Thread: Wooden Soles for Router Planes

I temporarily added one to my Veritas router plane because I needed to span a wide gap; by using 3/8” hardwood there was very little flex and a spot of beeswax helped it glide. Effectively it made no real difference to the way the tool felt in use other than sitting slightly higher than normal.

Paul Sellers does this all the time.............Looks to work a treat

https://paulsellers.com/2015/12/router-plane-scarcity/

Regards Lou

That's who put me onto the idea, Lou. But I'm wondering if it's a common thing like attaching a wooden fence to you're metal plough or combination plane, or something that just Paul Sellers does.

I think we all try to be innovative and look for useful ways to improve our craftsmanship. Even Masters like the Unplugged Woodworker [Tom Fidgen] recommend using jigs for sharpening

I love trying to come up with anything that helps to improve the quality of my output. I'd even argue that this is a tradition Across all trades and craftsmanship. Some folk love jigs fixtures and other tips and tricks [that are almost like a magical third hand helping you along the way] others are purists seeing such folly as a weakness of craftsmanship or deficiency of skill

My view is have fun and choose whatever path works for you. I use honing guides jigs and fixtures all the time. I have a go at free hand sharpening but always find I end up messing up the bevel and going back to a honing guide [that always gives consistent results] Ive recently come to accept that I get the best results using a honing guide and have settled on this as my preferred method...................others choose to freehand they have steadier hands than I

High profile woodworkers like Pat Warner [From the router book FAME & FWW] made a living out of creating innovative jigs and fixtures ..................even better if we share our ideas every now and then someones bound to get something out of it or even improve the idea all part of the collective wisdom

Regards Lou

I had trouble controlling my stanley plane when I first bought it. It would dip down when I was ploughing across a void so I cut a piece of pine 10mm thick, 10" long by 3 1/2" wide and screwed it to the holes provided on the plane body exactly for this sub-plate purpose.
Photo attached shows how much increased surface area the plane has now.
Since then I've had no issues as the timber plate has greatly increased the contact area it has on the job at hand. Paul Sellars inspiration.

It's an old trick. Likely as old as router planes. There will often be a situation where the gap is too wide or with tenon cheeks no other side to the gap. I sometimes use a bit of wood of the same thickness to create the other side of the gap when doing tenons.
Regards
John

Originally Posted by orraloon

It's an old trick. Likely as old as router planes. .......
Regards
John

You are probably right, John.

In fact, it probably dates frpm when router planes were wooden !


Cheers

Graeme

Router planes have holes in them specifically for this purpose, so yeah...it's pretty much expected that you'll do it at some point

What elan said. Especially handy when finessing a large tenon or wide dado.