on this would be to loosen the clamping screw. This may place a slight pressure on the depth adjustment screw to keep it from loosening.

Then again, it might not. You won't know until you give it a test. What you may find is the spot where the clamping screw is tight enough to hold your setting without being any tighter.

jtk

[Aaron Rosenthal]

If you are referring to the Norris style adjuster, I find it keeps the iron in place as far as adjustment, but I’m having a devil of a time with the blades yawing no matter how much I torque the knurled knob.
If you’re referring to the tiny little “gib” screws on each side of the blade, after they loosened and I lost one, now I use blue loctite on those.

[Derek Cohen]

Hey folks,

I recently acquired a Veritas low-angle jack and BU smoother. Both have the same depth adjustment mechanism. And with both, I find that the depth adjustment screw comes loose after several strokes with the plane. The blade is still in the right place, held down by the cap iron. But the adjuster is rattling around loose. It's not a huge deal, but it doesn't seem right.

Is this just a "feature" of these planes or do I need to further tighten the clamping screw (which LV warns over and over again about over tightening).

--sam

Sam

I've probably been using these planes longer than most, and not experienced this. Which is not to say that I could not make is occur, if I wanted to do so. Then I would under-tension the levercap knob.

There needs to be a balance between over- and under tightening the levercap screw. Just enough is when it is possible to just move the blade back-and-forth. However, much of the time it is safer to err on the side of fractionally more tension. Just remember to loosen it slightly when adjusting the projection.

I think that Jim and I are on the same page.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jim Koepke]

There needs to be a balance between over- and under tightening the levercap screw. Just enough is when it is possible to just move the blade back-and-forth. However, much of the time it is safer to err on the side of fractionally more tension. Just remember to loosen it slightly when adjusting the projection.

I think that Jim and I are on the same page.

Even with the Bailey adjusters there is a 'sweet spot' for the lever cap (clamp) screw. Tight enough to keep adjustments from changing, loose enough to allow adjustment without loosening the lever cap (clamp) screw.

Agreed about being on the same page.

jtk

[Gary Focht]

I have seen a loose adjuster before, but I can’t remember exactly if what I am about to poorly describe was the cause. I have needing to remove the adjuster mechanism and readjusting the position of the swivel that seats in the plane body and the part that fits into the iron so they are both securely within the range of the threaded portions of the rod when the iron depth is adjusted. I think I had basically gotten to where one of those had reached the end of the threads as I tried to adjust the iron depth.