Most planes – even a new one straight out of the box – need some degree of setting up before they work perfectly.The scrub plane is no exception.
Checking and flattening the sole
A plane’s sole needs to be perfectly flat and smooth for the tool to work properly. See how to flatten…for a full step-by step guide.
Checking the iron
The scrub plane iron’s cutting edge is deeply curved, or cambered. In a conventional scrub plane which has its iron bedded at 45 degrees to the sole, the iron requires a 75mm (3 inch) radius on its cutting edge. This means the cutting edge forms part of a circle that, if completed, would measure 150mm (6”) in diameter.
Determine if the radius is right for your particular scrub plane – you might find details in the printed guide if one came with your plane. If it’s a second-hand plane with no printed information, use the figures above as a general guide.Too much camber, or curvature, produces gouges that are too deep; not enough, and the corners of the iron can leave tracks in the wood that might prove difficult to remove later.
Lowering the angle of the blade reduces the depth of the gouge, so a scrub plane with the iron set at a lower angle needs to have a smaller radius to give the same depth of gouge.If the camber is wrong, you will need to make a new bevel on the blade, using an electrically-powered grinder, before honing (sharpening) the blade, on a sharpening stone. Or you can take the blade to a specialist workshop for re-cambering.
Check the sharpness of the blade – if is isn’t cutting through the surface of the wood smoothly, it may need sharpening.Run a finger gently across the blade (not along it!) and feel its sharpness. If it feels less than razor sharp, or has some chips in it, or both, again you will need to sharpen it.
