I can confirm that planing is definitely a stress reliever! Sometimes when I’m having a unpleasant mood or a creative block, I’ll head out to my garage and just start planing a piece of scrap wood. It helps with a bad mood and usually helps with a creative block too! Thanks for the tips, Rob!
Great post once again! I just bought a Wood River 5 1/2. I watched your post on how to setup a brand new plane, I’m going to do that today. Thanks for all you do sir!
I've been working with wood in various ways for going on 60 years, starting with my Boy Scout knife and a flat rock for sharpening when I was 10. I do almost entirely hand tool work now and I've never found adjuster slop to be a big problem. In fact, I think a little slop is a good thing when I've adjusted the blade extension just so for a fine cut. Even considering my battles with Arthur (Mr. -itis), I just don't find this to be a big issue. It's possible Arthur and I would benefit from the star wheel on a couple of my oldest planes but even so, at 69 I'm just not in that much of a hurry. Thanks for your continued sharing and innovation.
The Adjustar is no joke!! I have arthritis in both thumbs from being a wannabe engineer/woodworker/destroyer for the 42 years I’ve been on this mote of dust. In about three minutes, my plane game increased by a factor of 100. In addition to being easier to turn, the Adjustar makes it way easier to make fine adjustments. That way, I can keep chasing those sub-one thou Cosman shavings! Add to all this the top-shelf material and craftsmanship, I’ll never own another plane that doesn’t have the Adjustar.
I have to say Rob, you are dead right. All my planes are old Baileys, and the slop is ..... dreadful. But I followed your instructions and practised sharpening until it became quick and easy. And the (abominable) slop on my planes no longer drives me nuts. Because of you I'm not only much more competent, but I'm also improving faster all the time. So thank you very much for being so exact in your explanations. That eloquent precision really makes learning from you simple.
I just purchase 3 adjust stars for my woodriver planes. What a fantastic difference they make adjusting the plane. Thanks for coming up with a great idea!
I have all Lie-Nielsen planes and have added your Adjustar to all that are compatible. The adjustar works great and makes adjusting the blade much easier, but even without it I don't think slop is much of an issue. Spinning the knob an extra half turn or so amounts to nothing to me, even at 82 years old. Really enjoy your videos. Thanks.
I like the RC adjust star lots! It gives such a great feel to the adjustment, you can feel how much the blade is advancing by how many star 'points' go by. Small adjustments are so easy to judge compared to a featureless round knob. Recommended ++
Glad to see you promote the Reed planes yoke kit, it's an excellent solution to the major problem. Your Adjustar knob is definitely nice, sometime in the future I'm hoping to be able to try both of these solutions. There's another trick to help lessen the slop and I saw it compliments of your old mentor, David Charlesworth and that's to put a piece of tape around the yoke to help take up play in the slot in the chip breaker.
A variation of this idea is to fold a small piece of thin steel or brass sheet over the yoke. The best solution is to get a plane with a Norry's (sp?) Type adjustor, no slop at all.
@@skwalka6372 in an ideal world, yes using some very thin copper/brass would be the ideal solution, but most don't have easy access to that sort of material and so tape. Regards the Norris style adjusters, I've never used them, but the theory doesn't appeal to me of having one piece that could change 2 settings at once, i.e. trying to set the blade depth and accidentally skewing the blade.
I can get carried away "adjusting" my planes, squaring, flattening, sharpening, and miking very thin shavings. I've noticed various degrees of backlash but never thought it was critical to deal with except to insure the blade didn't move as a I planed. I discovered that by accident years ago and "park" the yoke to be sure there is as little freedom of blade movement as possible. Your advice not to worry is the best that can be had.
We used to call this “lash” or “backlash”. Slop would be the wiggle or movement in the blade itself from side to side or the play that is not tight. At least that is what it was when I was young.
Good advice!!! I never considered it as a big issue. Actually from mechanical build my no 4 Stanley bailey which i turned into scrub plane is very good comparing to my others planes ( my Luban is the top brand that i have but in bottom line they all do they job good just keep them sharp). The Adjustar is like a game changer and i have order a nother 2). Thanks and stay sharp!
I’ve got adjuststars on both my L-N °5-1/2 and °4, they work great. I’m considering grinding the length of the wings off some on the one I use in my No°4 though. I have already taken both of them to a buffing wheel loaded with a fast cutting compound though to ease the sharp edges left from the machining. Additionally anyone looking to add a great piece of kit to their L-N °102 apron, °140 skew, or °60-1/2 block (both rabbeting and standard) should look at Reed Planes adjustment knobs. He’s got a roller bearing pressed into a knob that perfectly fits the notch and not only makes backlash non-existent, but also makes adjustments easier because it reduces some of the working of the tension in the cap screw. I’ve added them to both my °102 apron and °60-1/2 Rabbeting Block planes. I’ve not used any of Reed Planes Bailey adjustment kits yet but have heard great things. I’ll probably try it on my Frankenstein foreplane first, since the other Baileys are all original. But I highly recommend both the adjuststar by Rob and the Reed Planes bearing screw for L-N block planes. I don’t know however if they are useful for all the WoodRiver block planes, you’d have to ask them. Just my 2¢
I ordered a couple of the Reed Tool bearing adjusters, and while they fit on my #62 LA Jack and my #60-1/2 Rabbet (with a little filing on the slot in the blade), they would not fit on my #60-1/2 Adjustable Mouth Block or my #102 Apron planes. This replacement part has a bigger diameter knurled knob and, on the #102, the bearing also has bigger diameter than the corresponding portion on the OEM adjustment knob. The larger diameter of the bearing holds the blade up off the bed on the #102 (making it unusable,) while the larger diameter of the knurled knob runs into the raised "102" near the rear of the body such that you cannot advance the blade far enough to reach the mouth opening. As to the #60-1/2, the knurled knob also scrapes the body of my #60-1/2 Adjustable Mouth Block plane when advancing the blade, but not anywhere as bad as on the #102 -- tolerances may vary enough from plane to plane for others to have a slightly different experience. Oh, and while writing this post, I double checked the situation and am now wondering how well the bearing adjuster fits on my #60-1/2 Rabbet as I can see a little light between the bed and the blade. On my plane, the bearing is too wide for the slot in the blade which seems to be the cause for the blade to not seat fully onto the bed. I purchased these adjustment knobs to eliminate any possible lateral adjustment issues rather than worrying about the backlash, however, I'm not sure it totally eliminates all lateral movement as you adjust the blade's depth of cut... Sorry for the long post, but people should be aware that this replacement part will NOT work on their Lie Nielsen #102 Apron plane. However, Reed Tool has stated that they may look into making one that will fit.
I watched a David Charlesworth video and he had a small piece of what looked like leather folded over the end of the yoke. I guess to minimise slop as the yoke moved i the slot of the chipbreaker
I picked up a Lie Nielsen 5 1/2 a while back, and I'm enjoying it. I took the backlash in stride and it didn't bother me one bit. I didn't even realize what it was called until about 3 days ago. Is this really a thing that people care about? It seems like one of those situations where people obsess over the tiniest issue and wind up throwing money to fix a problem that barely exists. 🙄
I have a Number 5 with no makers names on it and the slop in it is absolutely horrendous, I got it used with a couple others I got as my first set of planes. I have been wood working for 2 months and understanding how to fix this issue an why it happens is helpful.
@@skwalka6372 that is a great idea, thank you. I will try that. That same plane had a problem with the tote bolt not tightening enough and some oen suggested a small washer and that worked great, so the tote issue is the last of the problems, albeit small, I'm having.
Of my 5 LNs with adjuster wheels and the sloppiest one is just less than 3/4 turn, that is also my oldest one from the early 80s (a No.6). My ECE's have zero slop, but they use heavy springs to keep the mechanism pretensioned. I have a couple of old bailey pattern Records that live in my tool chest and they have a unreasonable amount of slop :-) Never really thought about trying to do anything to improve them, however. Maybe now I'll try.
Rob, I don't think the quality of the plane necessarily indicates how much backlash there is in its adjustment. I have an expensive No 5 Clifton bedrock which is my favourite tool but it takes a turn and a half to re-engage. But a couple of years ago I restored an old Stanley 4½ which was a heap of rust when I bought it. When I first tried it there was hardly any backlash which I thought must have been a fluke. But after using it extensively I now know it wasn't - its adjustment works better than any other plane I have, in fact, the adjustment is so smooth it can be done easily with one finger. I can only conclude that by making thousands of planes, every so often one must turn out where everything in the engineering tolerances goes just right.
Wow Rob one more nice advice...I do have your AdjuStar in my 1942 Stanley #5 1/2 and it works great (very clever idea)...instead of use a tape as a nice way how told by Lynx G I used an eletric plastic insulate (I don't know how do you call in English) but is something like a straw and when you apply heat from a heat gun it melts around the end of yolk and minimize (or almost zero) the gap with chip brake slot..it works pretty well but to me as a hobbiest woodworker the backslash is not a big issue... Thanks Rob and Lynx G for sharing your experience.
Hello, Mr. RobCosman, I would very much like to, if it is possible of course. I would like to be able to view your videos with Romanian subtitles because I do not understand English well enough. I thank you from the bottom of my heart
I'm relatively new to hand wood work, but first obese i made in New plane upgrades was "fine adjustment" knobs. The stock threads on adjusters was so course, i had difficulty making very small blade movements. The fine threads increase the turns per unit of movement and reduce the strength needed to turn the adjuster. I'll wager the threads on your grandad's plane are MUCH more fine than those on the "big wheel" adjusters. My planes are Veritas, so not cheap. All but the router plane have 1/4 to 1/2 turn slop. The router is nearly 3/4. However they are all Norris style adjusters. My next plane of I buy one will be Bailey style and I'll get your star adjuster.
I have a woodriver 5 1/2 the lever cap rides up when I retract the blade . Would the star adjuster fix that by being able too tighten down the lever cap screw so it couldn't move.
Hi Rob, I have a shapton 16,000 grit glass stone. Do I have to use water only on it or can I use the trend lapping fluid that came with the 300 / 1000 grit diamond plate I bought from trend? Thank you kindly.
I think the most SLOP or what ever you want to call it , is where the yoke intersects with the slot in the chip breaker. Can thin shims be applied (glued on)over the yoke to reduce the gap and friction of this area?
Hold on. it is called back lash, not slop. The back lash is an intrinsic part of the thread when the threads are cut. If the threads were cut not to the correct, send the plane back if it bothers you. I use the back lash to know when I'm staring to move the blade.
It’s called slop. You’re focusing in too closely on one aspect of the problem. There’s the backlash in the threading, the difference between the ID on the knob/adjustar and the OD on the loves of the yoke, and then the top of the yoke as it relates to the opening of the slot in the chip breaker. It’s called slop as a whole.
Surely someone can produce a chip breaker with an undersized slot that you can file to the correct size and angle. Combine that with a pin and the correct drill bit and a shim for the adjuster.
When I watch Cosman videos these days, I am confused. There is a young guy who keeps popping up and an old guy with long hair. Is he the young guy’s father or his uncle? What is going on? Irrespective of that - good content, as usual.
The backlash really annoys me. These days with cnc machining it is easily possible to make any tool with correct tolerances. If you are going to use precise dimensions, just make them right. I have a cheap block plane with 1/4” wide mouth. Ridiculous. Nothing to do with tolerances, just stupidity. I suppose the maker thinks it can take 1/4” shavings.
Why do we accept this much backlash in a multi-hundred dollar tool? If the tuning machines on my stringed instruments were this bad, I would send them back.
Excluding uisng high quality blades in cheap planes, I consider the slop in high priced planes unacceptable. If the plane sell for $500 I want a top engineering level in the plane. It's not happening. I can think of three redesigns worth doing in top tier planes that would make it like rack and pinion steering. It would be too expensive for lower priced planes, but worth it for the best, better, and darn good, level planes. I buy things that make my life better and easier, not more aggravating. Since high priced planes fail to meet these standards they are disqualified from consideration. Since you talk with the big boys at these companies you might pass this along. Good video. Frustrating conclusion. Be safe.
Eliminating slop comes at a cost, though. Less slop means more friction, making it even more difficult to adjust. It also requires higher precision machining. Higher precision machining means more expense. The manufacturer has to balance between meeting a price point, and making the perfect machine.
I agree, there is so few moving parts that tolerance stack up is not an issue. They should be able to control these to tighter tolerances in the $300-$400 planes
@@jimhyslop I think woodworkers could handle the extra friction. It would be no worse than what it would be when actually moving the blade. As for cost, I don't mind paying for quality. What I'm saying is the top end planers are not providing what they should at the $500 price. Who do they think they are, Detroit Auto during the 1960s. There is an extreme markup in high end tools. If they want the money make the tool that's worth the money. I didn't mind buying a Veritas router plane, because it was worth the money. That's why I'm still using a Grizzly plane, with a good blade. I'll put up with the slack at this price, not at $500. But I do like your thinking.
really enjoying your videos, the 4 part series on drawer fitting is the BEST I have ever seen. keep up the great work.
I can confirm that planing is definitely a stress reliever! Sometimes when I’m having a unpleasant mood or a creative block, I’ll head out to my garage and just start planing a piece of scrap wood. It helps with a bad mood and usually helps with a creative block too! Thanks for the tips, Rob!
Thanks for commenting
I've just learned to deal with the slop and be done with it.
That's my solution too
Another gem from hippy Bob
Yea baby
Great post once again! I just bought a Wood River 5 1/2. I watched your post on how to setup a brand new plane, I’m going to do that today. Thanks for all you do sir!
Glad I could help!
I've been working with wood in various ways for going on 60 years, starting with my Boy Scout knife and a flat rock for sharpening when I was 10. I do almost entirely hand tool work now and I've never found adjuster slop to be a big problem. In fact, I think a little slop is a good thing when I've adjusted the blade extension just so for a fine cut. Even considering my battles with Arthur (Mr. -itis), I just don't find this to be a big issue. It's possible Arthur and I would benefit from the star wheel on a couple of my oldest planes but even so, at 69 I'm just not in that much of a hurry. Thanks for your continued sharing and innovation.
LOve the hair Rob. Gives us old guys hope we may get some back one day lol :)
The Adjustar is no joke!! I have arthritis in both thumbs from being a wannabe engineer/woodworker/destroyer for the 42 years I’ve been on this mote of dust.
In about three minutes, my plane game increased by a factor of 100. In addition to being easier to turn, the Adjustar makes it way easier to make fine adjustments.
That way, I can keep chasing those sub-one thou Cosman shavings!
Add to all this the top-shelf material and craftsmanship, I’ll never own another plane that doesn’t have the Adjustar.
Have you ever seen or tried the Reed file to fit adjuster and yoke?
I have to say Rob, you are dead right. All my planes are old Baileys, and the slop is ..... dreadful.
But I followed your instructions and practised sharpening until it became quick and easy. And the (abominable) slop on my planes no longer drives me nuts.
Because of you I'm not only much more competent, but I'm also improving faster all the time. So thank you very much for being so exact in your explanations. That eloquent precision really makes learning from you simple.
Slop is the least of my worries in woodworking.
Agreed
I just purchase 3 adjust stars for my woodriver planes. What a fantastic difference they make adjusting the plane. Thanks for coming up with a great idea!
I have all Lie-Nielsen planes and have added your Adjustar to all that are compatible. The adjustar works great and makes adjusting the blade much easier, but even without it I don't think slop is much of an issue. Spinning the knob an extra half turn or so amounts to nothing to me, even at 82 years old. Really enjoy your videos. Thanks.
I agree with you
I like the RC adjust star lots! It gives such a great feel to the adjustment, you can feel how much the blade is advancing by how many star 'points' go by. Small adjustments are so easy to judge compared to a featureless round knob. Recommended ++
Recommended and out of stock. Lol. I’ll keep checking.
We have a new design that’ll drop this coming week.
Glad to see you promote the Reed planes yoke kit, it's an excellent solution to the major problem. Your Adjustar knob is definitely nice, sometime in the future I'm hoping to be able to try both of these solutions. There's another trick to help lessen the slop and I saw it compliments of your old mentor, David Charlesworth and that's to put a piece of tape around the yoke to help take up play in the slot in the chip breaker.
A variation of this idea is to fold a small piece of thin steel or brass sheet over the yoke. The best solution is to get a plane with a Norry's (sp?) Type adjustor, no slop at all.
Thanks for the tips!
@@skwalka6372 in an ideal world, yes using some very thin copper/brass would be the ideal solution, but most don't have easy access to that sort of material and so tape.
Regards the Norris style adjusters, I've never used them, but the theory doesn't appeal to me of having one piece that could change 2 settings at once, i.e. trying to set the blade depth and accidentally skewing the blade.
Loved your surprise at Amazon Basics doing so well in the slop-off.
I can get carried away "adjusting" my planes, squaring, flattening, sharpening, and miking very thin shavings. I've noticed various degrees of backlash but never thought it was critical to deal with except to insure the blade didn't move as a I planed. I discovered that by accident years ago and "park" the yoke to be sure there is as little freedom of blade movement as possible. Your advice not to worry is the best that can be had.
Wonderful advice, knowledge and tuition in one short video - thanks. And, it's all true!
Thanks for watching
Great video! Thank you for sharing! Take care
Thanks for commenting Kent
Thanks
We used to call this “lash” or “backlash”. Slop would be the wiggle or movement in the blade itself from side to side or the play that is not tight. At least that is what it was when I was young.
thanks
"This will become your source of stress relief, not stress" - nice turn of phrase!
Yes! Thank you!
Good advice!!! I never considered it as a big issue. Actually from mechanical build my no 4 Stanley bailey which i turned into scrub plane is very good comparing to my others planes ( my Luban is the top brand that i have but in bottom line they all do they job good just keep them sharp). The Adjustar is like a game changer and i have order a nother 2). Thanks and stay sharp!
I’ve got adjuststars on both my L-N °5-1/2 and °4, they work great. I’m considering grinding the length of the wings off some on the one I use in my No°4 though. I have already taken both of them to a buffing wheel loaded with a fast cutting compound though to ease the sharp edges left from the machining. Additionally anyone looking to add a great piece of kit to their L-N °102 apron, °140 skew, or °60-1/2 block (both rabbeting and standard) should look at Reed Planes adjustment knobs. He’s got a roller bearing pressed into a knob that perfectly fits the notch and not only makes backlash non-existent, but also makes adjustments easier because it reduces some of the working of the tension in the cap screw. I’ve added them to both my °102 apron and °60-1/2 Rabbeting Block planes. I’ve not used any of Reed Planes Bailey adjustment kits yet but have heard great things. I’ll probably try it on my Frankenstein foreplane first, since the other Baileys are all original. But I highly recommend both the adjuststar by Rob and the Reed Planes bearing screw for L-N block planes. I don’t know however if they are useful for all the WoodRiver block planes, you’d have to ask them. Just my 2¢
Several folks have cut down the adjustar to fit on the #4
I ordered a couple of the Reed Tool bearing adjusters, and while they fit on my #62 LA Jack and my #60-1/2 Rabbet (with a little filing on the slot in the blade), they would not fit on my #60-1/2 Adjustable Mouth Block or my #102 Apron planes. This replacement part has a bigger diameter knurled knob and, on the #102, the bearing also has bigger diameter than the corresponding portion on the OEM adjustment knob. The larger diameter of the bearing holds the blade up off the bed on the #102 (making it unusable,) while the larger diameter of the knurled knob runs into the raised "102" near the rear of the body such that you cannot advance the blade far enough to reach the mouth opening. As to the #60-1/2, the knurled knob also scrapes the body of my #60-1/2 Adjustable Mouth Block plane when advancing the blade, but not anywhere as bad as on the #102 -- tolerances may vary enough from plane to plane for others to have a slightly different experience. Oh, and while writing this post, I double checked the situation and am now wondering how well the bearing adjuster fits on my #60-1/2 Rabbet as I can see a little light between the bed and the blade. On my plane, the bearing is too wide for the slot in the blade which seems to be the cause for the blade to not seat fully onto the bed. I purchased these adjustment knobs to eliminate any possible lateral adjustment issues rather than worrying about the backlash, however, I'm not sure it totally eliminates all lateral movement as you adjust the blade's depth of cut... Sorry for the long post, but people should be aware that this replacement part will NOT work on their Lie Nielsen #102 Apron plane. However, Reed Tool has stated that they may look into making one that will fit.
I watched a David Charlesworth video and he had a small piece of what looked like leather folded over the end of the yoke. I guess to minimise slop as the yoke moved i the slot of the chipbreaker
I can't wait for the adjustar to be available again. #onthewaitinglist
They came in Friday so we should have them packaged and ready Wednesday, Monday is a holiday.
Veritas bevel up plane has no slop. Probably because it doesn't have chip breaker. It immediately engages . Very nice to work with it.
I picked up a Lie Nielsen 5 1/2 a while back, and I'm enjoying it. I took the backlash in stride and it didn't bother me one bit. I didn't even realize what it was called until about 3 days ago.
Is this really a thing that people care about? It seems like one of those situations where people obsess over the tiniest issue and wind up throwing money to fix a problem that barely exists. 🙄
Yes it is, but I agree with you
I have a Number 5 with no makers names on it and the slop in it is absolutely horrendous, I got it used with a couple others I got as my first set of planes. I have been wood working for 2 months and understanding how to fix this issue an why it happens is helpful.
If the slop is really bad try folding a piece of brass sheet over the yoke, hobby shops carry it.
@@skwalka6372 that is a great idea, thank you. I will try that.
That same plane had a problem with the tote bolt not tightening enough and some oen suggested a small washer and that worked great, so the tote issue is the last of the problems, albeit small, I'm having.
Look into the reed no slop Yoke..its just $14
Of my 5 LNs with adjuster wheels and the sloppiest one is just less than 3/4 turn, that is also my oldest one from the early 80s (a No.6). My ECE's have zero slop, but they use heavy springs to keep the mechanism pretensioned. I have a couple of old bailey pattern Records that live in my tool chest and they have a unreasonable amount of slop :-) Never really thought about trying to do anything to improve them, however. Maybe now I'll try.
Rob, I don't think the quality of the plane necessarily indicates how much backlash there is in its adjustment.
I have an expensive No 5 Clifton bedrock which is my favourite tool but it takes a turn and a half to re-engage. But a couple of years ago I restored an old Stanley 4½ which was a heap of rust when I bought it. When I first tried it there was hardly any backlash which I thought must have been a fluke. But after using it extensively I now know it wasn't - its adjustment works better than any other plane I have, in fact, the adjustment is so smooth it can be done easily with one finger.
I can only conclude that by making thousands of planes, every so often one must turn out where everything in the engineering tolerances goes just right.
I concur
Wow Rob one more nice advice...I do have your AdjuStar in my 1942 Stanley #5 1/2 and it works great (very clever idea)...instead of use a tape as a nice way how told by Lynx G I used an eletric plastic insulate (I don't know how do you call in English) but is something like a straw and when you apply heat from a heat gun it melts around the end of yolk and minimize (or almost zero) the gap with chip brake slot..it works pretty well but to me as a hobbiest woodworker the backslash is not a big issue...
Thanks Rob and Lynx G for sharing your experience.
"Heat shrink tubing" is what you're describing if you need to refer to it in the future.
@@briancarroll6803 Thank You
Great tip
Hello, Mr. RobCosman, I would very much like to, if it is possible of course. I would like to be able to view your videos with Romanian subtitles because I do not understand English well enough. I thank you from the bottom of my heart
I'm relatively new to hand wood work, but first obese i made in New plane upgrades was "fine adjustment" knobs. The stock threads on adjusters was so course, i had difficulty making very small blade movements. The fine threads increase the turns per unit of movement and reduce the strength needed to turn the adjuster. I'll wager the threads on your grandad's plane are MUCH more fine than those on the "big wheel" adjusters. My planes are Veritas, so not cheap. All but the router plane have 1/4 to 1/2 turn slop. The router is nearly 3/4. However they are all Norris style adjusters. My next plane of I buy one will be Bailey style and I'll get your star adjuster.
Thanks for the info
Gave you two likes. One for the content, one for the hair.
They sell a plane of 500 $ and it has issues .U need many hours in test field to learn .thank for the useful advice ....
I have a woodriver 5 1/2 the lever cap rides up when I retract the blade . Would the star adjuster fix that by being able too tighten down the lever cap screw so it couldn't move.
Hi Rob
Do you make an adjustar to foot a Clifton 5 1/2 ??
First time seeing you again in a while.
First thing I noticed, is the hair.
Keep it away from moving parts. :)
Hi Rob,
I have a shapton 16,000 grit glass stone. Do I have to use water only on it or can I use the trend lapping fluid that came with the 300 / 1000 grit diamond plate I bought from trend? Thank you kindly.
I use water with Honerite. Haven’t used the other so I can’t comment.
does anybody knows where i could get a Yoke lever replacement?
my dad´s old n5 broke
I think the most SLOP or what ever you want to call it , is where the yoke intersects with the slot in the chip breaker. Can thin shims be applied (glued on)over the yoke to reduce the gap and friction of this area?
Try it and see. I have never tried that
Hold on. it is called back lash, not slop. The back lash is an intrinsic part of the thread when the threads are cut. If the threads were cut not to the correct, send the plane back if it bothers you. I use the back lash to know when I'm staring to move the blade.
It’s called slop. You’re focusing in too closely on one aspect of the problem. There’s the backlash in the threading, the difference between the ID on the knob/adjustar and the OD on the loves of the yoke, and then the top of the yoke as it relates to the opening of the slot in the chip breaker. It’s called slop as a whole.
Surely someone can produce a chip breaker with an undersized slot that you can file to the correct size and angle. Combine that with a pin and the correct drill bit and a shim for the adjuster.
You would think so right?
When I watch Cosman videos these days, I am confused. There is a young guy who keeps popping up and an old guy with long hair. Is he the young guy’s father or his uncle? What is going on? Irrespective of that - good content, as usual.
I want to see a plane with a Norris adjuster added to the slop comparison
I dont like nor use Norris adjusters so I dont have any to compare with.!
Or, wrap selected surfaces with narrow tape to fill the gaps?
That works too
To be fair the age of the stanley Bailey compered to the age of the other plane's its no wonder there was more slop in it!
Dont think you use your planes enough, My Stanlery Bailey no 3 Ive had from new now has more than 3 turns of slop.
AKA, backlash
Enjoyed the discussion. Do you need money for a haircut?
Protest hair!
I think he's going for the Kurt Russell look in the Overboard movie, who which ironically plays a carpenter. Striking resemblance!
My Benchdog #5 has over 2.5 full turns of backlash, that Amazon basics did a better job!
Yikes
Rob, I love your channel! Now please get a haircut.
Not today
Yeah, just don't sweat it! Turning 1 1/2 turns versus 2 full turns isn't worth me botching up my plane.
The backlash really annoys me. These days with cnc machining it is easily possible to make any tool with correct tolerances. If you are going to use precise dimensions, just make them right. I have a cheap block plane with 1/4” wide mouth. Ridiculous. Nothing to do with tolerances, just stupidity. I suppose the maker thinks it can take 1/4” shavings.
Good point
Why do we accept this much backlash in a multi-hundred dollar tool? If the tuning machines on my stringed instruments were this bad, I would send them back.
Slop... When you can't find anything else to whine about slop is there for you
Good point
The adjustars turned my planes into mu h better tools
We keep telling folks that
Excluding uisng high quality blades in cheap planes, I consider the slop in high priced planes unacceptable. If the plane sell for $500 I want a top engineering level in the plane. It's not happening. I can think of three redesigns worth doing in top tier planes that would make it like rack and pinion steering. It would be too expensive for lower priced planes, but worth it for the best, better, and darn good, level planes. I buy things that make my life better and easier, not more aggravating. Since high priced planes fail to meet these standards they are disqualified from consideration. Since you talk with the big boys at these companies you might pass this along. Good video. Frustrating conclusion. Be safe.
Eliminating slop comes at a cost, though. Less slop means more friction, making it even more difficult to adjust. It also requires higher precision machining. Higher precision machining means more expense. The manufacturer has to balance between meeting a price point, and making the perfect machine.
I agree, there is so few moving parts that tolerance stack up is not an issue. They should be able to control these to tighter tolerances in the $300-$400 planes
@@jimhyslop I think woodworkers could handle the extra friction. It would be no worse than what it would be when actually moving the blade. As for cost, I don't mind paying for quality. What I'm saying is the top end planers are not providing what they should at the $500 price. Who do they think they are, Detroit Auto during the 1960s. There is an extreme markup in high end tools. If they want the money make the tool that's worth the money. I didn't mind buying a Veritas router plane, because it was worth the money. That's why I'm still using a Grizzly plane, with a good blade. I'll put up with the slack at this price, not at $500. But I do like your thinking.
@@TheTranq Right On!
Good chat
so is the hair a midlife crisis thing, or are you cutting it off for fundraising like chip.