Stanley #4 not cutting
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Hello all, brand new to hand tools guy here.
I recently picked up this Stanley Bailey #4 off ebay. My problem is the plane just glides over the surface of the wood and doesn’t make a cut. If I hit the corner of a piece of wood I will sometimes get very small shaving, but only 1 or 2 then it starts gliding again. I sharpened the blade according to Paul Sellers youtube videos and book, I think I got it right but hard to really tell when I can’t get any shavings! I did flatten the sole. Being new to all this I’m totally clueless as to what’s going on here and hoping to get some help from you fine folks. I’ve added some pictures to help. Let me know if any more pictures would be hepfull.thanks in advance,
BobI had similar problems to you recently. Here are some points to check.
1) Screw together the iron and the chip breaker with the chip breaker between half a mm and 1mm away from the tip of the iron. Make sure it is on the right way. The chip breaker should be making contact with the flat side of the iron. Hold the whole assembly up towards the light and look through the gaps on the sides. You should NOT be able to see any light at all coming through the contact point between the chip breaker and the iron. Check from both sides.
If there is any light coming through, you have to flatten the edge of the chip breaker. Rub it on some sandpaper and it should flatten out so that you get no light coming through there.
While you’re working on the chip breaker, you may aswell polish out the front because this helps the shavings glide out more easily.
This is a major cause of the problems you are experiencing. When this happens the shavings get stuck in that gap between the iron and the chip breaker and then the whole plane gets stuck and just generally decides to not work properly.
2) Check the flatness of the frog. Take the frog out and take out the big screw. Rub it on some sandpaper one side at a time until you get to some fresh shiny metal. Don’t go too heavy on this.
3) Position of the frog. The frog should be almost right at the mouth. Try to get it as close as possible. Others have theirs right at the front but me I have mine a little further back where you can just about see the metal pads underneath the frog. Works perfectly either way but don’t go too far back.
After you do these things, the plane should at the very least be in the ballpark of usable and just need minor tweaking to get it to work to the best of its ability.
15 February 2015 at 10:20 pm #124676Hello Bobcoz, welcome to the forum.
The bevel looks rather steep, I think your sliding bevel is set to 30 degrees from the wrong normal line, i.e. actually 60 degrees. Assuming the blade is actually sticking out of the bottom of the plane even a badly sharpened blade should do something, so my bet is that steep angle may mean the heel of the bevel is stopping the cutting edge making contact with the wood.
Pictures of the blade in the plane would be useful.
Matt
15 February 2015 at 10:26 pm #124677That bevel is not at 30 degrees it more like 60 think you have read protractor scale wrong.
That angle is way to steep for cutting iron of a plane.
You need about half of that angle you show in picture.
You have a fair bit of work to do.
Also you need to get your back of iron flat and polished.
The primary bevel of a new iron is 25 degrees then you normaly add a secondary bevel at 30 degrees.
I would suggest to get a cheap honing Giude that help you get bevel to 25 degrees. The work from there as to what honing method you want to use.
Hope helpsthank you folks so much for the replies. I added a few more pics o the blade sticking out of the bottom of the plane.
raze599: my chip iron is good…no light between it and the blade. I hadn’t heard about sanding the frog a bit so I’ll give that a shot as well.
Mark Armstrong & Matthew Jones: I’m guessing I need to re-learn how to use a protractor after seeing Marks diagram (Geometry wasn’t my greatest strength). I used a speed square to set and angle…..seems to be I did that way wrong. Oh well. I just bought some new Norton india stones and they are fun to use and need to be broken in. I’ll go buy a real protractor and get to grinding. I’ll let you guys know how it turns out.
thanks to all you folks for the help. I truly do appreciate it.
15 February 2015 at 11:01 pm #124685That will never work my friend angle way to steep and the heel of bevel will hit work before cutting edge.
You need to grind bevel back to 25 degrees. If you do not have grinder then a flat surface like a peice of float glass and abrasive paper stuck to it and cheap honing guide to help maintain bevel angle. This method only works on the back stroke. You should not push guide.
You will need different grit size abrasive papers start at 80 grit and work up to about 400grit this will get you a cutting edge but could do better if you can get abrasive paper up to 2000 grit edge will be a lot better and you will get a better Polish.
The idea of a sharp edge it’s to get two surfaces to meet 0 point both of which are polished to the same degree.15 February 2015 at 11:06 pm #124686Forget the above if you getting oil stones.
I have used many sharpening media but for quickness and convenience of using less space on bench.I frequently use my India oil stone had for 30 years.15 February 2015 at 11:12 pm #124687To add to what Mark said, that’s a lot of work even on a grinder. Even knocking 30 back to 25 takes ages. If you can find someone who owns a powered grinder don’t even hesitate.
Matt
thanks again for all the help guys. just ran out quick and picked up a protractor….going to be a busy night!!! Some things a guy just has to learn the hard way I guess. Luckily I do have a bench grinder so I’ll get to work on that and hopefully be able to post some pictures of shavings soon!
thanks again….it’s been a frustrating last few days here and I finally have hope!!!
16 February 2015 at 12:10 am #124690Just remember you do not want to lose temper in iron. keep a pot of water near so you can periodically dip iron so it dose not get to hot while grinding.
If turns blue you have grinded for to long and you have lost temper in iron.
You will have to carefully grind the blued area away with out trying to blue the iron again. If that makes sense.
Good luck.just an update (will get a few pictures up shortly). Reground the bevel and all I have to say is WOW!!! Just amazing!!! It glided right along the wood surface but this time took shavings!!!! I was so impressed and mesmerized I planed a piece of 1×4 pine down to a big toothpick!!!
Mark, thanks for the heads up. I was very careful, just a pass or two on the grinder and into the water. I’ve had the experience of doing that on other projects when I didn’t know any better so I really tip toed through this one.
thanks again to all those who helped…..off to the lumber yard tomorrow to buy wood to start on my the bench!!
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