Tips on using Veritas Norris style adjusters

[Tony Wilkins]

I’m giving Veritas bench planes another try. Early on in my woodworking I had an LV #4 but sold it because I preferred the Bailey style adjuster to the Norris. I recently got an LV 5 1/4 so I’m giving them another try. So far I’m still having a bit of trouble adjusting it just where I want it. I shoot past the sweet spot, alternating between no cut and much too deep a cut?

Any tips? Rob? Derek? Beuhler? Anybody?

[Terry Beadle]

Suggestions:

Adjust the blade to where it just touches the wood through the mouth. Then with a very lite wood hammer ( make this hammer your self ) give the
blade end a lite tap. Check for thickness of cut. If not cut, tap again and test. Repeat until the blade is making a cutting at about 2 thou thick. Firm up the cap screw...enjoy

Another thing is to check the squareness of the cutting end. Make sure it's square to the sides of the blade. That will eliminate any question of the blade
not able to produce a square cut.

Basically what I had to do to my adjuster was to use the adjustor to get close to what you want and then use the tap and check with very lite taps to sneak
up on the cut. I was able to get to a 1/2 thou shaving using this method.

Good luck and enjoy the shavings.

Terry

[Hasin Haroon]

Veritas sells slow adjusters for their planes so if you are having difficulty controlling the adjuster that may be good for you. Personally I’ve never found the normal Norris adjusters difficult to use - they are well machined so are very responsive with almost no backlash.

Some people have sn issue with not being able to change the cutting depth on the fly but unless you’re using a single plane for different tasks, you likely are not spending much time changing blade depth.

[Derek Cohen]

Tony, a couple of points - also, I assume that you are using the non-Custom planes. I have never used these (only the Custom and the BU planes), so my comments are generic.

An important difference between the Veritas and Stanley/LN planes is that the Veritas lever cap is tightened with a knurled knob, where the others use a lever. It is easy - and common - to over tighten the knob. Doing so with limit movement. It needs a moderate level of tightness, and then lateral and projecting adjustments are much easier.

It is easy to make fore-and-aft adjustments on the fly, but lateral adjustments are still harder owing to the short lever. I will begin to plane and watch where the blade cuts. This make only involve literally mm of length, and then I am more likely to set this apsect with a tiny jeweller's hammer. In this regard I do prefer the Stanley lever, which is easier to adjust on the fly. On the other hand, the Veritas depth of cut is easier to set than the Stanley.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Tony Wilkins]

I am using the non-(pre)custom plane, the 5 1/4. I will continue to fiddle with the lever cap.

I want to make sure I understand: using a small hammer to adjust the lateral is what you are suggesting correct?

Unfortunately, my issue is with depth of cut which isn’t going as easy for me as it is for you Derek.

[david charlesworth]

Tony,

Try This. Balance the blade, check with a thin shim of wood. If cambered the aim is to get both vanishing points symmetrical about the center of the plane. Tiny hammer helps here.

If the edge is straight you need to set same cut at each edge. This is more difficult.

Wind the blade back into the body, the push plane very very slowly along a good edge. Pause when the first whisper appears.

David C