<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16608" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hey Terry,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I know I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but here goes. The blade is diving some how, a flexible base might cause that. If the sole of the plane is not flat, especially if it's high in the middle, it's going to chatter. So, when you introduce a curve in the sole of the plane, I know it's an outside radius, if your blade isn't perfectly supported by the sole of the plane it's going to try to dive away from the plane and into some nice virgin wood. Also, as you're working the wood into a radius, if the radius becomes tighter than the sole of the plane, it can happen, things are not going to work right and you'll get chatter. Bla, Bla, Bla. I'm just thinking out loud. And you already said your sharp, anything less than that and you get chatter. And I'm giving you a lot of chatter, but then again, I'm a pretty fart smeller. Shoot some slip spay on the sole and try to slow down your strokes and skew it a little. I ain't no expert with hand planes, I've just done my share of screwing up with them.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Fenton</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com href="mailto:mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com">Farrell</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, February 20, 2008 10:29 AM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Hand Plane Chatter</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>Question for the wood chomping gurus out there.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>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.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>Obviously, the plane is not a 35 lb. forged steel heavyweight. It is a high quality German plane, but I think the adjustable base feature necessitates a lighter weight. I wonder if the chattering is simply related to it's light-weight design (relatively speaking - the plane is NOT really anything I would call light-weight).</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>The blade is sharp, the cap iron is mated nicely to the blade and adjusted about 1 mm from the blade edge. I think everything is in order. But the darn thing still chatters up a storm. Any ideas/suggestions?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><IMG alt="" hspace=0 src="cid:002901c873fa$9a867360$6501a8c0@murrayb76fc788" align=baseline border=0></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>BTW, I am trying to plane a curved caul, so I can't use a flat plane.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>Terry Farrell<BR>Farrell Piano</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial><A href="http://www.farrellpiano.com">www.farrellpiano.com</A><BR><A href="mailto:terry@farrellpiano.com">terry@farrellpiano.com</A></FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>