The Woodshop Shed

Brief Evaluation of Plane Iron Angle on Tear out

Furnished content.
(from WoodNet.net)


As a follow up to my other post, I did a brief evaluation of plane iron angle on tear out. I used a LV bevel uplow angle jack plane, a LV bevel up low angle 4-1/2, a Record #4 bevel down smoothing plane, and 3 low angle block planes.








TheLV planes use interchangeable 2-1/4" wide irons, 3/16" thick. I have an A2 iron sharpened at about 28 deg, an O1 at 35 deg, and an O1 at 50 degrees. The bed angle is 12 deg, so the cutting angles are 40, 47, and 62 degrees, respectively. All the irons were freshly honed to 5000 grit on a Norton waterstone, and then stropped on a piece of leather charged with chromium oxide.

I useda small piece of sycamore for testing.It's really pretty, but the interlocked grain makes for a good challange. With the 28 deg iron in the low angle jack, I got some tearout in one area. I highlighted it with pencil, then took another swipe or two to help show the tear out.



Using the 35 deg iron, there was less tear out, but still some. Moving on to the 50 deg iron, there was no tear out. Here's what it looked like after 3 or 4 swipes.



And after 2 more swipes. Gone.



Then I tried the Record #4 smoothing plane. It's cutting angle is 45 degree. One might expect it to give results somewhere between theLV with the 35 deg iron = 47 deg cutting angle and 28 deg iron = 40 deg cutting angel.Not even close; far worse.



Had I known how much superior LV planes are to run of the mill bench planes, I would have gotten one or two years ago. There's nothing wrong with the Record #4. I like it for general work and use it a lot, but it's not nearly as capable in difficult wood as the LV low angle planes. And that's the nice thing about the LV low angle planes. Being able to change the blade to different cutting angles allows you to handle lots of different situations. And that's a good thing, because the effort needed to push the plane through the wood increases dramatically with increasing cutting angle. The 28 deg ironrequires very little effort, while the 50 deg iron takes a lot.

The three low angle block planes have irons sharpened to the same three angles as for the LV irons. I won't plow the same ground twice with photos, but the results were about the same as with the LV irons. The biggertake away, however,was that it's hard to get really smooth cuts over such a large area in difficult woodwith these little planes. They don't have much mass so it's hard to keep them flat on the work and moving at a constant pace. Chatter or skipping is hard to prevent. When I tried a narrower pieceof oak, however, all three of the block planes were much easier to use and would be preferred over the larger planes. Match the size of the plane to the size of the work.

So, there's nothing new here, but it proved to me that with multiple angle irons low angle planesare more versatilethan standard bench planes. Also, in difficult wood the LV planes were superior to the lighter Record. Maybe that because ofthe higher mass of the LV planes or maybe it's due the thinneriron in the Record. I guess I should go back and repeat the testing with my Bailey#6 which has a Hock iron and chip breaker in it. That iron is as thick as the ones in the LV planes and its mass is pretty similar, too. OK, stay tuned.

John

Read more here

Comments:
0 comments, click here to add the first

ACCU E-Z Alignment Jig

Furnished content.
(from WoodNet.net)


I did not have the nerve to post this in 'Tool Swap 'n Sell'

A product from the early part of this century from Jet Equipment & Tools

ACCU E-Z alignment Jig & Instructional Video

I took took it to the annual tool swap of our local woodworkers Guild last night but no one wanted it. I might have been able to give it to someone if it came with a VHS player.

It is made from high quality MDF.

Bill

ACCU E-Z Jig.jpg (Size: 65.21 KB / Downloads: 62)

Read more here

Comments:
0 comments, click here to add the first