A clogged plane can be such a frustrating problem, and the fix is so easy. But you have to know how to fix it (it took me years to find out). So thank you for this James. I don't doubt a lot of folks will find this really helpful.
Thank you for this information. I have restored a couple of planes recently, and watched many videos about restoration, but I’ve never seen anything about setting up the chip breaker like this. I’m off in to my workshop now to get them sorted. Ken Myerscough, Southport UK
After 65 years of woodworking this information is new to me. I always felt it was a problem with the mouth too closed and/or the chip breaker not in the right place. It also explains why my Qiangsheng number 6 works so well.
Hadn't I already subscribed, the thumbnail alone would have earned my subscription. What a fantastic pun, that only you can do. It's short, needs no explanation and applies exclusively to you. ❤❤❤
Clogging has been frustrating for me. I dabble with wood but, I'm a blacksmith not a cabinet maker. This video has been helpful and should solve my problems in the future. New subscriber, thank you. I look forward to learning from your channel.
Now I have to go check my chip breaker! :) Seriously, thank you for this. Being new to using hand planes, information like this is invaluable. Thanks again.
4:01 alternative to mallet/hammer is 2 scrapes of wood 10-12 inches wider than your chip breaker. Place the chip breaker in vice, now grasp the chip breaker with scrap wood, ( one piece of wood on each side of breaker), you have now created a handle to gently twist the breaker back to shape. Old metal workers trick - for heavier iron, longer and bolted together wood pieces give you more control.
Good video! I think that with good old cheap breaker design , i love the old style of Stanley and record were you have a good " spring effect" you can enjoy and have great results using it with old style blade
This is geniuenly a new piece of information to learn. With most of the videos on UA-cam either just repeating the same stuff or opinions, this is an actual NEW useful tip to me. In fact, this is what I think happens to my no. 4 (even there was no light or gap) and I didn't know why! Got to check it tomorrow.
I've been having this exact problem from with a Stanley 5 1/2 that I bought off ebay. I'd tried everything I could think of, but this has given me some things to work on. Thanks!
In my adventures into learning how to use hand planes, both the old laminated blades and the modern blades, as well as the Japanese style pull planes, I discovered how they would 'tap out' the bimetal type blades if they were curved or had any bend in them across the cutting edge. Not sure if that can be done with the more modern blades which are all one metal.
If anyone is thinking of, or has started, using wooden planes, this is a particularly pervasive problem because of people over setting the wedge and smooshing the cap iron; this can also happen if the wedge is set tightly and the plane goes through heavy changes in moisture and temperature. Of course, it could also be the prongs on the wedge overshooting the hump on the cap iron or being blunted rather than tapering into the center of the mouth.
Concise, effective, done. Great guide, man! The paper especially is a brilliant idea. I'm off to take a Post-It to my #6 right now. It works great 95% of the time but every now and then it jams up, and I haven't been able to figure out why - maybe this will help me note the issue.
I'm fairly certain that the Spear and Jackson brand of cheap handplanes that are popular on amazon right now are the same as the Grizzly and Big Horn ones made by Soba. Rex Krueger did a good video on them a couple of years ago and that's why I went with the Spear and Jackson(well, that and the name). If anyone here gets any of these planes one thing I found that could help you is that the cap iron sits too far into the mouth by default. I'm guessing their machine is off or they didn't do enough testing, but when I padded the slot the keep screw goes into with a couple of strips of blue tape I found that it was like 5-6x less likely to clog the mouth. Just something to test if you do get a cheap plane.
I’ve got a shop full of eBay Stanley’s and I decided I would make one of them a true smoothing plane, I chose my 4.5 because I don’t really like using it so it may as well be a specialty plane. I fought this fitment issue for two hours, I eventually stole the chip breaker from my #7 then I saw that someone had removed 30 percent of the rounded nose on my 4.5. It took a while longer but I got there with the #7 chip breaker and my 4.5 works great! Now I need a new chip breaker for my jointer lol.
Whatever you do... for godsake... DO NOT blow the wood out. Resist the urge... i spent Christmas '23 in the ER 12 hours after i did when i was finally like, omg i Have to go to the ER this is killing me... because...who in the world wears safety glasses while planning... who is dumb enough to put their face that close and blow the splinters in their eye though, right Wright? LOL. Funny thing is, or rather stupid thing. Immediately i was like omg youve got to be kidding me, went and got a bottle of eye wash i had...did it for like 5-10 secs...then rubbed my eye. Oh god WHY did i rub it! Lol. Shouldve kept washing til the bottle was empty...shoulda woulda coulda...lol oh btw little LATE but thanks for the vid James lol
Thanks for all the tips, James! 😊 BTW, have you seen Rex lately? I hope he didn't run out with a new workbench or something... Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
One thing I've always wonder about is why so many chip breakers on old planes require fettling. You would imagine that the original owners knew enough to tweak the breaker to properly match the iron. In some instances I can tell that someone was building Franken-planes out of parts from different planes, but that hardly covers all the breakers that need help.
Office because the irons and Chip breakers have been switched out by people who don't know or don't care. Sometimes it's because they never use the plane for fine work they just used it for hugging off material.
There's too much to test. They work great. But they too can also go out of alignment or if you put them on a different iron they might need to be tweaked.
Do you have a video that pulls all of this together for someone who has a new to them, plane and they want to head off issues like this before first use?
My current issue is that I can't get the chip breaker close to the edge of the plane iron, as the screw makes contact with the frog before I can advance it past the mouth. If I keep it (the chip breaker) a couple mm away from the edge, it sorta works
At the things you could do better....come to my shop and help me tune up my tools! I can feed you very well. I'm a Texan who lived in Louisiana for 27 years. Trust me we know how to cook!
@@WoodByWrightHowTo Yeah I've tried to bend it back into place by placing it in my vise but I was afraid that it would break (the vice or the blade.) 🤣 I haven't tried to do it with a hammer mainly cause I don't have anything that's flat and strong enough that I could place it on. Thank you for your help anyway.
But this one was just the right amount of explanation in the right amount of time that it actually seems like this time I will remember it forever… not sure what was different but this time it just clicked for me. Keep up the great work James ❤
I cant seem to make my spookesshave work it either clogs or doesnt want to cut at all İt has a sharp blade cap screw is tight and mouth has decently large opening
Pushing the paper into the chip breaker explains it perfectly from a visual perspective, nice work!
A clogged plane can be such a frustrating problem, and the fix is so easy. But you have to know how to fix it (it took me years to find out). So thank you for this James. I don't doubt a lot of folks will find this really helpful.
There's already comments about how good this video is, so the purpose of this comment is helping the UA-cam algorithm show it to more people.
This is possibly the best video I have seen in adjusting the cap iron.
Thank you! I just got my first hand plane from a yard sale and am working on cleaning it up and getting it working
Thank you for this information. I have restored a couple of planes recently, and watched many videos about restoration, but I’ve never seen anything about setting up the chip breaker like this. I’m off in to my workshop now to get them sorted.
Ken Myerscough, Southport UK
After 65 years of woodworking this information is new to me. I always felt it was a problem with the mouth too closed and/or the chip breaker not in the right place. It also explains why my Qiangsheng number 6 works so well.
Grand! I made my chipbreaker such that there was no light, but it still clogged. Now I know what to do! Thank you!
Watch out, if there is no light before assembly, that can change as you tighten it to the iron, it can flex and lift a corner...
Hadn't I already subscribed, the thumbnail alone would have earned my subscription. What a fantastic pun, that only you can do. It's short, needs no explanation and applies exclusively to you. ❤❤❤
Clogging has been frustrating for me. I dabble with wood but, I'm a blacksmith not a cabinet maker. This video has been helpful and should solve my problems in the future. New subscriber, thank you. I look forward to learning from your channel.
Now I have to go check my chip breaker! :) Seriously, thank you for this. Being new to using hand planes, information like this is invaluable. Thanks again.
Thank you! I wasn’t quite getting it based on your previous video. This one really helped me understand.
I knew about some of these details, but you enlightened me even more.
This is grand!
4:01 alternative to mallet/hammer is 2 scrapes of wood 10-12 inches wider than your chip breaker. Place the chip breaker in vice, now grasp the chip breaker with scrap wood, ( one piece of wood on each side of breaker), you have now created a handle to gently twist the breaker back to shape. Old metal workers trick - for heavier iron, longer and bolted together wood pieces give you more control.
Very valuable information. I still have problems tuning my planes. Thank you for sharing.
Brilliant! The paper trick is a nice one, so obvious that I had not seen it before 👍
Good video! I think that with good old cheap breaker design , i love the old style of Stanley and record were you have a good " spring effect" you can enjoy and have great results using it with old style blade
This is geniuenly a new piece of information to learn. With most of the videos on UA-cam either just repeating the same stuff or opinions, this is an actual NEW useful tip to me.
In fact, this is what I think happens to my no. 4 (even there was no light or gap) and I didn't know why! Got to check it tomorrow.
Fantastic, simple and never heard it before! Thanks
Wow, my psychic friend, I was juuuust having this problem! I can’t wait to try this fix, thanks.❤
That paper trick is solid, thanks!
I've been having this exact problem from with a Stanley 5 1/2 that I bought off ebay. I'd tried everything I could think of, but this has given me some things to work on. Thanks!
Great explanation- impressive clarity. Thanks
OMG you've given me so much work to do
In my adventures into learning how to use hand planes, both the old laminated blades and the modern blades, as well as the Japanese style pull planes, I discovered how they would 'tap out' the bimetal type blades if they were curved or had any bend in them across the cutting edge. Not sure if that can be done with the more modern blades which are all one metal.
Thanks James. Another nugget in the toolchest. Take care & stay safe.
Thanks for the insight. Will recheck all my planes
Thanks James
This type of info on setting up a plane has been the most important and useful in my education on use of hand tools!
I'll have to check my planes to see if there is a problem. thanks for the review.🙂🙂
I'm glad you ended on a dad joke! I have some friends from the local (Long Island) woodworking club that will love this video. Definitely sharing.
Thank you for the reminder. The older I get the less important what I know and most important what I remember. Thanks James.
I have several used planes that I picked up that clog constantly, I am so excited to go fix them now. This is super useful, thank you so much!
If anyone is thinking of, or has started, using wooden planes, this is a particularly pervasive problem because of people over setting the wedge and smooshing the cap iron; this can also happen if the wedge is set tightly and the plane goes through heavy changes in moisture and temperature.
Of course, it could also be the prongs on the wedge overshooting the hump on the cap iron or being blunted rather than tapering into the center of the mouth.
This is great! I wish I had seen it two years ago!
Very good video. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Concise, effective, done. Great guide, man!
The paper especially is a brilliant idea. I'm off to take a Post-It to my #6 right now. It works great 95% of the time but every now and then it jams up, and I haven't been able to figure out why - maybe this will help me note the issue.
I can’t wait to get home and try this!
This is the absolute best video on this subject I've seen. Thank you
Thanks for sharing that, well explained!
I'm fairly certain that the Spear and Jackson brand of cheap handplanes that are popular on amazon right now are the same as the Grizzly and Big Horn ones made by Soba. Rex Krueger did a good video on them a couple of years ago and that's why I went with the Spear and Jackson(well, that and the name). If anyone here gets any of these planes one thing I found that could help you is that the cap iron sits too far into the mouth by default. I'm guessing their machine is off or they didn't do enough testing, but when I padded the slot the keep screw goes into with a couple of strips of blue tape I found that it was like 5-6x less likely to clog the mouth. Just something to test if you do get a cheap plane.
That was absolutely fantastic!!!
Very informative. Thank you
Another great video James! Please keep up the content!
That's how my plane got to Madison Square Garden: it just kept clogging!
fr though, I needed this video, my plane clogs so bad
Great video! I’m looking to buy some planes this year, I didn’t realize how meticulous they were, great information. Keep the videos coming
good explanation
I’ve got a shop full of eBay Stanley’s and I decided I would make one of them a true smoothing plane, I chose my 4.5 because I don’t really like using it so it may as well be a specialty plane. I fought this fitment issue for two hours, I eventually stole the chip breaker from my #7 then I saw that someone had removed 30 percent of the rounded nose on my 4.5. It took a while longer but I got there with the #7 chip breaker and my 4.5 works great! Now I need a new chip breaker for my jointer lol.
Being able to create that see through shaving is so satisfying.
I really needed this
Very helpful. Thanks.
Thanks
Fantastic info
Thank you. Very usefull information.
Thanks for sharing.
always love the tool fix vids!!
I definitely learned something today. Aloha 🤙
Great video! Keep them coming.
Useful stuff, thanks once again!
Thanks, very helpful
super helpful, v clear, thanks
Whatever you do... for godsake... DO NOT blow the wood out. Resist the urge... i spent Christmas '23 in the ER 12 hours after i did when i was finally like, omg i Have to go to the ER this is killing me... because...who in the world wears safety glasses while planning... who is dumb enough to put their face that close and blow the splinters in their eye though, right Wright? LOL. Funny thing is, or rather stupid thing. Immediately i was like omg youve got to be kidding me, went and got a bottle of eye wash i had...did it for like 5-10 secs...then rubbed my eye. Oh god WHY did i rub it! Lol. Shouldve kept washing til the bottle was empty...shoulda woulda coulda...lol oh btw little LATE but thanks for the vid James lol
Informative, Thank you!
Thanks for all the tips, James! 😊
BTW, have you seen Rex lately? I hope he didn't run out with a new workbench or something...
Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
He has a TON going on right now. You will see him again soon.
@@WoodByWrightHowTo Sweet! Thanks! 😊
I rotate the chip breaker around the axis of the mating edge and polish the surface.
Always a helpful.
Why I bought new hock blade and breaker. And I flatten n hone the breakers
Now i need that chip breaker screwdriver 😅
Here you go. ua-cam.com/video/cdpRXrRxejY/v-deo.htmlsi=YFCXjjxlfjndiQQD
Great video!!
One thing I've always wonder about is why so many chip breakers on old planes require fettling. You would imagine that the original owners knew enough to tweak the breaker to properly match the iron. In some instances I can tell that someone was building Franken-planes out of parts from different planes, but that hardly covers all the breakers that need help.
Office because the irons and Chip breakers have been switched out by people who don't know or don't care. Sometimes it's because they never use the plane for fine work they just used it for hugging off material.
How about testing some of those heavy duty chip breakers...such as HOCK
There's too much to test. They work great. But they too can also go out of alignment or if you put them on a different iron they might need to be tweaked.
I hate bent chip breakers. Lots of fun to get it straight. It is another chip off the block.
Wood curls resist flow,
Handplane clogged, shavings slow,
Craftsman's patience grows.
Sucky tools just really blow😂
Do you have a video that pulls all of this together for someone who has a new to them, plane and they want to head off issues like this before first use?
That would be a crazy long video to go over all of the possible problems. Like 12 or 13 hours.
Great
When my plane is clogged I usually start falling😂
😂
Oh... Are you a fellow rc pilot?
@@MCsCreations only the ones that make wooden planes 😁
😂
@@MCsCreationsi am
My current issue is that I can't get the chip breaker close to the edge of the plane iron, as the screw makes contact with the frog before I can advance it past the mouth. If I keep it (the chip breaker) a couple mm away from the edge, it sorta works
Sounds like you have the wrong chip breaker for the plane.
Similar issue here I may just widen the mouth.
If you have to keep resetting your breakers with a mallet, you probably have too many planes plugged into the same outlet.
Now you can use it in the shoeting board again
Comment added
At the things you could do better....come to my shop and help me tune up my tools! I can feed you very well. I'm a Texan who lived in Louisiana for 27 years. Trust me we know how to cook!
You definitely ironed out 😂
Best way to clear a clogged plane🤔
Isn’t that’s what the emergency exits are for? ❤
I have a plane blade that's twisted. Do you have any advice for fixing that?
Sometimes you can Hammer those back into place. But sometimes they're a bit too hard and don't want to do that.
@@WoodByWrightHowTo Yeah I've tried to bend it back into place by placing it in my vise but I was afraid that it would break (the vice or the blade.) 🤣 I haven't tried to do it with a hammer mainly cause I don't have anything that's flat and strong enough that I could place it on. Thank you for your help anyway.
I usually put it in the vise and hit it with a soft face hammer. It's like I was doing with the chip breaker here
Mine don't clog but they sometimes croc!
No light down below 😋
The red carpet looks blue to me
Comment down below.
Hasn't all of this already been said by you and many many other woodworker's
Yes. I think this is my 3rd or 4th video on the topic.
But this one was just the right amount of explanation in the right amount of time that it actually seems like this time I will remember it forever… not sure what was different but this time it just clicked for me.
Keep up the great work James ❤
@@InternalizedSun ass kisser lol 🤣
Snide remark
Comment down below
Adjust IT?
I cant seem to make my spookesshave work it either clogs or doesnt want to cut at all
İt has a sharp blade cap screw is tight and mouth has decently large opening
Deliver cap sometime just does the same things that the chip breaker would hear.
Second!
Why can't I leave my comments up above?
Comment
But how do you fix a planed clog?
Squeezing this comment in here 😂😂
You know what this is..... comment below :)
Lo angle jack…done.