Thread: A new chariot (more scraps!)

A few years ago, I made myself a baby chariot plane from scraps left over from other plane projects. It's a bit too "home-made" looking to my now more experienced eye : Original b.jpg Original a.jpg

But is perfectly functional & capable of fine work: Original c.jpg

Well, never having been one to leave well-enough alone, I decided to use some more leftovers to make a new one. My idea was to complement another chariot plane I'd made subsequently, with a longer toe (which necessitated splitting the sole to cut the mouth & a challenge I wanted to try): Chariot 2.jpg

I added the bells & whistles on that one, & it has a screw-tightened wedge and a (fairly basic) adjuster.

Sooo, my scrap pile had just the right-sized parts for a matching bull-nosed version based an the same width blade (35mm as used in the Stanley 61 1/2 & clones). I think I've bored you all enough with construction details, but just in case you're up for a little more, here's something that you might find useful.

To fit the adjuster stud, I wanted to include a back piece about 6mm thick in which to place the stud. I could have through-pinned the piece, but there isn't much room and I was afraid I'd end up with a pin right where I needed to drill the hole for the stud. So instead of drilling the pin/rivet holes all the way through, I used a method I've tried before. I drilled about 8mm into the cross piece and tapped it for a 3mm stud: Rivets tapping.jpg

Some 3mm brass rod was threaded to match, screwed in & cut off with about 2mm projecting above the surface. This was then peened into a counter-sink: Rivets projection.jpg

I've "destruction-tested" these rivets previously and they seem to hold just as well as all-the-way-through versions.

One advantage of attaching cross-pieces this way was I could fit the nose temporarily while I fiddled with the blade bed & got the mouth-opening sorted: Testing mouth.jpg

You simply can't get a file in to do any adjusting of the blade-bed once the nose is in place, so you have to get it right before attaching the nose. Once I had the mouth gap where I wanted it ( a touch less than 0.5mm), the nose was riveted in place the same way as the back piece: Rivets peened.jpg

With the most critical parts done, the wedge/handle was shaped (Macassar Ebony, in this case) & fitted and everything cleaned up for final assembly: Finished parts.jpg

The sole was lapped, and a test-run produced some nice fluffy shavings: Shavings.jpg

The adjuster is quite smooth. I used a 5mm stud (which has a pitch of 0.8mm), so it's reasonably easy to make fine adjustments. I made the wheel that engages the blade slot pretty sloppy so it doesn't bind & allows free lateral adjustment. It means a bit of backlash, but that's never bothered me. I take up the slack in the direction I want to move the blade before loosening the wedge, loosen the wedge enough, then move the blade as required.

So here's the new boy with the original: Chariots B_N.jpg

Number 1 has a sole 75mm long and blade 25mm wide, while #2 is is about 110mm long with a blade width of 35mm., which closely matches its companion. Here they are together for comparison: Chariot pair.jpg

The very observant among you might spot that apart from the wedge woods (the one on the left is figured Blackwood - makes it easier to tell them apart in the tool chest ), there is a difference in pitch of the blades, the new plane is pitched at 18 degrees, while the other is 15 deg. I've decided on 18 as a bit more practical, the end of the blade slope doesn't get quite as sharp & fragile (it's still pretty fragile). It seems a lot of the old mitres & shoulder planes were pitched in the 18-20 range - maybe that's why.

I may alter the wedge by taking a bit more off the top - the 'handle' part is a bit higher than I wanted, though it feels fine in use. I'll think about it a while before I take to it with saw & rasp. Meanwhile, it was happy to pose for a portrait.: Done b.jpg

One final point: I sort of knew this might happen, but I thought I could avoid it by being ultra-careful when peening the front dovetails on the sole. Because there is such a long, shallow bevel on the sole for the low-angle blade, the front part around the projecting pin is attached to the rest of the sole by a very thin sliver of steel. But only the back part needs peening to the sides, and I thought I'd placed that far enough back to be safe, but the front started to distort when I hammered the back of the pin. I cut a piece of steel the right width & wedged it between the front of the mouth, which helped a lot, but I still ended up with the pin on one side a bit distorted, and after filing it all flat, it's left a small dip on the edge of the sole. Oh well, it won't have any effect on the plane's function, it's just a small blemish I wish wasn't there.

Still acquiring experience - perfection is a ways off yet......

Cheers,