Problems with Slim Adjustable?

B

bigsimes

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395
I bagged myself a birth year slim adjustable from 'bay some time ago. As it was early in my DE shaving career, I was too bothered when I didn't get particularly good shaves. I put it down to technique.

I went back to my EJ and Merkur razors and enjoyed the learning and the journey.

This week I decided to try the Slim again as a change of pace. I set it to a 3 and carried out my usual routine. Holy cow - it had couple of nicks (one quite deep), some burn and unpleasant experience.

Looking at the razor quite a bit of blade is exposed, so opening the doors, I set it to 9 to see what changed. After closing the doors, it seems that the amount of blade exposed was the same. So I reset it to 1 and got the same result.

I did borrow the pass-around Fatboy set to 3-4 and found it a joy.

So I'm wondering if the adjustment on the Slim is damaged in some way and fixed to setting 9. It seems mightly agressive set to 3 compared to the EJ and 34C.

Any experienced Slim users able to offer advice??

Cheers
 
I recently had a very similar experience with a slim which was down to a couple of points.

First the last quarter turn when closing the silo doors is quite stiff because it's tensioning the spring inside. Without the spring being compressed/tensioned the adjustment mechanism won't work right - I hadn't realised that the last 1/4 turn required more pressure and wasn't closing the doors fully - make sure you close it that last bit!

Second the adjustment mechanism was really stiff. With the adjustment set to 1 you should be able to move the adjustment plate with your fingers - that's the lowest plate of the head. So there's the silo doors which open, below those is the base plate then below that is the adjustment plate that has four prongs poking up through the base plate.

If you can't move the adjustment plate give the whole razor a soak in baby oil (it's just mineral oil and perfume) for 2-3 days then try again. If it still won't move insert a small lever between the two plates and gently pry them apart - careful not to scratch the plating! you might have to work the mechanism up and down a few times before it frees up!

The only other thing is that it may have been over adjusted. Just above the adjuster ring is a small hole with a piece of metal in it, if you push that piece of metal inwards it releases the clicking/notch mechanism so you can rotate the adjustment dial freely. I found that if you release the mechanism and rotate the dial as far as it will go to the left (clockwise looking from the top of the razor) that will leave a gap above the adjuster ring. Turning it now will have no effect because it's not butted up against the adjustment plate which it needs to press on. To put it in the correct setting I had to then turn it back two complete revolutions to the 1 position. Check that you can still move it through all 9 settings.

This may vary from one razor to another because a member here advised me it needed turning back one full revolution but mine definitely needed two.

Hope that's not too confusing, if you need more help just ask!

Here's the thread where I discussed the problems I was having http://www.theshavingroom.co.uk/forum/thread-14446.html
 
I too had a similar problem, not full closing the doors down tight.
Once I finished with a proper quarter turn all was well.
Good luck.
 
I had similar experiences to yourself and in the end, after different settings, blades and soap combos, came to the reluctant acceptance that this razor wasn't for me. In fact none of the vintage razors seem to suit me unfortunately. I now use a Merkur Slant as my daily shave with an EJ89 as an alternative and have none of the problems I had with the vintages.

Best of luck getting it sorted.
 
Cheers Chaps.

I'm definitely closing the silo doors properly. The extra 1/4 turn makes a difference ;)

BazC - thanks for the info. I'll take a look and see what thats does.

I'll report back later.
 
bigsimes said:
Looking at the razor quite a bit of blade is exposed, so opening the doors, I set it to 9 to see what changed. After closing the doors, it seems that the amount of blade exposed was the same. So I reset it to 1 and got the same result.

So I'm wondering if the adjustment on the Slim is damaged in some way and fixed to setting 9. It seems mightly agressive set to 3 compared to the EJ and 34C.

Any experienced Slim users able to offer advice??

Cheers
Click to expand...

You may be in luck and a quick adjustment might just do the trick. What you may have is a case of over clocking. Think of a very old car odometer...the ones that went back to zero after 100,000 miles. A well used car will show low miles as a result. In this case, you may be shaving using a setting starting on #9+, which ain't so good.

Sometimes an adjuster gets pushed past the top setting and into the next set of numbers. Try backing the adjuster off to the lowest setting, then take a paper clip or something and depress that spring above the dial. Go past the #1, and back into the setting before the one you're in now.

If that fixes it, I'd imagine the last 1/4 turn might be easier also.

Give it a try,

Martin

Also, maybe do a search for that term, since it's not an uncommon problem.

Oh, I see Baz already mentioned that. Heh, never mind then.
 
Martin,

I did managed to 'rewind' the adjuster back one whole setting. This doesn't appear to have changed things. Taking a careful look the blade is presented at the same exposure from 1 through 9.

I'll try and soak it in baby oil.
Cheers
 
bigsimes said:
Martin,

I did managed to 'rewind' the adjuster back one whole setting. This doesn't appear to have changed things. Taking a careful look the blade is presented at the same exposure from 1 through 9.

I'll try and soak it in baby oil.
Cheers
Click to expand...

Well heck,

One more thing to try and then I'm outta ideas. Maybe try to overclock it to where it was before, and then go one more revolution in that same aggressive direction.
 
dodgy said:
Well heck,

One more thing to try and then I'm outta ideas. Maybe try to overclock it to where it was before, and then go one more revolution in that same aggressive direction.
Click to expand...

Gotta be worth a try....
Cheers
 
turning to the 'upper' 9 setting didn't work.

Changing the setting to the higher numbers, made the adjuster progressively stiffer, to the point that it wouldn't hit 9 without force - which I didn't do.

I've moved it back to the 1-9 series and the razor is now sat in a tub of baby oil having a long soak.
 
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