I think they turned out really nice, and the surface finish on them is really good. But they go in a drill press and get used similar to the old rotary planers or safe-t-planers that you used to see, but those leave a horrible finish and isnt good for shallow cuts, where as these are supposed to give a pretty good surface finish and excel at small depth of cuts. It's used mostly for flattening stock and getting it perfectly parallel for making patterns with.
My Hand Planes
Re: My Hand Planes
Finished the safety sanders, the one was a failure, so Im just giving it away to a friend. The A on the one filled in and I had multiple patterns in the same flask, and didnt feel like dumping it all back out just to fix that one pattern, so just decided I'd just remelt it, but took it to carving group and the one guy said he'd like to try it out and I just machined it up for him.
I think they turned out really nice, and the surface finish on them is really good. But they go in a drill press and get used similar to the old rotary planers or safe-t-planers that you used to see, but those leave a horrible finish and isnt good for shallow cuts, where as these are supposed to give a pretty good surface finish and excel at small depth of cuts. It's used mostly for flattening stock and getting it perfectly parallel for making patterns with.
I think they turned out really nice, and the surface finish on them is really good. But they go in a drill press and get used similar to the old rotary planers or safe-t-planers that you used to see, but those leave a horrible finish and isnt good for shallow cuts, where as these are supposed to give a pretty good surface finish and excel at small depth of cuts. It's used mostly for flattening stock and getting it perfectly parallel for making patterns with.
Re: My Hand Planes
another little bit straying from hand planes post, but it is still woodworking, lol.
I machined up the new bracket casting for the bandsaw and got it all back together and working. The old one was really bad and I could really tell how bad it was when I got the new one installed. The tracking knob was almost maxed out before on travel, now it's just where it needs to be and everything runs so much smoother.
Now that that's fixed, I can work on patterns again, but I also do need to fix up the blade guides on it too, which were completely trashed when I got it. They were made from the same alloy, whatever pot metal they had used, and they just crumbled under finger pressure, so I think it was some zamak alloy, but probably had some lead contamination in it, which made it stupidly weak. On top of that, the castings were made extremely thin, so it was only a matter of time before it all just fell apart tbh.
All in all, it works pretty good now and I never have to worry about that part breaking on me again, lol.
I machined up the new bracket casting for the bandsaw and got it all back together and working. The old one was really bad and I could really tell how bad it was when I got the new one installed. The tracking knob was almost maxed out before on travel, now it's just where it needs to be and everything runs so much smoother.
All in all, it works pretty good now and I never have to worry about that part breaking on me again, lol.
Re: My Hand Planes
I did try to pour the chariot plane, which I was really surprised by because it was so tight of tollerances that everything lined up perfectly between the corebox/core and the pattern itself, lol. I say I did try to pour it because the brass was too cold and didnt want to flow into the details I tried pouring one in brass, and one in silicon bronze, and I think both were too cold tbh, but Ill just remelt them and try them again. I had far too large of risers on everything and it ate up more metal than I expected, so that didnt help either... I also tried pouring the fence for the shooting plane in brass from the same pour, and being too cold, it was a failure also.
All of the patterns pulled from the sand so easily that the pins come apart easily on the plane pattern, but the pattern kept falling out of the sand under it's own weight, which thankfully resulted in perfectly clean sand molds every time.
The corebox was interesting to ram up and gas, but after a few mins of redoing my co2 bottles and such, it made it far easier and those issues are solved. I also put a long cloth covered hose from an airbrush on it too, so I can pull the hose over and gas the cores without fighting with hoses and such anymore. Lots of little improvements, little by little, lol.
You can see across the plane that after cleaning up some of the flashing that flowed around the core, there was virtually no difference between the bridge pin, and the outside of the casting. The fence pattern had some alphabet pasta letters on it, just trying to see how they would pull from the sand, and they pulled perfectly fine.
I was hoping to redo those cores and pour them yesterday and today, but was out working in the shop on fixing something and my dad came over and said to lock everything up, there was an active shooter in the area and to just lock everything down. I locked the doors in the shop and kept hearing all of the helicopters flying over and such, which I dont think they found the guy still, but as soon as things clear up, Ill go back out and make up some more cores and such and get it all ready to try again.
Seeing how the areas on the castings had issues, I saw how I needed to gate it better and eliminate some of the issues, so hopefully I can get back out there and give it another try sometime soon. Even from the failed castings, I can tell that they're going to be very comfortable planes and will work perfectly for what I was needing.
All of the patterns pulled from the sand so easily that the pins come apart easily on the plane pattern, but the pattern kept falling out of the sand under it's own weight, which thankfully resulted in perfectly clean sand molds every time.
You can see across the plane that after cleaning up some of the flashing that flowed around the core, there was virtually no difference between the bridge pin, and the outside of the casting. The fence pattern had some alphabet pasta letters on it, just trying to see how they would pull from the sand, and they pulled perfectly fine.
I was hoping to redo those cores and pour them yesterday and today, but was out working in the shop on fixing something and my dad came over and said to lock everything up, there was an active shooter in the area and to just lock everything down. I locked the doors in the shop and kept hearing all of the helicopters flying over and such, which I dont think they found the guy still, but as soon as things clear up, Ill go back out and make up some more cores and such and get it all ready to try again.
Seeing how the areas on the castings had issues, I saw how I needed to gate it better and eliminate some of the issues, so hopefully I can get back out there and give it another try sometime soon. Even from the failed castings, I can tell that they're going to be very comfortable planes and will work perfectly for what I was needing.
Re: My Hand Planes
Well, I had another go at the planes and shooting fence, and finally got one, even tho the brass was being a bit more finicky this time I think. It was being poured after dark, so it was harder to judge the temps, even tho it seemed alot hotter, and actually did flow into the mold completely this time.
The bronze flowed in very nicely and resulted in a very nice casting, where as the brass was still fighting me and wanted to act like hot taffy again as usual. Ive always struggled with brass, and no matter what Ive tried, it just refuses to cooperate for me. I can do iron and pretty much any other alloy/metal out there, but brass just hates me I think, lol. Either way, the shooting plane fence will be machined up, then painted black with a few other castings recently, so any defects, I can just fill them in really before the paint tbh.
I wanted the chariot plane because it was such a challenge, and I needed a plane with smaller front toe on it, fits into your hand nicely, and had straight and parallel sides, without being too large. I was going to make a plane to do checkering, and this seemed like the plane that would fit all of the criteria that I was looking for. The challenge was that the plane cant pull from the sand normally because there's a pin that's cast into it and runs across the top of the plane, but because that is there, it wont pull from the sand normally, so it has to be done through a core. The pattern created the outside of the plane, and the corebox created all of the internals and inner workings, and everything had to match perfectly for it to work right.
I did a video on it and was fighting with the brass, but here's the link if anyone is interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyXEMljWxXw
I wanted the chariot plane because it was such a challenge, and I needed a plane with smaller front toe on it, fits into your hand nicely, and had straight and parallel sides, without being too large. I was going to make a plane to do checkering, and this seemed like the plane that would fit all of the criteria that I was looking for. The challenge was that the plane cant pull from the sand normally because there's a pin that's cast into it and runs across the top of the plane, but because that is there, it wont pull from the sand normally, so it has to be done through a core. The pattern created the outside of the plane, and the corebox created all of the internals and inner workings, and everything had to match perfectly for it to work right.
I did a video on it and was fighting with the brass, but here's the link if anyone is interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyXEMljWxXw
Re: My Hand Planes
Thanks. Ive been wanting this plane for a while and finally getting one is pretty cool, and really showed how far Ive come with the patternmaking stuff, lol.
The plane will become the checkering plane I was wanting to make, which just cuts a string of V grooves in the surface of the wood, which I needed a lower angle plane, which I believe this one was 20 degrees, which makes the plane a bevel up plane, and needed parallel sides so I could use a square to start the lines at 45 degrees or 90 degrees on the board so it gives nicely shaped diamonds/checkering pattern.
The idea was to have kinda like a toothing plane or scraper plane, where the angle of the cutting edge is very high and it will cause it act as a scraper rather than a cutter, so it would just remove a super tiny amount at a time. But to do that with a V profile like I wanted, the teeth would have to be on the very end of the blade and sharpening it would be a nightmare. I couldnt just put the V profile on the front of the blade because it would just act as tiny wedges and split the wood apart rather than cutting the profile, and wouldnt work very well at all. I thought about it and realized if I put the blade at a lower angle, and put the V grooves on the plane blade and then flipped the blade over so they were down, when I ground a bevel angle on the top, it would cut the perfect V profile, and would be super simple to sharpen it in the future. So I needed the lower angle blade to do that, then Ill just cut the same V grooves on the bottom of the plane as the blade, which will line up with the teeth on the blade and index into the lines that are being cut and just keep going deeper and deeper in the same lines till it cant go any deeper and then stop cutting. From there, I could move the plane over, index those cut V grooves with the ones in the plane, and continue cutting across the board to get the same depth lines all the way across it.
With this plane, it would have a 1 1/4" wide blade, and I was going 16 lines per inch, so 1/16" per tips of the diamonds, so instead of the checkering tools that has to do one line at a time and it was hit or miss if you could get it all to the right depth, these would do 20 lines at a time and it would be perfectly spaced and to the right depth on every one. Being made so it acts like a scraper plane or toothing plane's angle on the bevel angle, it'd be very gentle cutting action, so the tiny diamonds that are sticking up as they're being cut, it'd act as a scraper and not want to tear those diamonds/checkering pattern out like I was running into with the checkering tools, while the bottom of the plane rides in the grooves being cut and prevents the blade from going very deep and acting aggressive.
All in all, it's kinda like a custom molding plane that cuts the checkering, and does 1 1/4" wide passes each time you step over, which would take maybe a half a dozen passes to get to depth. One side of the mouth of the plane will have the V grooves spaced out exactly with the blade, and the other side of the mouth of it will be machined off so it is level with the top of the V grooves, that way the V groove side indexes with existing V grooves cut in the wood without any chance of it cutting in, and the other side will go on the uncut wood, so it will cut down the depth of the teeth, then it rests on the uncut wood with the to depth side, and just stop cutting. That'll act as a depth stop so that every single tooth will be cut to exactly same depth across the board, and due to the indexing of previous lines, it'll make them perfectly parallel and give a nice clean checkering quickly and easily.
That's the idea for the checkering plane anyways, and why I needed a smaller plane with that size of blade, lower angle like that or a block plane has, and why I needed the parallel sides, so I can use it with a square/ruler to get the lines started perfectly. That checkering plane literally hit all of the check boxes that I was after, and the design was interesting to me too, along with it being a very challenging one for patternmaking, so it seemed like a perfect choice to me, lol. I really like the way it feels in the hand and I really do think Ill be making some more as a daily use block plane tbh, lol.
The plane will become the checkering plane I was wanting to make, which just cuts a string of V grooves in the surface of the wood, which I needed a lower angle plane, which I believe this one was 20 degrees, which makes the plane a bevel up plane, and needed parallel sides so I could use a square to start the lines at 45 degrees or 90 degrees on the board so it gives nicely shaped diamonds/checkering pattern.
The idea was to have kinda like a toothing plane or scraper plane, where the angle of the cutting edge is very high and it will cause it act as a scraper rather than a cutter, so it would just remove a super tiny amount at a time. But to do that with a V profile like I wanted, the teeth would have to be on the very end of the blade and sharpening it would be a nightmare. I couldnt just put the V profile on the front of the blade because it would just act as tiny wedges and split the wood apart rather than cutting the profile, and wouldnt work very well at all. I thought about it and realized if I put the blade at a lower angle, and put the V grooves on the plane blade and then flipped the blade over so they were down, when I ground a bevel angle on the top, it would cut the perfect V profile, and would be super simple to sharpen it in the future. So I needed the lower angle blade to do that, then Ill just cut the same V grooves on the bottom of the plane as the blade, which will line up with the teeth on the blade and index into the lines that are being cut and just keep going deeper and deeper in the same lines till it cant go any deeper and then stop cutting. From there, I could move the plane over, index those cut V grooves with the ones in the plane, and continue cutting across the board to get the same depth lines all the way across it.
With this plane, it would have a 1 1/4" wide blade, and I was going 16 lines per inch, so 1/16" per tips of the diamonds, so instead of the checkering tools that has to do one line at a time and it was hit or miss if you could get it all to the right depth, these would do 20 lines at a time and it would be perfectly spaced and to the right depth on every one. Being made so it acts like a scraper plane or toothing plane's angle on the bevel angle, it'd be very gentle cutting action, so the tiny diamonds that are sticking up as they're being cut, it'd act as a scraper and not want to tear those diamonds/checkering pattern out like I was running into with the checkering tools, while the bottom of the plane rides in the grooves being cut and prevents the blade from going very deep and acting aggressive.
All in all, it's kinda like a custom molding plane that cuts the checkering, and does 1 1/4" wide passes each time you step over, which would take maybe a half a dozen passes to get to depth. One side of the mouth of the plane will have the V grooves spaced out exactly with the blade, and the other side of the mouth of it will be machined off so it is level with the top of the V grooves, that way the V groove side indexes with existing V grooves cut in the wood without any chance of it cutting in, and the other side will go on the uncut wood, so it will cut down the depth of the teeth, then it rests on the uncut wood with the to depth side, and just stop cutting. That'll act as a depth stop so that every single tooth will be cut to exactly same depth across the board, and due to the indexing of previous lines, it'll make them perfectly parallel and give a nice clean checkering quickly and easily.
That's the idea for the checkering plane anyways, and why I needed a smaller plane with that size of blade, lower angle like that or a block plane has, and why I needed the parallel sides, so I can use it with a square/ruler to get the lines started perfectly. That checkering plane literally hit all of the check boxes that I was after, and the design was interesting to me too, along with it being a very challenging one for patternmaking, so it seemed like a perfect choice to me, lol. I really like the way it feels in the hand and I really do think Ill be making some more as a daily use block plane tbh, lol.
Re: My Hand Planes
I finally finished these up, the blades still need heat treated, and kinda half debating if I want to make up some cheese head bolts for them, but it really doesnt matter really, lol. They cut a 6 degree taper cone, 3 degrees each side, and work just like a massive pencil sharpener. The idea was to take a dowel rod, turn it into these and it'll cut a perfect taper on the end of the dowel rod to the length/depth you want, and then you would just cut it off with around 1/4" full size of the dowel rod and drill into the pattern 1/4", and glue it in place. Doing that, I can just put the rest of the dowel back in the box/bin of dowels and there's really no waste, unlike doing them on the lathe, which the whole block of wood would have to be turned down and ends would have to be cut off. That and I can use these in the basement during the winter months when it's below freezing out and I dont have to worry about freezing my fingers off trying to turn stand offs or posts for patterns in the middle of winter, lol.
There's 4 sizes right now, 3/8", 1/2", 5/8", and 3/4", which larger sizes, I can make up easily enough on the belt grinder, and I have plenty of blanks for the blades left over to make 7/8" and 1" sizes, just need to make the blanks, lol. I didnt have the wood at the time, so I just said forget about them, and those sizes dont get used very often at all really.
I keep debating if I want to make up some cheese head bolts again and swap those out, but it really doesnt matter and is just cosmetic really. If the slot starts to strip out, Ill do it since I know my cheese head bolts wont strip out, lol.
There's 4 sizes right now, 3/8", 1/2", 5/8", and 3/4", which larger sizes, I can make up easily enough on the belt grinder, and I have plenty of blanks for the blades left over to make 7/8" and 1" sizes, just need to make the blanks, lol. I didnt have the wood at the time, so I just said forget about them, and those sizes dont get used very often at all really.
Re: My Hand Planes
Tapering planes are finally done after all of this time, the blades were heat treated and flattened, sharpened, and they were put back together. All but one of them worked flawlessly right from the start, but one needed a little adjustment to drop the blade/cutter depth down a few thou, then it started working flawlessly too. They cut a very smooth surface on the dowel rods, and really only needs a light sanding to get it the rest of the way, which is 10-15 seconds really, then they're ready to cut off and put on patterns from there. They were coated in beeswax paste, and put in the toolbox after drying for a few days to let the wax harden up, so now they're fully ready to use whenever I need them.
I thought about making some dowel making planes/rounding planes, which are honestly stupidly simple compared to these, and then I can convert all of my scraps over to dowel rods in a matter of no time at all. Then I can just throw them in a jar at the workbench and grab one out in the size I want, when I need one. They're litterally just a block of wood with a hole drilled in it, and a countersunk hole at the start with the blade cutting part into the countersink area, and rest is left alone. Alot of them I see is just it cut down and a chisel or plane blade is stuck on top of it at an angle tbh.
Right now, I have another project going on that needs done first, then Ill get back to working on that stuff after the end of the month probably.
I thought about making some dowel making planes/rounding planes, which are honestly stupidly simple compared to these, and then I can convert all of my scraps over to dowel rods in a matter of no time at all. Then I can just throw them in a jar at the workbench and grab one out in the size I want, when I need one. They're litterally just a block of wood with a hole drilled in it, and a countersunk hole at the start with the blade cutting part into the countersink area, and rest is left alone. Alot of them I see is just it cut down and a chisel or plane blade is stuck on top of it at an angle tbh.
Right now, I have another project going on that needs done first, then Ill get back to working on that stuff after the end of the month probably.
Re: My Hand Planes
You could make some threading dies for wood dowels. They come in handy sometimes.
Re: My Hand Planes
lol, funny you say that, I actually have one that I was working on yesterday, lol. I believe it says made in west germany, but is 3/4"-5 thread box and I have the tap to go with it. The problem is, I could never get the stupid thing to work right, lol. I tried sharpening it yesterday and it just refuses to work at all for me. The person who had it before me put a new cutter in it and it was sticking into the thread box so far that it was just tearing everything up, and it looked like they went at the bit with an angle grinder disk tbh. Ive thought about trying to make a new one, but not sure how much I would really use it tbh, lol. I thought about making an acme thread version of it, but for that much work, I thought about just making a router version tbh.
That one is for a drill press, but it would honestly be better for it to be for the router, the higher speeds would translate out to having smoother threads, and the bits would be pretty easy to make since they're really just D bits tbh. I was thinking of getting the 3/4"-5 acme done because thats what broom handle threads are, then when you break or wear out a broom handle and it will no longer stay in the hole, then I can just cut off the damaged part, thread a little more, and stick it back in the broom, lol.
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