NO 7 JOINTER PLANE

Have you tried adjusting the frog back? If it is clogging like that it may be that you are taking to large a cut with to small a mouth opening.

-- Chris

The one thought that I had is to check and see if the plane iron bevel is down. If you try and plane with the bevel up it will just clog the throat. When I pulled my #7 out of the cabinet that I had stored it (it hadn’t been used in over 50 years) it had been configured wrong. The plane iron was bevel up and so was the cap iron. Another problem with it was that the cap iron screw was missing and I could not adjust it. I, too, was about to give up on it but put a Hock cap iron and plane iron assembly in it and it now works fine.

Hope this helps.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Ditto Chris and Scott. The Hock blade is a good upgrade. I also changed out the chip breaker for a Lie-Nielsen and the plane works great.

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com

if the chip breaker doesn’t sit flat on the blade the shavings will get caught between the blade and breaker and cause this problem. Flatten the edge of the chip breaker where it sits on the top of the blade. Set the blade to take a very thin shaving. This is not a rough plane.

Here is the chip breaker. Make sure there is no gap between it and the blade. If there is, you must lap it flat.

Here it is again from the edge. Adjust it close to the edge of the blade so it can do it’s job (move chips away from the blade)

Now this is just my opinion because I havn’t used one of those Hock blades, but you should be able to get really good performance from this plane just the way it was manufactured if you tune it up well.

Of course, if you get really discouraged you can always send it to me ^o^

-- Scott - Chico California http://chicowoodnut.home.comcast.net

Email reunde@aol.com he will help you he knows all about hand planes

-- - - Tools are nice to have but you need someone to work them - -

Have you attempted to ”tune” the plane yet? Have you at least lapped the sole flat?

If not, you’ve got to do that first to get any accurate OR pleasurable planing out of it. Also, it sounds like you’re trying to take too heavy a cut for the mouth opening. Personally, I use a Clifton Stay-Set chip breaker but have gotten fine service out of a Stanley if you’ll tune it too. As Scott says, there should be no gap along the contact point of the chip breaker. Also, it needs to be set back from the cutting edge between 1/32nd and 1/16th of an inch. The blade isn’t enough by itself either, it has to be prepped properly too.

It’s been done in several magazines but I’m thinking I might do a step-by-step blog on tuning a #7 that includes retrofitting it with a new blade and chip breaker. I’ve got a type 11 corrugated #7 in need of such a tune-up. Might as well take the pics and post ‘em with a bit of verbiage, what say y’all?

always,
J.C.

-- "Imagination is more important than knowledge" -- Albert Einstein

Along with what has been already said, a few things I ask is-
1) at what angle did you sharpen the blade?
2) did you file and set the frog and throat.
3) setting the chipbreaker is important also and depends on what wood your going to plane, I set mine at a 1/32” After the above are corrected and set , adjust the blade by sighting down the sole looking at the blade front. adjust the blade so it just starts to stick out from the throat. using a piece of paper slid along the body it should just catch on the blade. Take a pass on a piece of wood and check your shaving, adjust accordingly.
Have a Good One,
Smitty

-- Smitty, Alabama, http://www.firstdesignwoodworking.com/

A thick blade means you need to set the chip breaker back a bit further than you might normally do. The chip breaker also needs to be flat as demonstrated.

David Charlesworth had a good article in Fine Woodworking on plane tuneups. Including a back bevel on the throat to keep clogs at bay.

Also the shaving should be really fine, its a jointer so its a fitness plane even though its big.

A picture of the sole of the plane showing the throat opening would help immensely in figuring out the problem. For instance: If the sole is worn down in front of the mouth, it will cause the wood to split further forward from the iron, causing big tear pieces that will clog the throat. Even with a hock blade, you should be able to get the 1/32 to 3/64” mouth opening needed on most Stanley-type planes with an adjustable frog providing the iron is bevel down. If you are also using the hock chip-breaker, you may need to back it up a little more (1/64 to 1/32”) from the cutting edge as it is also thick and may be causing some throat restriction.

Go

-- Go http://ncwoodworker.net/pp/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=730

I have an old corrugated Stanley/Bailey #7 off ebay with a Hock iron. I’m still using the original chip breaker and the plane works like a charm. That chip breaker needed a lot of work though.

I’d start with checking that there’s enough of a gap for the chip to fit now that you’ve added the thicker blade. You might have to move the frog back as others have suggested.

Then I’d work on the chip breaker like woodnut suggested with the helpful photos. The chipbreaker is most often the source of clogging problems.

You should be able to get an idea of what the problem is by looking closely at the first chip that starts the clogging: Where is that getting stuck?

-- johnjoiner