Record Jack Plane Body Out of Square

[Hans Braul]

I have a garden-variety Record Jack Plane that I bought 15 years ago. I have only now really got it working well, reliably producing nice thin shavings even in some more difficult woods. I recently made a rudimentary shooting board to do some edge planing and was puzzled that I could not seem to get an edge that was truly square. After eliminating all the reasonable causes, I finally put a square on the plane and found it's at least a degree off square! Is this common? Has anyone had their plane bodies reground to be square?

Hans

[Steve Beadle]

Hans, you might not find that it is necessary to go to the trouble or the expense to regrind the sides of your jack plane. You can probably get a square edge just by shimming the workpiece as it sits on the shooting board (use a layer or two of sticky notes to raise one end or the other), or by adjusting the blade in the plane. David Charlesworth's third video covers some of the former technique (shimming) when using a shooting board.

Good luck!

Steve

[Maurice Metzger]

Hans, I've had several used and a new plane with the sides not square - I returned the new plane. I've never had the sides ground though. I considered squaring the sides with sandpaper on glass, but just switched to another plane for shooting.

Maurice

[Derek Cohen]

It is not necessary for the body to be square - just square the blade.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jake Darvall]

It is not necessary for the body to be square - just square the blade.

Regards from Perth

Derek

I was thinking the same...... few common planes are spot on 90......use the laterial adjuster to bring it square.

[Jake Helmboldt]

are awfully smart. Must be from being upside down and all the blood rushing to your brains.;)

I would have spent hours on some Rube Goldberg type of fix if it had been me.

JH