Question for "woodies"

[Terry Bigelow]

First off let me say I am a cast iron junkie and have little to no experience with wooden planes. I got one of those high-angle asian wooden planes with the pull bar (I guess you would call it) through the body. Here's a similar one with one important difference, mine has no bar to hold the wedge in(mine has a slot inside each cheek that the wedge fits into): http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=46320&cat=1,41182,46334
My problem is that the wedge comes loose as I plane. Is there a trick to keeping the blade tight? Or is mine just poorly fitted? The plane was cheap ($25) but when I got it going it works beautifully, just not for long. Any help would be appreciated.

[Derek Cohen]

Terry

The wedge must be tapped in quite firmly. Sometimes the fit is not perfect - look at the shine on the wood and determine whether is sticking or moving freely. a touch of sanding may help, if needed.

Have a look at this tutorial: http://www.hntgordon.com.au/bladesettingsmoothtry.htm

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Mike K Wenzloff]

What Derek said--and make sure there is no wax on either the wedge nor the wedge's abutements.

Take care, Mike

[rick fulton]

Terry, Great question. I've had similar problems.

Derek, Thanks for the link. My solution has been similar to the link, but I wasn't always using a hard nor absolutely flat wood reference surface.

Thanks you both for sharing.
rick

[Zahid Naqvi]

Terry, some times the blade can move if it is not sharp enough or it is taking too thick of a shaving. It might help if you roughen the contact areas of the wedge with a sandpaper. Also look at the wedge closely and try to find all the shiny spots which would indicate contact areas. Generally one doesn't have to tap very hard for the wedge to lock, so it is possible that there might be some fine tuning needed with the shape of the wedge.

[Terry Bigelow]

Thanks guys for all the advice. I just got home and I'll head into the shop to try this out. As for the wedge, I can tell without going out there it's shiny all over! And the blade is super sharp, like I said when I do get it going it takes the most beautiful fluffy shavings as good as my best tuned up Stanleys. It just stops after a few strokes because the wedge slips loose. That's what's so frustrating. I don't have any other high-angle planes and I would love to get this little bugger set up right because they come in handy in tricky situations.Anyway, thanks again to everyone for the help...I LOVE THIS PLACE!

[Terry Bigelow]

Just wanted to follow up my earlier post by saying I roughed up the wedge a little and used the method that Derek posted and...whammo! Beautiful, consistent results for as long as I want! Used it for 10-15 minutes without the wedge budging. Once again thanks guys, I don't know what I'd do without this place. Uh, actually...I do. It involves expletives and broken tools! HA!