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  1. #1
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    Default Coupla new planes

    I expected to see a deluge of infills after the "Great Plane Challenge" but there hasn't been so much as a scratch stock appear since it all finished. Whatsa matter, are you all tuckered out after the effort of making the deadline??

    So just to show that some of us don't slack off, here's a couple of new planes I finished recently.

    A smoother: Smthr 1.jpg

    And a panel plane: PP1a.jpg

    I didn't take many pics of the construction, I was busy doing other stuff & only worked on them whenever I had a bit of spare time & all I have to show for the building are a couple of "in progress" shots: Smth peening block.jpg PP & Smthr 1.jpg

    I made the blades & chip-breakers for both from some 3mm 1084, & had my usual circus heat-treating them. One blade came out nicely hard after quenching, so I didn't bother testing the second, but discovered after I'd cleaned it up & flattened the face that it didn't harden at all (blacksmithing is definitely not my long suite!). I took each to the same colour, checked with a strong magnet & quenched identically, but the second blade didn't harden (well, maybe slightly). Of course I didn't catch on until I'd cleaned them up & tempered them in the oven for 2 hrs & tried to sharpen them. One is fine, the other felt rather "gummy" on the stone, and when I tested the end that was supposed to be hard with a file, it was barely hardened at all. It wasn't dead soft as it was in the annealed state it came in, but a file was able to cut it, which it most certainly should not! So I cooked & quenched it again (I'm using the Canola oil I got for the last lot of blades), & this time all was well, except it bowed slightly at the business end & I spent about 2 hrs re-flattening it (I think it's a bit hard & needs re-tempering). It took a good 1/2 hour to get it like this: Blade sag.jpg

    Then another hour & a half to completely eliminate that low spot. But I got it there in the end and both planes are working ok. They are making decent shavings but still need a bit of fettling (mainly tweaking the cap-irons & the mouths, which are a bit too tight.


    But has anyone spotted anything odd?

    Neither plane is quite what you might have expected from the pics:

    PPs cf.jpg

    Smthrs cf.jpg

    IW

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  3. #2
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    Default

    Beautiful little miniatures there Ian! Just how small are the handles; I suspect only young schoolchildren would be able to hold them properly!
    Nothing succeeds like a budgie without a beak.

  4. #3
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    Hi Ian. Very impressive. This might be a bit left of field but I like the bolt holes you have created in the blades. They look very OEM. Are you making them smaller because you are running out of storage room?

  5. #4
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    Ian,
    Firstly was that a lame attempt at some weird revers psychology or something, if it makes you feel better I for one have been playing with some metal(saw backs).

    But now your planes look fantastic again tho , I wish you would do something ugly or horrible so we can rip into them.

    But why the size,your not shrinking up there are you ?.

    Cheers Matt.

  6. #5
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    I like the responses so far. No, I'm not running out of storage space, this is just a silly whim. I've made a few small tools over the last 10 years & one day I got the idea of building a complete miniature tool chest. I thought the idea would go away if I waited long enough, but it persisted, so I've been slowly adding to the collection ever since. I don't know if I'll ever get to a "complete" set (what does a complete set of tools look like?), but it's been a bit of fun.

    The tools are a bit inconsistent for scale, I'm afraid, I made a few that were 1/4 scale, but they are impossible to use, so I settled on somewhere between 1/3rd to 1/2 scale, which are generally useable. Chief, I think an 8 yr old could hold them with a "traditional" grip, but I can barely get a finger through the finger holes. However, they aren't too difficult to manage by holding the grip between thumb & first two fingers. For short bursts anyway, I don't think I'd be keen to use them all day!

    Funnily enough, the first mini planes I made are quite a bit smaller, but being "rear bun" style they are actually quite easy to hold....Palm.jpg


    Cheers,
    IW

  7. #6
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    As usual some fantastic work. I have to say that my brain was a bit slow. When I saw the picture with both the panel planes I thought the one in the background is the biggest infill ever made. It took a moment to realise that it was the other way around [emoji28]

    But on your first statement, don't you worry. I have a couple weeks off soon..... they're going to come. Although I doubt that they'll be as nice.

    Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

  8. #7
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    Very nice Ian, small planes do have their uses. I have one of the Veritas miniature block planes and use it a lot for strip beveling when building kayaks. Using it is easy but sharpening is a nightmare. How big - or should I say how small - are the blades on yours?

    As for post challenge activities, some entrants may be too busy using their creations to make any more. Personally I've been making extensive use of my shooting plane but also managed to knock up 2 more wood bodied planes (no infills yet) for specific purposes.
    Cheers, Bob the labrat

    Measure once and.... the phone rings!

  9. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by labr@ View Post
    .... How big - or should I say how small - are the blades..... ?
    Bob, the smoother blade is 30mm x 100 & the panel plane blade is 34 x 110mm so they aren't much different from a regular block plane blade & not at all difficult to hold for sharpening. However, I know what you mean about small blades, my little finger planes have tiny blades that are very difficult to hold in fingers. What I've done is make a couple of holders about the size of a regular blade, but thicker. I cut a kerf in the end so I can firmly jam the blade in it, & that makes the job a doddle...

    Been doing my spokeshave blades this way for donkey's years, & I'm pretty sure I got the idea from someone else, probably a very early FWW...

    Cheers,
    Ian
    IW

  10. #9
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    They are great Ian but be careful, you may be treading on the toes of someone we know from the West. He might think it's his thing, combining shrinking and woodworking.

  11. #10
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    Ian

    Very nice looking planes again. What is the timber? It looks like Cooktown Ironwood, but I suppose it will be something else.

    Regards
    Paul
    Bushmiller;

    "Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"

  12. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bushmiller View Post
    ...What is the timber? It looks like Cooktown Ironwood, but I suppose it will be something else....l
    Yep, you're correct, Paul... it's something else. The wood is Acacia rhodoxylon, aka "Western rosewood". It's a difficult wood to dry in reasonable-sized chunks (doesn't come in terribly large sizes, actually) without internal splits everywhere, and not easy to work - I can never figure out which way the grain is going, but "every way" is typical. However, whining aside, it scrapes & sands easily to a beautiful lustre, it's like working with ebony when you get to the finishing stages...

    Apologies for not including much info in the first post, I was too intent on trying to fool everyone into thinking they are full-size. ....
    Cheers,
    Ian
    IW

  13. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by IanW View Post

    Apologies for not including much info in the first post, I was too intent on trying to fool everyone into thinking they are full-size. ....
    Cheers,
    Ian
    And you did that very well. I went over the pictures again to see if I should have been able to notice something. But they are scaled and executed so perfectly. That is art to make small things such a way that they look like the real thing when taking close up pictures. I love it.

    Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

  14. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cklett View Post
    .... I went over the pictures again to see if I should have been able to notice something. But they are scaled and executed so perfectly......
    I was planning to include a few more clues, but it's been a bit crazy round our place this past week, so I was posting in a bit of a hurry.

    But it's true that making models to scale isn't always easy. I tried doing the woodwork from measurements taken from my "full-sized" planes, but got lost with the complex shapes. I could have shrunk one of my drawings of a full-size profile with the photo-copier & made a template from that, but in the end I just drew the profiles actual size on gridded paper & traced the handle templates from the drawings. I've made enough planes that I can get the proportions pretty right by eye on a drawing but I would have struggled years ago - I vaguely remember spending several weekends trying to get my first saw handle to look like a 'proper' handle!

    I can see this miniature tool business becoming a deep rabbit hole! Until these two planes, I've stuck to small tools made(usually) for a particular purpose and wasn't too worried about keeping proportions just so, but these were an attempt to replicate a couple of full-sized tools just for the challenge. If you want a tool to be functional, it may be necessary to deliberately alter the proportions. For example, in the case of the little saw I made last year, I made the blade part half-size, but the handle more like 3/4 size, so I could use it for the small jobs I thought it might do well (it does!):
    Mini b.jpg

    I think what started my fascination with mini tools was discovering how useful the mini rear-bun smoother is: Planes.jpg:

    And the little shoulder plane is very useful (especially when making miniature tools! : ) SPs.jpg

    Other tools like my mini marking gauges were made for particular jobs, but turned out to be more useful than I anticipated.

    The mini-tools have sort of grown to a small 'collection', which was partly what started me thinking about making a new chest to store them so they can all live happily together: Mini tools.jpg

    However, there are too many other things demanding attention, so the mini toolbox could be some time (years!) away. In the meantime, because the planes are so small, I've been able to squeeze them all into odd places in my main tool cupboard, but I think we're approaching the limits, I don't want it to get quite as crowded as Mr. Studley's effort...
    Planes re-arranged.jpg


    Cheers,
    IW

  15. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by IanW View Post
    I think what started my fascination with mini tools was discovering how useful the mini rear-bun smoother is:
    Yeah, I reakon one of these would be very handy. One day.

  16. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Picko View Post
    Yeah, I reakon one of these would be very handy. One day.
    I reckon you'd have no problems, me lad. Time is your only impediment, I suspect.

    The most fiddly part of a very small plane for me, is making those little dovetails in front of the mouth. To clean them up after sawing with the jewellers' saw, I ground the teeth flat on two edges off a EST 5" file (an old saw file with worn corners but plenty of life left in the centres if the teeth. That gets very neatly into the corners - it's amazing how little metal it takes to prevent the tails sliding onto the pins.

    Material costs are minimal - you can get 100 x 100mm sheets of 2.5mm brass on ebay for prices ranging from $12-18 depending on whom you buy from & how quickly you want it delivered and same size sheets of 4mm stainless steel for around the same price. SS is a little bit harder on saw blades & files & a little bit tougher to peen than mild steel, but you'll hardly notice it on a little plane (you will on a full-size job!). Which reminds me, I used all but one of my decent jewellers' saw blades on this project. Been trying to buy more, but for some reason, none of the usual suppliers has anything coarser than #4 in stock in "good" brands and I much prefer 6s or 7s. I can vouch it's not worth wasting your $$s on the cheapies, they cut about 5mm in SS before giving up and struggle to go much further in brass whereas Glardons or Pikes or Eberles will saw 70 -100mm no probs...

    Cheers,
    IW

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