Thread: Stanley 55 experiments

G'day Jake,

Nothing really to say that hasn't been said in othe WIPs you've done, except I'll also be watching this one with interest.

Jake, I don't know why you keep posting this stuff, noone is intersted.



Much.





Keep it coming, mate. Please don't let your Photobucket expire or anything, we'll lose a lot of pics.

Hi Jake,
I wasn't sure it was really you until I saw a finger with a bandaid on it! Good stuff as usual, did the cutter work as easily as you'd hoped? How many passes to get that profile to finished state?
Raining a lot lately you say, always seems that way down there...

Cheers,

No problem. Thanking you. Always good to have a talk.

Thanks. I don't know if photobucket can expire or not. I hope not, cause the only copies I have of most of these photos are in there. I lost most of them with my old computer.

yeh. I'm always cutting myself Andy. I'm the only bloke at work who manages to get his finger stuck in the sliding table off the saw. Most of the masking tape we use goes around my fingers.

Great stuff, Jake. I like your thinking about having the lowest point of the blade supported by the right-hand skate - I'm sure you are right

Looking forward to the next instalment.

Cheers

Paul

Yeah, keep it coming, Jake. I haven't tried the "reversed profile" concept, but I know that you are right about the standard profiles encouraging instability - I can keep the plane vertical OK, but I tend to have problems keeping good contact with the fence. If the reversing of the profile pulls the fence against the piece, then you have solved a major problem in using multiplanes!!

I'm certain its an improvement too.....Just hope it helps enough to control such a wide blade. The procedure I use will be important too.

ie. Will have to keep the fence support up as much as possible....which may mean that if I want that profile I may have to lay it down on thicker stock first, THEN after the profiles cut , thickness it down to size......not the other way around. uno, normally you'd thickness the stock to final dimention first then put the profile on it. Which is how the 55's intended I'd say. But may have to abandon that to make it work well enough. Be buggered if I'm going to push a thing that just doesn't want to cut easily.

Ideally want big complete clean shavings flying off. Want it to handle me throwing my whole shoulder behind it and make it quick without any fuss.

Originally Posted by apricotripper

ie. Will have to keep the fence support up as much as possible....which may mean that if I want that profile I may have to lay it down on thicker stock first, THEN after the profiles cut , thickness it down to size......not the other way around. uno, normally you'd thickness the stock to final dimention first then put the profile on it. Which is how the 55's intended I'd say. But may have to abandon that to make it work well enough. Be buggered if I'm going to push a thing that just doesn't want to cut easily.

How would you thickness - Wouldn't using a thicknesser be a bit hard?

But I suppose you could use a table saw to cut off any extra meat you leave on to provide fence support - so you put the moulding on a "corner" of your stock and then cut it off the stock leaving a rebate.

We could be thinking of the same thing Jeremy. not sure.

I mind kids saturday mornings, so I've done a couple of drawings of how it can be done. Might clearify what I mean at least. This is how I've done it before with smaller width blades and it worked.

As I see it, its all about finding a process that keeps the stock stable on your workbench, or against a fence or machine bed while your cutting. So you order your cuts with that in mind all the time.

Generally I've found you can get that stability by cutting your profile down into timber thats wider than necessary. So I don't actually run the blade down right on the timber edge. (gotta flare your blade for this to work well just quietly...but apparently the plane makers think thats BS)

So, you end up with offcuts at either edge that combined give you stability on flat surfaces. Its a concept one uses a lot in woodwork when you think about it. Hopefully you can read my scribbles in picture 1

So to get that extra bit of stability I want, from having a deep fence face on thick timber....this would be the process I'd use.

picture 2 - so I'd plane the profile first (I'm looking down from the back of the plane in this picture.....that little arrow pointing at the left hand depth stop. I will probably only use the left hand depth stop only.

picture 3 - so once thats cut those stable 2 points of reference I was talking about will keep things stable through the table saw against the fence, and also then through the thicknesser on the bed. (or on the workbench if you want to do it by hand)

picture 4 - only THEN that waste isn't needed anymore, and I'll just rip it off and hopefully make a clean cut on my shyty tablesaw....

However,,,,,,,I'd prefer to avoid all that if I can and just start with timber already thicknessed to final dimention and just cut the profile in it with the 55. . Be less waste as well. So I'm hoping I don't need that extra fence support. But I sense it won't work without it cause the blades so wide. But I will try planing off a thin edge first, and see what happens.

I can't think of any other practical ways really. But I'm always open to ideas. Many would say using a 55 to begin with isn't a practical idea. And generally I think thats right. But for making small runs of moulding I definetly think its the best way to do it.

Hi Jake,

Rather than using a deep piece of wood, why not thickness the wood to the final size, then screw it to another piece from underneath to give you your extra depth for the fence, plane your moulding, then unscrew it. As long as you make sure that the screws do not intrude where the cutter will come, it should work.

Cheers

Paul

Great idea ! As long as I make sure the edge of the piece thats having the fence run off it, thats taking the profile, is running parallel with edge of the piece below it(spose this piece is called a jig now ?).

To make shore its all line up perfectly before I start, thinking now I could screw it on over hanging just a touch......throw it through the thicknesser....uno, so I can be certain the edges line up perfect.....and then run the profile in it. Unscrew the jig and keep resusing. Once its all unscrewed I can just rip it to width. spot on. Ta Paul. I like that idea.

Jake
We were on the same wavelength, but Paul's idea is better

Definetly better. Your right Jeremy.

I gave it a go yesterday. mixed results.

picture 1 - tried planing into thin stock first. ie. mimimal fence support. Easy to plane up to about the 1st half of the blades width......can see it dropping in on the main skate side first. Which was what I hoped for.

picture 2 - But then she got hard. about here....the more and more that quirk dropped in , and all that scraping it brings. And the plane began to roll to try and get out of all this abuse I was giving it. Because it could. I didn't have enough leverage on my supporting hand to hold it vertical.

picture 3 - But I perservered.....with stop start shavings all the time mind you and planed to depth. But don't wish it on anyone . Afterwards I felt like I'd just played a game of Rugby on a hot day.

picture 4 - thats it. But its no good....there's cutter marks all along it cause I couldn't muster the strength to make a complete shaving from one end to the other. not practical. forget it.

hang on .... a bit more next post.

So, I tried it with thicker timber. better fence support. To try and get that comparison.

Picture 1 - and the improvement was noticeable straight away. Got complete shavings I could rip off quite quickly up to about 3/4 blades width.

But still it got too hard to push to drop it that last 1/4, as that scraping quirk engaged. It locked up and I got stability, but no matter how thin a shaving I set it, the plane would bite too deeply for a comfortable stroke.
I did manage to get a full shaving in at depth, but still I won't be doing it again in a hurry.

pictures 2 and 3 - final cuts there.

So 42 mm is too wide. . Thinking it would have been a lot easier without that quirk in the profile too.

I've still got half of that old goodline blade left. Might just grind it up with a simplier flowing profile and see if its easier.