Blanket Chest: Episode 2
Posted 4 April 2018
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There are grooves to put in the legs to accept the panel. Paul shows a couple of tips to avoid tear-out when ploughing the grooves, then lays out and cuts the mortises.
Anyone else having playback quality issues on this one? Hopefully it’s just me.
The video quality was fine for me.
I’m excited to practice that joint. It is certainly an interesting one.
Hi David, if you continue to have problems, let us know through the contact tab at the top and we will follow it up.
I did on Sahara. I switched to Chrome and that seemed to fix it.
Yes, I have been having extended and constant buffering on all the videos, not only this one. Hopefully something can be done. Not my connection or computer…all other content is fine. I really miss my daily “fix” because of this recent development. Any correction for this problem Philip?
Could you contact us with more details through the contact tab at the top and we will follow it up? It’s not a widespread problem, so that helps us to help people with their specific issue.
Anyone else thinking of giving up on the plough plane? I actually love mine, but the constant fence slipping, depth stop slipping, and general tear out risk make me sometimes just see it as tedious. So apart from small jobs, I’m often left wondering why I don’t just do this stuff on a table saw.
Perhaps it’s the tool. I have used plow planes that slip and are not really very good for much of anything. What brand of plow plane are you using?
Veritas small plough plane.
@efraon There’s a free upgrade for the depth stop. See, http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/Page.aspx?p=74144&cat=1,230,41182 . Have you done that?
I’ve never had the fence slip. Lee Valley support is excellent. They’ll figure it out with you.
I use the Veritas combo plane and never have any issues. Great plane.
I bought a nylon lined slip joint pliers and use them to tighten the adjustments. And that works just fine. I have leaned to minimize tear out by making shallow initial cuts.
Good engineering practice is a flat washer and spring washer. The spring washer puts pressure on a nut or wing nut to stop it turning i.e. working loose
I use a Stanley 45 and apparently those guys weren’t familiar with good engineering practice when they designed that evil thing! It has thumb screws, not wing nuts so lock washers are useless. If you’re using that type, get out the pliers and tighten as best you can. I try to check mine every few minutes. Bigaxe is right, go slow and shallow at first, working your way back in short increments. After the cut is established and a sixteenth deep or so, tear out shouldn’t be a problem.
They can be troublesome to use. The following blog Paul wrote might be of use: https://paulsellers.com/2014/02/plane-retrofits-improve-design-comfort/
Concerning tearout, getting a nice clear mark with the marking gauge and then running a knife or even a saw down it can be a great help. Paul recently showed me a technique where he used a few chop cuts with the chisel in tough grain before going back in with the plough.
Hope that helps.
efron, yes the knobs on the Veritas planes are lousy and have a tendency to loosen when finger tightened. I have to tighten them with a pair of pliers to keep them from slipping. And yes, indeed, it is extremely frustrating to be midway through plowing a groove and having that fence slip. I don’t see anything wrong with using a table saw to cut a groove, but for me it’s far easier to get this task done with a plow plane.
As for tear out, aside from reinforcing the marks with a knife or chisel, another thing I found helps is to keep the depth of the blade shallow.
As said above Peter use a spring washer
efron,
I use a Record 050A from 1947 that I bought on eBay a while back and had to fettle (sp?) it to get it so that the depth stop and fence didn’t slip. I used the suggestion that Paul gave in his blog to put a slight angle on the sides of the cutters as well after sharpening them. Really cleaned up the side of the grooves I cut after that. Through many frustrating tries I found that a very slight protrusion of the cutter and minimal pressure on the thrust makes a cleaner cut for the first few strokes to start the groove. I use light pressure as well on the fence when held against the side of the piece being cut. Having said that, I still have to resort to the sawing down to the line and using the plane as a clearing tool. I haven’t gotten good at grooving against the grain yet and I don’t have a left and right hand plow plane. Hope this helps and good luck!
PR
Ugh. Don’t think like that. The tear out usually happens because the blade isn’t positioned well. I make sure my blade side (farther from me) is ever so slightly out from the side body. That helps a lot. I think Paul got tear out because he rushed — I understand he has to because of filming and stuff—but if you take very minimal cuts there won’t be big issues.
I struggled quite a bit on my plough plane and I had the Veritas small plough one. The biggest thing thta helped me was to add a wooden fence onto the metal one. By having a deeper wooden fence I found I could keep the plane much more easily perpendicular. Paul mentioned in this video he got some tear out when he canted it a bit. It’s also taken me a while to get a feel as to how thick of a shaving I can take without tear out.
Learning how to use the plough plane was more difficult than say learning to saw to a line or to use a hand plane.
This video was the best one I have seen in which Paul discusses some of the finer points that help.
Hang in there. You can defiantly get a plough plane to work.
A table saw would be way faster of course, if you have one. That’s just a preference thing, right?
As to the issues you mentioned with your plow plane, those are issues everyone has when the start to use these tools. You really need to just play with it a little and get a feel for the application of force here.
I’m assuming that the iron is sharp and the plane is properly set up for the cut (fence parallel to the body and blade protruding slightly past the skate). After that it’s just a matter of keeping everything lubed (I prefer candle wax) and a light touch. Very light pressure on the fence to keep it in contact with the work and the least amount of lateral force you can use to move the plane through the cut.
When I first started using this tool I was applying too much force everywhere. Trying to pull the fence into the work with my thrust hand as well as using the hand holding the fence to try and help bull the tool through the cut. Exactly the opposite of what works with this tool.
Take a few hours to practice with your plane. This is a very complex tool. Try different grips and stances until you find one that feels comfortable for you. Stop to lube frequently and you’ll have the plane singing through cuts consistently. Not as fast as a table saw, but oh so much more satisfying.
I’m having no problems, you should try the contact us here and let them know
This is beautiful. I’d like to make a dining table apron and legs that essentially follow this design. Thanks, Paul.
Hi Guys,
In other designs Paul used to gang up the legs for marking-is there any reason i am missing why
this is not done in this project.Lovely design -look forward to doing this one.
I think he did mark the legs in a previous video. I remember he did when he was picking which ones are good for the front and for the back.
I am encouraged to see Paul tear out the face of grooves occasionally. When I’ve done it, I want to spit, I’m so mad. But apparently it’s all part of the work when dealing with gnarly wood 🙂
Totally agree with you here! I’ve tried Paul’s trick of running the knife along the edges before plowing and it really helps avoid tearing out on the edges.
Shouldn’t the grooves be stopped so that they are not visible at the bottom of the legs?
There is further shaping to come which will remove the visible grooved section.
Cool! If however, the legs were straight, how would Paul go about creating a stopped groove?
You would cut the bottom mortise first, and then run your groove into that. Then is then your stopping point for the groove.
In cases where you don’t want to plough a groove down the entire length of the leg (e.g., the bottom 5-6 inches will be exposed and not cut away), is there a way to use the plough plane to get a stop cut? The best I’ve been able to do is stop an inch or so short of the point where I want to end the groove and chisel to the rest, but I wondered if there were a better way.
Hi,
Paul says:
It’s easier to cut the groove with the chisel first at the stop end, and then start the groove so that the fore part of the sole of the plane starts within that mortised area. That’s the only way to create a stopped groove and use the plough plane.
Kind Regards,
Izzy