Mike, before you grind off the blade
It helps line up the square quickly
You are only using one side at a time so you have one side flush and you can feel the blade protruding and know that the blade is square after each adjustment without looking

jamie

 

I'm sorry to hear of your frustrations with the shoulder plane. Stanley seems to be struggling with their hand tool quality on a number of fronts. I have the Veritas medium shoulder plane and it's a well made tool with little or no tweaking required out of the box. I know you've put some time and effort into the Stanley but can you return it? Perhaps you can correct the disappointment.

Best of luck

Tom

 

Blade is supposed to be wider than the body. You reference it (plus a hair more) to the side of the plane you will be running up against the shoulder.

p.s. At the Woodcraft store I go to, they will let me open up a box and inspect before buying. Nothing wrong with asking if you can do that next time.

 

Been there, done that…but not on a shoulder plane. Bought the LV med right off the bat and it's spectacular. Perfect in all points and cuts like a dream. It's helps that I'm 3 min away from the head office/store but I would have bought it any way. To be frank, for $135 it's a pretty cheap lesson in the world of tools and woodworking, be thankful it wasn't a $3k saw or worse…Save your nickels and pick up the LV when you can and put this annoyance behind you….

 

Why can't you just simply return it and opt for the higher quality one instead ?

 

Mike-Bummer! I have one of the Sheffield-manufactured Stanley No 92's, so after I read you review I pulled mine out of the drawer to see how mine compares to yours.

I bought mine from Highland 3 or 4 years ago @$95.00. When I got it, I fettled the back of the iron and sharpened it, and have been very happy with it … I use it a lot. The body on mine (right in front of the throat) measures .7530, and the iron comes in at .7535. Not dead on, but close enough for me. The hardware on mine is hefty and well-machined, and I would rate the fit and finish on my plane as more than acceptable.

Looks like Stanley's manufacturing standards may have slipped a bit.

-Gerry

 

Well, I have been busy this afternoon working on the blade with my granite tile, 100-320grit, and my Arkansas hardstone. I ended up not quite as close as the Dane, but ~0.7540" on the front of the blade and 0.7515" on the rear of the blade. As you recall, the body is 0.7515" wide. When installed, my finger cannot tell the difference between the blade and body now.

I immediately put it to use on my workbench rail's dovetails that I cut with the BS. Actually, I took the upper body off and used it as a chisel plane. I am now impressed at what this little plane can do.

I would not have felt right about returning the #92 to WC because I do NOT think it was misrepresented to me. I do, however, need to be more aware of initial quality and the little things to look for BEFORE committing to buy. I can only blame myself for that. I will replace the two top adjusting screws with something more substantial when I get a chance. And then, I'll put all this behind me and enjoy using and owning the #92 shoulder plane.

 

Mike,

As others have said, it is normal for the blade to be slightly wider than the body. This is from the instructions for LV shoulder planes:

Positioning the Blade
The ideal blade position will be achieved when the cutting edge is parallel to the sole and the adjacent edge projects slightly from the body on the working side. This is most easily done with the four blade adjustment set screws (two on each side of the plane). Back off the lever cap wheel to free up the blade, and adjust the pair of set screws on the working side of the plane approximately flush with the body. With your finger, shift the blade over in that direction to seat the blade against the set screws. Since the blade will sit proud of the body on the working side, but much farther than required, adjust the two contacting set screws (on the working side) until the desired blade position is attained (just proud of the side surface of the plane body). To finish, tighten the out-of-contact set screws until they touch the blade, then back them off 1/8 turn or less. (If the blade is in firm contact on all four set screws, depth of cut adjustment will be difficult or impossible.)

Note: As supplied, the blade is slightly wider than the body of the plane. You can position the blade relative to the working side as outlined above, or grind the sides of the blade down so that it aligns with the sides of the plane body.

The full instructions are here.

 

I am glad that you are now happier with your #92 plane. I have only good things to say about them. We used them in Pennsylvania House for a long time, and many of them. They are simple, no bells and whistles, but do they work. Just like any new chisel or lathe tool you have some set up and sharpening to do. Before the plant closed there were many old planes still in use. I have 3 or more, a #93 and a #90, but the 92 is the best. I was the Quality control manager for Pennsylvania House for 15 years, going to Highpoint Furniture market, and used this plane many a times. I trained many a back room person at furniture dealers across the nation with this plane. If you want one of my training sheets on the Stanley #92 plane, just send me your e-mail address. The file is in a Word Format. Someday LJ's will allow Word files to be used here, I have lots of training materials to share.

 

I Have had the 92 now for about 5 months…and I have used it on every project I have made since. I LOVE it! I am sorry you seem to have gotten a bum model, but I have found this to be one of my best buys to date. It shaved right out of the box with no tweaking needed. I do need to sharpen it now, but that is from constant use.

 

Unlike Veritas, Stanley #92 does NOT have adjusting screws for the blade position. To adjust the blade on the #92 you have to "tap" the blade side to side. IMO, that means the #92 blade width should very nearly match that of the body plus whatever overage one decides is needed for squaring the inside of the shoulder. I just found that 16-thousandths overage was quite literally over doing it and getting in the way. Something like a couple thousandths overage would have been more like it, though the Dane reported that his came with less than 1 thousandths overage.

Product variability is what will make or break a company and Stanley needs to get a handle on their current quality control. Hand-slotted screws in this day and age are unacceptable. My dining room drop leaf table has hand-slotted screws, but that table dates to 1846-56 just before machines were built to accurately slot screws. Now if I had a #92 that dated back to the mid-1800s, that would be a different story…

 

I purchased a Stanley 92 right before the holidays and couldnt be more pleased with the results. I mainly purchased it to help fine-tune tenons that came off of the table saw. After setting it up, it takes off just the finest amount of material, allowing me to really hone in on the final thickness. Cant believe I went so long without it!

 

My 92 is made in Mexico and I like it very much, ti works well for me.

 

Having the blade wider than the plane is no accident. That allows one flexibility and creativity in the use of the plane. When carving panels I often set the blade outside the plane body to get a slight undercut.

 

Having the blade wider than the plane is no accident. That allows one flexibility and creativity in the use of the plane. When carving panels I often set the blade outside the plane body to get a slight undercut.
- Dgflatt

And very easy to sharpen when you do with this wide belt sander conversion… ;-)