The LV kit plane update

[IanW]

Some of you may have seen the review I wrote on the LV plane kit in the last issue of AWR. The kit is reasonably priced and pretty easy to put together, though as I said in my review, there are a couple of steps that the instructions don't cover very well. In particular, they don't give you much detail about how to make the 'lever-cap' wedge, and I bumbled my way through that as best I could, but wasn't entirely happy with the result. The plane worked well enough on the test drive, but when I put it to serious work, I discovered a problem. The wedge loosens itself if you back off the depth setting, which is a nuisance, because if you are not being careful, the adjuster easily slews, which throws off the lateral adjustment.

Today I took a bit of time to investigate the problem & try to fix it. I considered making a metal lever cap, but rejected that for a number of reasons, one of which being that the holes in the sides for the brass cross-pin were in the wrong spot for lever-cap screws, & I would have to make brass inserts, large enough to fill those holes & give me enough room to drill new ones for the lever cap. That seemed like a lot of fuss, so after some head-scratching, I decided on a much simpler path. I just remade the wedge, but pre-drilled it so that when the end was cut away, there was a nice neat groove for the cross-pin to fit into, and lock in place when the thumb screw is tightened. Lever caps.jpg

Don't know why I didn't think of it first time. It's a bit of an odd shape, not a wedge, but a parallel piece with the front cut away so it can just slide under the cross-pin with the blade in place. I wanted to keep it as thick as I could so it doesn't bend when the thumbscrew is tightened. The blade has to go in first, because the spigot of the adjuster won't allow it to go in if the wedge is inserted first. A bit of careful planing of the back & shaping of the nose got it right, and it now locks firmly in place as soon as a bit of pressure is applied with the thumb screw. I can now make small adjustments to the depth of cut without losing tension or having my blade slew one way or the other. Less fine.jpg

When I wrote the review, I questioned the need for a depth adjuster at all on a simple woodie, and I would have been just as happy without it, but now that it's working a lot better, I am finding it convenient, because I find I do alter the depth of cut quite a bit when using this particular plane. The little coffin smoother I made a while ago is a 'set once & leave it there' plane, so I don't miss not having screw-operated depth adjustment on it. The two make a very handy pair for all sorts of small jobs.
small smoothers.jpg

Cheers,

[hiroller]

Maybe next issue you can try the HNT Gordon one for a comparison.
A little bit more expensive but more sophisticated.
http://www.hntgordon.com.au/kit-plan...-ts-blade.html

[IanW]

Maybe next issue you can try the HNT Gordon one for a comparison. ......

Unfortunately, I haven't been asked to do a test-run with HNT's kit, HR. It probably doesn't need any promotion....

.....A little bit more expensive...

Actually, if you add the extra freight, and wanted to use some special wood like the Gidgee Terry is offering with his kit, I don't think there'd be much difference, in the final analysis.

..... but more sophisticated.

Not sure what you mean by 'sophisticated'. I would call the LV kit more sophisticated, because it has that depth/lateral adjuster that has to be dealt with. It also requires a bit more sophisticated woodworking, cutting out all your own parts & making the slot & hole n the blade bed for the adjuster. As I said in the article, I really don't think a screw adjuster adds all that much to functionality in a wooden plane, but I'm coming from a few years experience of making & using planes, and I know the adjuster would have appealed to me 30-something years ago, & is likely to appeal to many.

Perhaps you are referring to the fact that the HNT kit really only needs to be assembled? There is nothing but a bit of hand work required, to arrive at what should be a pretty polished end-product. In fact, it looks like the only woodworking required is to clean up the glue joints and trim the locating dowels, and scrape/sand/polish to your desired finish. The whole process should take less than an hour, if you exclude glue-drying time.....

I haven't made a HNT kit, & so I can't directly compare, but I can think of some good reasons why I might choose the local product over the LV if I were considering making a small woodie. I don't think the difference in cost would be significant, by the time you pay freight & buy some special wood for the LV kit. It's home-grown if you like to buy Australian'. The wood you get in Terry's kit would have to be up there with the best. And basically, all you need to build it is a couple of clamps. For the LV kit, you have cut out all the bits, and make the receiver for the adjuster. It could all be done with hand tools, but a decent tablesaw & drill press make it soo much easier. Not a huge challenge for a skilled wood warrior, but I reckon the average person fairly new to w'working might struggle to get the accuracy required for best performance using hand tools alone.

Just my 2c,
Cheers,

[hiroller]

Maybe sophisticated is not the right word but while the HNT Gordon version misses the Norris adjuster, it has nicely shaped brass buttons with a flat which attach to the cheeks of the throat and form the abutment for the wedge. That and the allowance for a forked wedge to clear shavings informed my choice of word.
The wood is supplied has only the straight bits are cut and any shaping and customising thereafter would be a similar effort to the LV making a fair comparison.
Just a challenge I thought you might be up for.
I might even try it myself once I finish the vast array of never ending tasks for SWMBO.

[IanW]

Maybe sophisticated is not the right word but while the HNT Gordon version misses the Norris adjuster, it has nicely shaped brass buttons with a flat which attach to the cheeks of the throat and form the abutment for the wedge. That and the allowance for a forked wedge to clear shavings informed my choice of word.
The wood is supplied has only the straight bits are cut and any shaping and customising thereafter would be a similar effort to the LV making a fair comparison.
Just a challenge I thought you might be up for.
I might even try it myself once I finish the vast array of never ending tasks for SWMBO.

HR, I wasn't intending to be picky about your choice of words, it was just that the HNT kit struck me as less sophisticated, (but more user-friendly) than the LV, so I wanted to know what you meant, that was all.

I certainly agree that Terry's swivelling brass abutments are a sophistication, and streets ahead of the simple brass bar of the LV which provoked this thread. The concept isn't unique, there are plenty of precedents for wedge retainers that swivel (think of those lovely old metal mitre planes), but having them swivel independantly the way HNT makes them is novel, afaik. Relieving the wedge to allow more shavings room has a pretty long pedigree, too, but again, he takes his own approach to that.

For some reason, I was imagining the wood was partly shaped as well as cut out - I guess I was seduced by the pic of the finished item & didn't look at the actual (small!) kit pic properly. But it doesn't change my assertion that the finishing steps can be done pretty easily with basic hand tools. A couple of (decent ) rasps and a card scraper are about all you'd need.

I've got enough challenges to keep me happy for the moment, thanks! Without sounding too much like a tosser, I'd have to say making a laminated plane from the Gordon kit should actually be pretty straightforward. Digging out a solid-bodied woody with traditional fixed abutments in a wood like Gidgee is a challenge. Having done a couple of solid-bodied planes in really tough wood (one of which was a complete dog & ended up in MIL's fireplace), I can see why Mr. Gordon came up with the brass thingies for production runs!

Anyway, I have more planes than I really need already, but I confess, there is another in the pipeline. I started another metal-bodied infill over a year ago, but it hasn't progressed any further than setting out the 3 main body parts & rough-cutting them. Given the current size of my own 'to do' list, & that I've been called back to my old day-job for a while, it's likely to remain in its current state for some time to come.......

Cheers,

[shanesmith80]

Gday hiroller,

I'm certainly not in the same league as Ianw, but here is my attempt at the HNT Gordon Block plane.https://www.woodworkforums.com/showth...ght=hnt+gordon.

Overall it wasn't too hard but a fun experience. Since the post I have tuned it up a bit more and given it a few coats of BLO and it takes some nice shavings. I certainly recommend giving it a go for any one thinking of trying.

cheers.