Thread: Noddy's Hotrod - low angle wedged wooden block plane

Firstly ... ... that is a very cool look ... Thunderbird 6 ?

Second ... if you ever did want to do any mouth tightening, perhaps a little strip of brass inlaid?

Third ... I previously prepostulated that maybe the japanese relieve their plane soles behind the iron to protect that section???

Cheers,
Paul

Cheers

It's mainly intended as a plane for use with a shooting board so I figured a flat sole would be the practical option, so it can ride along the fence. I see what you mean though.

That's not a chip on the blade BTW, just fluff or something.

After a few weeks of pretty heavy use Noddy's Car is still doing wonderfully. No problems with the sole and I long ago stopped molly coddling it. I don't know what I did without it now.

Here's the obligatory pic with a gob full of thin little shavings and one showing it's sole/mouth still in fine fettle.

If anyone were to make a similar plane the only tip would be that when the blade and wedge are first driven home the sole does indeed bulge by a fraction of a mil, enough to make it skate rather than cut. The remedy was simply to back the blade into the mouth, tighten everything up and lap the little bulge flat. Everything has stayed put and works a charm.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1361450097.483414.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1361451013.351168.jpg

Berlin,
Well you put your money where your mouth is and have done it in style. A really good looking plane and looks like it works well.
Prompted by the discussion and your intent to make a low angle wooden plane I had a go at a 35* bed bevel down miter plane with the recent blade sale on this forum. I ran into a few problems and learned some lessons too. The blade being very polished and not tapered results in it slipping out behind the wedge. I may try etch primer to give it some grip. Ill keep it away from the flat back near the edge. It has been on the shelf these last few weeks awaiting renewed motivation. I guess for a first go I should have stuck with a 45* bed.
Anyhow you showed a real low angle can be done.
Regards
John

Yep, I can vouch for the fact that Matt's plane works. I think we all need to do some good research on wedge vs blade angles, both to impove holding & make setting a little easier. My little Cooktown Ironwood smoother is a great little tool, but a beast to set accurately. I spend several frustrating minutes each time I have to set it, going between a slightly coarse cut & a few feathers of fluff, but slowly zero in on the sweet spot. I think my setting woes are exacerbated by the high (60*) blade angle, which means a bigger response to a slight advance. Fortunately, both Matt's & my planes are 'set & forget' types, so once you get them cutting sweetly, they are fine, at least for the rest of the day, if there are no sudden humidity changes!

John, rather than etching, a few wipes with 400 grit paper at 90* to the long axis may help with 'grip', but another useful technique is to crush a bit of resin & rub that on blade & bed - gives it great tack. Don't know where you buy resin nowadays, my supply came from a chemist, way back when they sold such stuff. Probably instrument stores - do fiddlers still rub resin on their bows?

Cheers,

Thanks IW. I will try roughing it up. Ill have to leave about an inch of the back near the edge but I wont use that much in my lifetime. It has got me thinking about the old plane irons that were left with the black forge scale on them and not polished up. It may have been for practical reasons.
Regards
John

Originally Posted by orraloon

Berlin,
Well you put your money where your mouth is and have done it in style. A really good looking plane and looks like it works well.
Prompted by the discussion and your intent to make a low angle wooden plane I had a go at a 35* bed bevel down miter plane with the recent blade sale on this forum. I ran into a few problems and learned some lessons too. The blade being very polished and not tapered results in it slipping out behind the wedge. I may try etch primer to give it some grip. Ill keep it away from the flat back near the edge. It has been on the shelf these last few weeks awaiting renewed motivation. I guess for a first go I should have stuck with a 45* bed.
Anyhow you showed a real low angle can be done.
Regards
John

Thanks, John. I had great fun with this plane and while I was fairly prepared for it not to work, the fact it functions so well it has become indispensable is a very nice outcome.

I'd love to see your plane,Jonh.

What sort of ratio did you use for the wedge? This is not a Kosher fix for a slipping wedge but if you put a 30mm o-ring between the wedge and blade it won't budge. I did this to check my plane with an ill fitting mock-up wedge.

You can definitely still get rosin for stringed instruments which is a much classier fix.

Cheers
Matt

Originally Posted by IanW

Yep, I can vouch for the fact that Matt's plane works. I think we all need to do some good research on wedge vs blade angles, both to impove holding & make setting a little easier. My little Cooktown Ironwood smoother is a great little tool, but a beast to set accurately. I spend several frustrating minutes each time I have to set it, going between a slightly coarse cut & a few feathers of fluff, but slowly zero in on the sweet spot. I think my setting woes are exacerbated by the high (60*) blade angle, which means a bigger response to a slight advance. Fortunately, both Matt's & my planes are 'set & forget' types, so once you get them cutting sweetly, they are fine, at least for the rest of the day, if there are no sudden humidity changes.

It is a bugger to set just so, Ian. But as you say, once it's set it's right for the rest of the day. I haven't had any problem with the too wide mouth either. On the contrary, I like that all the crunchy eucalypt shavings don't clog the thing up, it just trucks on.

Matt

Matt ... did you already have a low-angle iron (block?) plane to compare it with?

and if so ... what do you think between the two?

Thanks,
Paul

Originally Posted by pmcgee

Matt ... did you already have a low-angle iron (block?) plane to compare it with?

and if so ... what do you think between the two?

Thanks,
Paul

Paul, I have two stanleys, a 9 1/2 and a 220 maybe? I can't remember. They live at my brother's place with most of my stanely/bailey types. I have to say that having made this one makes me a little too partial to be a good judge but I'm not in any hurry to go back to the others. It's harder to set, although I've got the hang of it now, but it is much more comfortable to hold and it may be my imagination but the thicker blade seems to cut more cleanly than the thin stanley blades I have.

In someone else's less biased hands it may be different but I like it better and the proof is I use it much more than I ever used the other 2.

Oh! ... and what angle did you put on the bevel?

- - -
I just looked at it again and noticed where the iron comes to.

Is that the issue with the adjustment? That the wedge 'overshadows' the iron? (vs having a a longer iron that protrudes further out the back)

or is is just a process of learning - for this particular plane - how much tappity-tap results in how much movement of the iron?

Paul

(I am familiar with the scenario of ... Tap-tap. Nope. Tap-tap. Nope. Tap-tap-tap. Nope. TAP. Nope. TAP-tap. Dammit - too far. )

Berlin,
I am tied up with a bench build at the moment but when I get back to the plane I will post some picks. It actually works when the iron stays wedged.
Regards
John

Originally Posted by pmcgee

Oh! ... and what angle did you put on the bevel?

- - -
I just looked at it again and noticed where the iron comes to.

Is that the issue with the adjustment? That the wedge 'overshadows' the iron? (vs having a a longer iron that protrudes further out the back)

or is is just a process of learning - for this particular plane - how much tappity-tap results in how much movement of the iron?

Paul

(I am familiar with the scenario of ... Tap-tap. Nope. Tap-tap. Nope. Tap-tap-tap. Nope. TAP. Nope. TAP-tap. Dammit - too far. )

12 degree bevel + 30 degree honing angle. Frankly, i have stanleys with so much back lash that they are more unpredictable than my 'tap and try' planes. Of course the 'try' in 'tap and try' as a term really only applies to people who don't use wedged planes routinely because the tapping becomes as accurate as the twisting of a screw with practice.

I've tweeked the shape on this plane a fair bit to make it more comfortable in the hand and to make the wedge engage better ( i think when I showed it ti IanW it had a poofteenth of a mil of clearance between the wedge and plane body). A bit of cyclonic/dry/damp/cyclonic weather put paid to those tolerances and now there're good gaps between the moving parts (nothing rusted though on the up-side) and now everything works predictably.