Planes – Something Sticking in Your Throat

When I was in the New York School earlier this year a student approached me with a plane problem I hadn’t come across before. At first I couldn’t see what was and so I knew it was rare and not common.

The problem was that even though the cap iron was set correctly to the cutting iron, the adjustment wheel stopped before sufficient blade protruded through the throat of the plane. This meant very fine cuts were fine but that she couldn’t make deeper, more aggressive cuts.Just after I had said that this was probably a unique problem, a second person came with the same dilemma, which I was glad she did because there was a telltale spot on this plane that showed on the frog casting exactly where the problem lay. I small mark showed that the setscrew was catching and bottoming out in the wall of the hollow of the frog.

I used a drill bit to drill away the wall to extend the housing area and the plane worked perfectly. If you have this problem in your Made-in-England Stanley, this is the solution.