Lee Valley Scraping Plane

PvR asks:

>Took my Lee Valley Scraping Plane out of the box today. Now I find myself
>wondering how to use it without skinning my knuckles. There just does not
>seem to be sufficient clearance for safety between the rear handle and the
>thread the "Frog Adjustment Wheel" runs on. This "Rear Handle" looks (or
>more exactly feels) wrong anyway. Can I solve this by taking a file to it?

I don't know. I used mine the other day with no problems at all, though
admittedly only on some mahogany for a short while.

Seemed to me to work just fine all the way through and was quite comfortable in
my hand.

Charlie Self
"Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves."
Dorothy Parker

http://hometown.aol.com/charliediy/myhomepage/business.html

Brian in Vancouver, BC <[email protected]> schreef
> Why not drop a note to Robin Lee and ask him? He is very good at
> responding to customer concerns. His email is: [email protected]

> Brian

Yes, I might do that. I would rather have a more exact idea of the
ins-and-outs of the matter before I take that step. I just hoped somebody
had already dealt with this issue. I could also take 2mm of the thread,
which is what extends beyond the adjustment wheel when the blade is entirely
forward. That will be my last resort.
PvR

Conan the Librarian <[email protected]> schreef
> I guess this is just another case of personal taste. While I
> don't particularly like the looks of their totes, I've found that they
> are quite comfortable in use. (Even nicer than the more elegant L-N.)

> If you don't like it, you might want to consider making a
> replacement rather than messing with the one it came with. That way
> you could customize it to your hand without risking buggering up the
> factory-supplied one.

+ + +
The nice thing is that Lee Valley sells these handles, so if I muck it up I
can buy a new one. (I found my L-N handle to "fit like a glove". Beautifully
finished too. Pity the wood looks so horrible). The Lee Valley handles of
bubinga look very nice (finishing aside). Good choice of wood. Makes one
wonder why are they marketing these as "South African Rosewood"?
PvR

Alan Bierbaum <[email protected]> schreef
> I have both the scraping plane and the LV LA smoother. I just went into
the shop and grabbed both of them to see if I could understand the problem
(I
have large hands, XL gloves), and have not noticed a problem in actual use
of these planes. After trying this; I can see that someone with "fat"
fingers could have a problem. I checked a couple of old Stanley planes
(#7 & #4) and noticed that there is quite a bit more clearance than the new
LV
planes. It is NOT a problem for me, with large hands; however I can see
that someone with fat fingers could have a problem. Robin, maybe you need
to recruit someone with fat fingers and a large hand to test drive new
designs (should be easy to do with the quality product that you make).

+ + +
Actually my hands are pretty normal. The gloves I have here (one pair L and
one XL) seem to fit equally well. Looking at pictures suggest that a
production error is involved: on the pictures the bottom of the rear handle
extends beyond the sole of the plane, while on my plane the sole extended
behind the handle, showing a gleaming mirror edge. Taking the plane apart
and carefully gouging out the well in the handle allows a placement of the
handle 2 mm rearward, which already makes a substantial difference.
PvR

"P van Rijckevorsel" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...

> Took my Lee Valley Scraping Plane out of the box today. Now I find myself
> wondering how to use it without skinning my knuckles. There just does not
> seem to be sufficient clearance for safety between the rear handle and the
> thread the "Frog Adjustment Wheel" runs on.

Hmmmm ... I never noticed a problem with mine. I'll have to take
another look at it this weekend.

> This "Rear Handle" looks (or
> more exactly feels) wrong anyway. Can I solve this by taking a file to it?

I guess this is just another case of personaol taste. While I
don't particularly like the looks of their totes, I've found that they
are quite comfortable in use. (Even nicer than the more elegant L-N.)

If you don't like it, you might want to consider making a
replacement rather than messing with the one it came with. That way
you could customize it to your hand without risking buggering up the
factory-supplied one.


Chuck Vance

Hi -

I beleive there's actually more clearance in front of the handle than the
Stanley model ? With the blade raked forward, the threaded rod retracts,
affording more room...

I've forwarded your message on to the chief designer for the product - he'll
be able to tell you how much you can "prune" from the rod, and what the
effect will be on the range of adjustment....

Cheers -

Rob Lee



"P van Rijckevorsel" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Took my Lee Valley Scraping Plane out of the box today. Now I find myself
> wondering how to use it without skinning my knuckles. There just does not
> seem to be sufficient clearance for safety between the rear handle and the
> thread the "Frog Adjustment Wheel" runs on. This "Rear Handle" looks (or
> more exactly feels) wrong anyway. Can I solve this by taking a file to it?
> PvR
>
>
>
>

Why not drop a note to Robin Lee and ask him? He is very good at
responding to customer concerns. His email is: [email protected]

Brian

"P van Rijckevorsel" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
| Took my Lee Valley Scraping Plane out of the box today. Now I find myself
| wondering how to use it without skinning my knuckles. There just does not
| seem to be sufficient clearance for safety between the rear handle and
the
| thread the "Frog Adjustment Wheel" runs on. This "Rear Handle" looks (or
| more exactly feels) wrong anyway. Can I solve this by taking a file to
it?
| PvR
|
|
|
|

I have both the scraping plane and the LV LA smoother. I just went into the
shop and grabbed both of them to see if I could understand the problem (I
have large hands, XL gloves), and have not noticed a problem in actual use
of these planes. After trying this; I can see that someone with "fat"
fingers could have a problem. I checked a couple of old Stanley planes (#7
& #4) and noticed that there is quite a bit more clearance than the new LV
planes. It is NOT a problem for me, with large hands; however I can see
that someone with fat fingers could have a problem. Robin, maybe you need
to recruit someone with fat fingers and a large hand to test drive new
designs (should be easy to do with the quality product that you make).

--
Alan Bierbaum

Web Site: http://www.calanb.com
Recent Project Page: http://www.calanb.com/recent.html
Workbench project: http://www.calanb.com/wbench.html


"Robin Lee" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi -
>
> I beleive there's actually more clearance in front of the handle than the
> Stanley model ? With the blade raked forward, the threaded rod retracts,
> affording more room...
>
> I've forwarded your message on to the chief designer for the product -
he'll
> be able to tell you how much you can "prune" from the rod, and what the
> effect will be on the range of adjustment....
>
> Cheers -
>
> Rob Lee
>
>
>
> "P van Rijckevorsel" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Took my Lee Valley Scraping Plane out of the box today. Now I find
myself
> > wondering how to use it without skinning my knuckles. There just does
not
> > seem to be sufficient clearance for safety between the rear handle and
the
> > thread the "Frog Adjustment Wheel" runs on. This "Rear Handle" looks (or
> > more exactly feels) wrong anyway. Can I solve this by taking a file to
it?
> > PvR
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>

On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 22:55:19 +0100, "P van Rijckevorsel"
<[email protected]> brought forth from the murky depths:

>Took my Lee Valley Scraping Plane out of the box today. Now I find myself
>wondering how to use it without skinning my knuckles. There just does not
>seem to be sufficient clearance for safety between the rear handle and the
>thread the "Frog Adjustment Wheel" runs on. This "Rear Handle" looks (or
>more exactly feels) wrong anyway. Can I solve this by taking a file to it?

I took a look at the pics online and it appears that the
blade can be held straight up, which puts the thread right
up toward the handle. Adjust the blade angle and watch the
rod move away. (picture #2 looks to be adjusted that way)
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.asp?page=48431&category=1,310

The original #112 handle may be angled toward the front more
than the Veritas. I wonder how much shaping you could do on
that handle to make it fit your ideal "feel".

If you don't think you'll ever use the blade in a 25 degree
slant, you could always shorten the adjusting rod for a
less knuckle-scraping plane. Or get some plastic handle dip
and coat the end so it wouldn't bite if your hand hit it.

-
If the gods had meant us to vote, they'd have given us candidates.
--------------
http://diversify.com Website Application Programming

On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 07:53:01 -0500, "Robin Lee" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>I beleive there's actually more clearance in front of the handle than the
>Stanley model ?

Not my Stanley. Pruning the annoying rod was one of the first
adjustments I made to it. This is certainly a problem with the #112
design, and the length of its sole is a limit to it. With a "clean
slate" design, I'd want to lengthen it.

I'm still musing on building my own dovetailed #112 from scratch. As
it doesn't need a frog, it would be quite easy to fabricate by
welding. I have a cunning plan to make something in dovetailed steel,
silver-solder the joint, then use niello to blacken the silver in the
joint line.
--
Do whales have krillfiles ?