Thread: Show & tell for the new guy

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Hi Wayne

A belated welcome from myself as well. It is great to have you here!

Will you tell us about your construction methods - how much hand work, how much machine?

do you have a favourite among your many wonderful creations?

says I as I wipe the drool off the key board

A big THANK YOU to all! So nice to feel welcome here.

Peter, I too suffer from a bum right elbow and I'm in the process of getting some treatment for it. I'm going in next week to get a cortisone shot to see if it will fix the problem.

I have an old three wheel metal-cutting bandsaw that I rough out the shapes and dovetails. I generally do all the shape refining with files and sandpaper. I've never used a mill for the dovetails. I do have three mills...a tiny mill/drill, a medium sized Grizzly mill, and a big ol' Bridgeport. They are used to square things up and to cut escapements. The fancy work on the irons and such are created by roughing out with the bandsaw and refining the shapes with files, etc. The accuracy required to get the geometry just right for bedding the iron, etc.cannot be achieved purely by hand...at least by me. I use a little Atlas lathe to make my screw heads and such.

A2 steel is most often used to make irons, though I do make a few high carbon O1 for irons at the request of the customer. As you probably know, the O1 is easier to hone, but the A2 has better edge retention.

I will take a couple of photos of the little 24' X 24' shop and post later. If there are any other questions, just ask.

I make nearly all planes to order, and for this reason, I seldom have any laying around in my shop. Once they're done, they are sent.

Thank you all again. -w