Veritas Combination Plane Tuning

[Derek Cohen]

William, aha .. you are using the second skate to balance the blade and keep it square in the cut. That is where your problems springs from.

Lose the second skate. The aim is to balance the plane and keep the cut square using one skate only. It is not like riding a unicycle. No circus trick needed

The balance will come with practice. For now, place a large square (e.g. 12" combo square) where you can use it as a reference for vertical.

The plane will stop cutting when the groove depth reaches the depth stop. Also, setting the depth of cut too finely may not enable it to project below the skate, and then it will not cut.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[William Fretwell]

Well Derek, tried with the one skate. The instructions make it sound optional “ to lower the weight”. It is compulsory for the small blades!
Most informative as I discovered that the small blade with both skates it moves! Yes it twists despite the retaining knob as it’s too low down. This explains the cessation of cutting! It also explains the crazy resistance as the twisted blade is now cutting the side of the groove in both directions!

With one skate and the small retaining knob all is good. I do like my new fence, I grooved it to reduce friction.
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I have an appreciation for the high quality of the engineering of the plane. One small issue is the brass knobs securing the rods, when you adjust one end of a rod the other often falls off. The area of contact is very small on the rod, perhaps a larger knob would increase the torque enough to lock it properly.

[Warren Mickley]

On the Stanley 45, for 1/4 inch groove, we put the two skates right next to each other, then center the 1/4 iron so that it protrudes on each side. I measured just now; the skates are .233 apart and the iron is .261 wide. So there is about .014 clearance on each side. We use the single skate for 1/8 and 3/16 grooves.

[William Fretwell]

On the LV combination you can do the same thing for the 1/4”, the skates go together and the blade protrudes a smidgeon each side. The blade retaining screw ‘just’ reaches the blade edge but it’s too low down to stop skewing of the blade during use. The blade skews and gouges a slope to one side of the groove you are making. Hence the resistance and consequent failure to cut. All looks good but it is not. Removing the second skate is essential.