Filing a Lie Nielsen plane

[JimReed@Tallahassee]

I guess the title says it all. I got out a bunch of planes for a job and one happened to be my LN rabbet.




The problem was the REALLY tight mouth.




There was not enough room for even a tiny shaving so it had to be opened up.




Here is the plane in a vise. Caution--Children should not try this at home. I had trouble filing at this angle and ended up just holding the plane in my hand. Pressure on the file was up as I needed to open the front of the mouth.




Things were easier to see this way. I took off a tee-tiny bit of metal since less is more in this situation.




That shot is with the blade retracted. Once I advanced the blade it closed up considerably but was still large enough for shavings.




SUCCESS! Tiny fluffy shavings with no clogs. Whew! I don't mind filing on the old Stanleys but filing on a new LN is not something I want to do everyday. With the mouth treatment complete I can now finish my project.

[Stwood_]

Good job. Yea I'd be touchy about filing my LN's

[MattP]

I guess the title says it all. I got out a bunch of planes for a job and one happened to be my LN rabbet.




The problem was the REALLY tight mouth.




There was not enough room for even a tiny shaving so it had to be opened up.




Here is the plane in a vise. Caution--Children should not try this at home. I had trouble filing at this angle and ended up just holding the plane in my hand. Pressure on the file was up as I needed to open the front of the mouth.




Things were easier to see this way. I took off a tee-tiny bit of metal since less is more in this situation.




That shot is with the blade retracted. Once I advanced the blade it closed up considerably but was still large enough for shavings.




SUCCESS! Tiny fluffy shavings with no clogs. Whew! I don't mind filing on the old Stanleys but filing on a new LN is not something I want to do everyday. With the mouth treatment complete I can now finish my project.

I did the same thing to both of my LN spokeshaves. I got tired of posting here about how I hated them because they seemed impossible to set up. Well, that was the reason. There was literally no mouth opening if the blade projected at all. Just a few swipes with the file on the mouth and they now work perfectly. Sadly, it took me like 12 years to work up the nerve to do it.

[Mike Brady]

I guess the title says it all. I got out a bunch of planes for a job and one happened to be my LN rabbet.




The problem was the REALLY tight mouth.




There was not enough room for even a tiny shaving so it had to be opened up.




Here is the plane in a vise. Caution--Children should not try this at home. I had trouble filing at this angle and ended up just holding the plane in my hand. Pressure on the file was up as I needed to open the front of the mouth.




Things were easier to see this way. I took off a tee-tiny bit of metal since less is more in this situation.




That shot is with the blade retracted. Once I advanced the blade it closed up considerably but was still large enough for shavings.




SUCCESS! Tiny fluffy shavings with no clogs. Whew! I don't mind filing on the old Stanleys but filing on a new LN is not something I want to do everyday. With the mouth treatment complete I can now finish my project.

Jim, do you think that the block plane might have been dropped on it's nose at some point?  Can't believe it hasn't been a problem until now, or that it left the factory that way.  Nice fix, though!

[JimReed@Tallahassee]

I have had it since new and I know it has not been dropped because I have never had a stroke. Just chalk it up to me never finding a time to properly set it up and use it. If I were LN, I would also make the mouth a little too tight because that is easier to fix than too open. I might open it up a bit more later but that depends on the next project. Right now I am working inside a desk trimming strips of wood on drawer slides. The area is cramped and I am using the old wood as a reference. It requires whisper thin shavings so I don't overshoot the mark.

Here is the inside. I am working to trim the sliver glued into the track on the drawer slide.




It is slow and crampy.

[C. in Indy]

Way to go!
BTW, your photos also made me realize that LN140's are now shipping with hand-tighten screws on the fence rod.   I still have one with a slotted screw.

Thanks,

Chris

[Tony Z]

My round bottom, little LN spokeshave had way to tight of a mouth. I opened it up, though my results were not as straight as Jim's. Matters not, in the ten years since I did that, that little shave works like a dream.

[AHill]

Great job, Jim.  Sometimes it's just a lot simpler to correct a manufacturing defect yourself than to go through the hassle of returning it.  Every woodworker should have a set of rudimentary skills for cases like yours.  Things like tapping and cutting threads, deburring, simple wiring skills, etc.

BTW, in January, I'll be leaving my rust-free zone in the high desert of SoCal to Orlando, where rust-hunting really is hunting for rust!

[BandSawyer]

I ended up having to do the same thing with mine. Marked it with a marker and filed that off and then repeated until I felt it was right.

[Scoony]

Looking at the second picture, seems to be a gap between the blade and the ramp. Is the ramp warped, or the blade set in there bevel down, or is there debris between the blade and ramp, or is the blade not tightened down?