Thread: More plane speaking...

As you may have noticed, for the last month or more I’ve been working on a number of plane-making projects. Doing several projects in succession gave me a bit of intensive metal-working time, which has made me (temporarily!) a bit more comfortable with the stuff, so it was only natural that when I had occasion to use my old shoulder plane the other day, I cast a critical eye over it.

I must have been pretty pleased with the result when I made it, because I sent a picture & some details to Fine Woodworking (early 80s), & they gave it a page in the mag (tried to look up the issue, but can’t get any sense out of their online index system!). This is the plane as originally made:

1 SP.jpg

The plane worked well enough & has given good service for 30-plus years, but it had a couple of flaws, and they have increasingly annoyed me to the point where I was seriously considering making a new one. But it occurred to me that at least some of the faults I saw could be easily addressed now that I have my small lathe and a little bit more experience. Some were indeed easy to fix, like the very shallow knurling on the knobs (done using a drill-press with a cobbled-up holder). The adjustable toe shoe was retained with a ¼” tank bolt, which was pretty ugly, and also easy to remedy. My design sense at the time was a bit under-developed, too, the lines don’t quite flow to my eye now. That was partly due to having to squeeze the sides out of some brass plate that was a bit narrow. Nothing much I could do about that, unfortunately.

What has irritated me most over the years were those very amateurish dovetails on the nose-piece. This was my first attempt at metal dovetailing & I was working with only the concept and a very rudimentary explanation in a book. I made a major mistake in not leaving enough extra metal to peen into the bevels, so there were obvious gaps after peening & filing. I filled them with solder, which made the joints sound enough, but even more obvious. I’d often thought about how I might fix that nose-piece, but it seemed like it would be easier to just make a new one, so I tried to ignore it whenever I used the plane.

Anyway, since I was doing quite a bit of lathe work for some of the other projects currently on the go, I thought I’d at least fix those wimpy knobs, and make a more attractive stud & knob for the toe piece so I wouldn’t have to reach for a screwdriver whenever the blade needed removing for sharpening: 2 SP.jpg

Of course, once you start something, it’s hard to stop halfway, so I made the decision to tackle that offending nose. I’ve been doing a fair bit of riveting lately, & it occurred to me that if I cut off the crappy D/Ts & removed a bit of the woodwork, I could slide in a new nose-piece & rivet it in place. If done carefully, all the joinery should disappear.

I reckoned I had nothing to lose other than 6mm of toe (or possibly the whole damn plane!), but no guts, no glory, so out with the jewellers’ saw & off with the nose. As the last shred of metal let go, the sides sprung apart a little & the infill popped out. This was a bit alarming, though not the first time I’ve had poor bonds between epoxy & brass, and having the wood out of the way made the rest of the job dead-easy, so it turned out to be a good thing. I was able to rivet in the new nose-piece, adjust the toe to fit in the slightly shorter space, and fit the new brass knob & stud, with no hassles. I added a decorative buffer to the toe and re-shaped things a bit, & overall, I think it looks a bit less amateurish now:: 4 SP.jpg 3 SP.jpg

And with the infill out of the way, I was also able to clean up the blade bed to finer tolerances than I’d originally managed to achieve. The blade was prone to jumping a little when setting, it would go from almost spot-on to over or under-set at the merest touch of the adjuster knob. This seems to have been due to a small high-spot under where the end of the wedge bears down, which showed up when I rubbed the inked blade over it. A bit of gentle filing seems to have eliminated that problem completely & it's now a lot easier to adjust for the fine cut these planes need to be able to make: 6 SP.jpg

I’m not quite satisfied with my treatment of the front – it seems a bit too tizzy when I look at it the day after, so I think I’ll have another go at that next time the mood strikes. I’ve also decided to go the whole hog & remake the adjuster thumbscrew using a bearing to engage the blade slot instead of a solid metal disc (a la the ‘Howard’ adjuster), so I’ve left the original as-is until I can get the right bearing (not too difficult, but the nearest well-stocked bearing place is a cut-lunch & full water-bottle drive from home, so it can wait ‘til I need to go in that direction for some other purpose).

I’m now very much happier with the old thing, it’s a better working tool, & I defy anyone who doesn’t know to figure out how the front piece is joined, now……

Cheers,