Hand Plane Chatter

[Farrell]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Nossaman" <rnossaman at cox.net>
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 5:24 PM
Subject: Re: Hand Plane Chatter


>> I have a hand plane that has a propensity to "chatter" in use. Picture of 
>> it is below. The reason the base looks as if it is curved is because it 
>> is curved. That's the whole deal with this plane - the base curvature is 
>> adjustable to any gentle curve - convex or concave. It's great for 
>> planing many wooden things found in piano bellies and jigs to make those 
>> things. But it can be a bear when the darn plane wants to chatter.
>
> That's a pretty steep blade angle, and a very flexible sole plate, neither 
> of which you can do much about and a bad combination by my relatively 
> inexperienced reckoning. I'd try two things. The first is related to my 
> miserable efforts to use a curved sole spoke shave years ago. 
> Chatterchatterchatter, chunkgougedig. It's been in the drawer ever since. 
> Problem was the sole radius was tighter than the scoop I was trying to 
> cut, and the thing rocked, at least under my lack of control, continually 
> changing the cut angle and depth of cut. Try setting the sole curve to a 
> slightly larger radius than your caul, so you have to lean on it some to 
> get it to cut. If that doesn't work, I'd try grinding the iron edge to a 
> shallow curve, to narrow the cut width proportional to the amount of 
> support the sole is giving you. If that doesn't work and ruins the plane 
> for all time, it already isn't working, so...
>
> Ron N
>