My Hand Planes

[cae2100]

Finally july 9th, so carving group was tonight, and I sure dulled out my whittling knife with as much as I removed off of that thing, lol. It still needs sanded, but it is pretty much right how I wanted it to look.

The handle is very comfortable, much more than I could have ever imagined tbh, lol. It's 10" all together with the infill in it, so it fits in the toolbox very happily. I did up the front bun/infill when I got home, which took a whole 2-3 mins, and then cut it down to make it fit how I wanted it to.

I still need to drill out the pockets in the bottom of it for the screw heads to slide around in over the keyholes, but that is easy enough to do really with a forsner bit or spade bit really. Then everything goes on pause till I get the soles done, which Im still looking around for the right pieces of wood for that. Once I put the wood infill into the plane, I no longer have access to the keyhole slots, so I need to get everything done up for the soles, so I can get the screws put in, in the right places and make sure everything slides perfectly.

I did get another lever cap forged out, which is a bit thicker, but Ill just machine that one parallel and to size, then it'll just be a matter of cutting it out and shaping it. That and the cross pin will be the last pieces to go in, so need to finish squaring up the mouth, get the bottoms/soles done up and fitted, cut up the blades and get those made to match the soles, lever cap, and final assembly.

Lots of progress so far it seems, lots of little things to go tho.

[Jammer]

Looks great! You could carve a little loch ness head on the handle.

[cae2100]

lol, I rather have it smooth than carved, and any carved stuff will pick up the oil/grime from my hand and embed itself down into the carving, and stand out like a sore thumb. A few people have mentioned carving some on my hand planes, but those lines/grooves being a catch all is a bit of a no go for me. Also I like the smooth surface to grip rather than all lumpy, so just rather sand it smooth and leave it smooth really.

I would say Im making alot of progress on the plane today, but other than going in to check on my dad a few times, making some slop, and eating way too much, I havnt really accomplished much of anything today really, lol. I need to cut down the other lever cap I had forged out, but Im out of cutoff disks and not sure if I have enough meat on one of the old disks to cut through it, lol. I might fiddle with it later tonight, but yea, got my belly full and now my ambition has taken off and took half of everything with it. I did check the infill and it's nice and square, 45, etc, so it's pretty much ready for going at the bottom with the file and getting everything fit together. I need to drill into the bottom of the infill for the keyhole slots, which I may do that here later tonight if I start filing on the mouth of it.

[cae2100]

A bit of a catch up here, I re-forged the plane blade blanks to try to shove the seam down into the blade a bit more and to flatten them out, which there was a bit of warp in them before. I went to machine them and it ate the piece of HSS that I was using, and did very little to the plane blade blanks, lol. That shows how hard and tough bed frame can get when hardened, lol.

I had this really really old jointer plane that had broken a number of years ago, and that I had gotten at an auction. It was in such bad shape that there really was no saving it, so I just kept it as stock to use for fixing other antique planes and such. I used a cutoff of it for making the wedge for that antique plow plane I restored a while back. Well, I cut it up and glued it back together to make a half a dozen bottoms/soles for this plane, and the bottoms are now ready to shape to the various radiuses Im after.

The infill was coated in boiled linseed oil and left to dry for a few days, then has I think 5 or 6 thin coats of shellac on it now. The infill was also laid out and drilled out around the keyhole slots with a forsner bit to allow for plenty of clearance for the domed head screws.

Now that we're caught up, I stuck the blades back in the forge, tying them all together using some bailing wire so they would heat up and cool down as one big block of steel rather than individual thin pieces, and just got them red hot and left them to cool down in the forge after closing up the front and back doors on it. They were machined up once again on the shaper and this time, they were like butter to machine, lol. I also machined the new lever cap so it was parallel and fits into the body of the plane nicely now. It just needs drilled out and cut up, then the groove cut in the front of it when it comes time.

The infill was put in, everything filed to fit perfectly and so the infill had a seamless transition between the steel of the body and the internals, and the screws for the soles were put in for attaching using the keyholes. The infill on this one isnt going to be epoxied and screwed in like usual, just screwed in and left as that way in case I ever need to remove the internals to work on making new bottoms/soles later on.

But here's what it looks like now.

Lots left out, but quite alot of progress, and it's starting to come together finally, lol. The lever cap will need to be laid out and drilled, then cut out, cross pin needs put in, soles need shaped still, and blades ground and shaped, then heat treated, etc, so lots to do, but it is starting to look like how I wanted it to, lol.

[Rasper]

Fascinating work. Keep posting. I have not posted much as I have not been in the shop or the foundry very much recently. I have been writing a novel.

Richard

[cae2100]

I try to, and with the heat and humidity we've been having here, being indoors and writing a novel sounds like a pretty good idea, lol.

The bottoms/soles were cut to length and ends trimmed up and cleaned up. The lines on the sides of the plane soles/bottoms, they were there for laying out the radiuses for the bottoms, so this morning, I took some cereal box and cut out some templates, transfered it to the soles/bottoms, and started going at it with the block plane, lol. Then I went over them with my cornering tool to round over all of the corners on it so it is comfortable to use and wont splinter/chip in use if it gets bumpped into something in use.

One flat one, a 2" radius, 2 1/2", 3", 3 1/2", and 4" radius bottoms, which they still need sanded, coated in BLO and waxed, but those parts are done for the most part.

Here's an example of something I would use it for, for cleaning up the insides of coopered parts, which these are the patterns for the corners for the vertical milling head's belt housing.

With this plane being much narrower than the other one, I can get into areas that the old one couldnt, and it opens alot more possibilities and makes it much more useful.

[cae2100]

whew, lots of stuff going on for this one...

Blades are ground, bottoms were coated in BLO and paste wax a few times, then stampped with the sizes along with the blades.

Blades were ground to shape, then they were stuck in the various soles and used a yellow mechanical pencil lead to draw on the backside of the blades for each shape, then ground to shape profile to match the bottoms.

Lever cap was laid out, drilled out, cut up with the angle grinder, then shaped to fit exactly what I wanted. It was then drilled for 1/4" thread for the thumbscrew/knob. I just stuck a hex bolt in it for a general idea really.

Knob was turned down out of some coil spring from a train that I had straightened out ages ago, just turned it down, trued running the knurling tool over it and it was more or less a lost cause really, lol. The steel was far too hard, and tool post moved more than the steel did, so it kinda double tracked the knurl a few times, but it just looks like a super fine knurl now. I cut it off with the angle grinder and then stuck it in the cordless drill and took it to the belt sander to rough shape it while spinning it in the drill, then used the slack part of the belt to finish up the profile and create a shallow domed face to it. I then took some sandpaper and held it in my hand while spinning the knob/thumbscrew in the drill to clean up all of the scratches from the belt sander, and finally to the wire wheel to clean up the sandpaper marks and give it an antique silver finish.

Then I laid out for the cross pin and drilled through the sides, and countersunk the holes. I then took the lever cap and found the position of the pin where I wanted it to be, laid it out, then took the angle grinder to the top face of it to cut a shallow groove across it. Took it to the shop and used a 1/4" round file to file the angle grinder groove open, just going down till it cleaned the groove up and the pin sit in it nicely. I had to go back and adjust it a little bit, but it was pretty close the first time. The thumbscrew/knob was cut down to length and end was ground into a cone shape, and pin was riveted in.

You can see why I wanted to shape the infill and lever cap and everything the way I did, that way the back of the knob's thread pushed on the infill just at the top of the plane body, and not above it, which would cause the blade to bow. Doing it that way makes for the most secure setup for clamping the blades in place, while keeping them nice and straight and against the mouths of the bottoms. If they had been bowed, then it might not be held that well and can slide up in use, and also could actually cause the blades to chatter in the cut, causing all kinds of wierd surface defects/problems.

Here's how it is laying over the original drawing to see how close it is, lol. I think it's pretty much spot on other than the infill being a little different, inset vs overstuffed, but it still looks great imo.

And since it's now all together, we cant skip the obligatory first shavings pic now can we?

I think that's probably all there is to do on that one. The blades still need heat treated and sharpened, but there is no difference in how it looks from now, so I wont bother updating for that one, lol. I would go out and do it real quick, but Im out of propane completely, so cant do it right now, so will have to wait on that.

[cae2100]

Finally some real pics of the plane showing what it looks like in the light, rather than the barely lit pics I had before, lol.

Also a pipe plane family picture, lol.

And finally at home where it belongs, in the toolbox.

.

I can say that it's officially all done.

[Jammer]

Light or dark, they look great!! When are you going into business?

[cae2100]

lol, I was actually going to take that little fish one up and sell it I think, along with a few others that I dont want/need tbh. I dont really use that little one, and it's just there for the pics really, so keep debating one way or the other on getting rid of it, lol. Right now, I could use the money for algonquin and a few other things, so Ill see how it goes.