60 acre hillside
Member
I have a Craftsman jack plane for several years. It never did work right. It would cut on the start of a stroke then it would not cut until the end of the piece, I have fretted with this tool for a long time and several years ago I bought a smooth plane ((shorter than a jack plane) and it works like it should. Yesterday I decided to find the trouble. I placed it on the ways of my lathe, which I assume to be true, and discovered that in the center of the length I can slide a .011 feeler gauge between the lathe ways and the base of the plane. I see no way to correct this. I did consider having it mulled on a planer like used to true cylinder heads but doubt it is worth the effort. I know of no old-time machinist who know how to scrape parts. I have considered shortening the bottom of the plane to the length of a smooth plane but that would not take out all of the error.