Well, I’ve finally completed the plane.
July was absolutely frantic at school so I didn’t get much done, but August has been a bit quieter.
I decided to go for Ebonised Walnut for the infill in the end, for the simple reason that Walnut was the only dark, close grained timber that my local supplier had in stock. I’d never tried ebonising before, but it really is frighteningly simple, and I think that it turned out pretty well. The finish on the wood is a few coats of Danish oil followed by a little wax.
The vital statistics are:
Sole length – 215mm (8 1/2″)
Overall length – 235mm (9 1/4″)
Iron – 60mm (2 3/8″) wide by 6mm (1/4″) thick
Pitch – 50 deg
Mouth opening – about 3 or 4 thou (pretty dammed tight)
Mass – 2.8kg (6lb 4oz)
And just to prove that it works, here are a few shavings. I’m not sure whether these were taken with or against the grain, but to be honest, the plane didn’t grumble going either way.
Cheers
Aled
Bits n Bobs
Hi it’s been absolutely hectic since my last post. The end of term is always busy in school, but this year was especially so, with fitting in welding and turning courses, as well as the usual reports, trips etc.
The turning and welding coures I completed were excellent, I could do a little turning before attending the course, but still learnt a lot.
On the other hand, I was dreading the welding course, as my previous experiences with a welder had always proved very hit and miss, and extremely frustrating. Yes, there’s a “but” coming. But, by the end of the second day I was welding like a pro – swearing, telling dirty jokes etc. – and even did some vertical welding on the third day (stright runs and a christmas tree weave). By this time I had completed the required tasks for an NVQ2 qualification, but still attended the fourth and final day, so that I could get to grips with a TIG welder and do some Aluminum welding.
Welding Ali is very difficult, as by the time you get enough heat into the joint to weld, then wait another millisecond, and you have a puddle of Aluminium on the bench and a bloody big hole in your work. I was so impressed by the TIG welder though, that I’m pricing one up for the school workshop, yes they’re expensive, but it’ll definately add to the students experience, and when they get to the workplace, they’ll have another string to their bow.
Following the busy time at work, things have been virtually on hold on the hand plane front, but as it’s now the summer holidays, I (in theory) should have a little more time on my hands. I’ve managed to shape the tote on the large smoother today from enlish Walnut, and hope to get it ebonised either tomorrow or saturday. I’ll post pics of my ebonising experiments tomorrow, it really is astonishingly simple, just wipe on a solution of wire wool and vinegar, wait a few minutes, and hey presto, it turns a nice deep, rich brown colour. I’ll also post pics of the tote, pre-ebonising for you to have a look at.
Cheers
Aled
Large smoother update
Hi, it’s been a while but I have made some progress on my large smoothing plane.
I’d never made a plane handle before, so i decided to have a go with an offcut of beech, before commiting myself to something a little more interesting. I’m not quite sure what wood to use yet, but I’m thinking that a darker wood would look good against the brass sides, Walnut maybe? Bubinga? Cocobolo? Your comments would be most welcome. Also, where can I get hold of such small pieces of these timbers? I guess that woodturning blanks would be a good bet. I’d also like ideas as to what to do with the front bun.
The iron is yet to be hardened and tempered, but that shouldn’t take me too long. It’s massive, at a full 6mm thick, so chatter shouldn’t be much of an issue.
The lever cap is held in place using spring loaded pins, as Jim Kingshot documented in his book “Making and Modifying Woodworking Tools”.
Although the plane looks almost complete, there’s still a lot of shaping, tweaking and lapping to be done, I’m probably no more than half way through the build at the moment. Getting the infills to fit well is going to be quite a task!
Cheers
Aled
Large smoother
Hi,I’m still waiting for delivery of the Small Smoother sole plates, so I’ve finally got back onto my large smoother project, and have made some progress this week.
In building this plane, I decided to try out a different assembly technique, of screwing the sides of the plane to the sole, much in the way that Karl Holtey and Ron Brese do.
The length of the sole will be 215mm (8 1/2″) and the 6mm (1/4″) thick iron is 60mm (2 3/8″ ish) wide, set at a 50 degree pitch. The sole is made from 10mm Gauge Plate, and the sides are 5mm Brass. When I finish, I envisage this plane to weigh around 7 – 8 lbs, so it’s going to be a hefty bit of kit!!
Here’s a few pics of where I’ve got to so far.
The rear sole plate is my second attempt, as I managed to break two taps during the threading operation – this method of assembly is definately high risk! I’m unsure as to whether I’ll use this assembly method again, at the moment the risks far outweigh the gains.
The screw heads will be slighly countersunk, and then peined, before being filed and lapped. This “should” result in an almost invisible joint – here’s hoping!!
I’ve ordered a fine tooth bandsaw blade from Workshop Heaven, so the next job will be to cut the sides to shape, and then start thinking about shaping the lever cap, which incidentaly will be cut from a 12mm thick billet of brass. You’ll notice from my first picture that I’ve already made a lever cap screw, but I might tweak the design a little again, I find the flat face a little boring.
I hope to get a little more done this week.
Cheers
Aled
