Thread: Challenge 20 - 21. Ironwood.

Hi Brad. Stunning. I concur with the others. Looks great, almost makes me want to have a go, almost!

I don't know what I think I'm doing here. This is amazing!!

I have just finished doing 7 nightshifts, and still feeling a fair bit jetlagged, so I just have been doing a bit of thinking about things and a bit of tidying up.
A bit of work on the ends of the sole with the anglegrinder to get a more finished shape, then tidied up on the belt and disc sander.
When I came up for lunch, I bought the plane up and took a few pics on the verandah table, starting to look a bit better now, and almost ready for the infills.
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I can see in this shot, that I need to do a bit more sanding back to get the inner edge of the brass to get a more crisper edge before I put the infill in place.
Or I could do it once the infill is in place, but that might risk overheating the epoxy.
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I always feel a big sense of relief when I get to this stage - it's gone from ugly duckling to something very much more like a plane body. Lookin' reeel good, Brad....

I tend to clean the edges up as thoroughly as I can & make sure the sides match before fitting the woodwork - makes that job a lot easier. I don't think using your powered gear to do any blending required would worry the epoxy too much unless you went hog-wild, and in any case, you should have your cross-rivets set in by then, & they will hold the wood firmly enough on their own. The woodwork on old planes was held by rivets alone, no glue was used except to stick wood to wood. The reason I use epoxy to bed the woodwork in is to fill any holes from the inside and put a barrier between wood & metal. Many of our hardwoods are quite acidic and if moisture wicks in there (a distinct hazard in your neck of the woods!) it can do a nasty number on your steel sole.

Anyways, if you are at all worried about softening the glue, it takes very little time & effort to blend things in nicely with a couple of files. I don't have any power-sanding gear, so all my cleaning up & blending is done by filing. Can't say I enjoy doing a large plane all that much, but it gives me a good workout....

Cheers,

Cheers Ian. Yes , I think I will finish off the shaping of the metal as much as I can, before putting the woodwork in.
I was a bit surprised just how easily the big sander takes the metal off, in fact you have to be careful not to take too much off.

The plane is looking really nice Brad,
I’m looking forward to see what you do regarding the timber.
I’m curious how did you set up for the hole drilling for the rivets,with relational to the sides being curved yet you need them to be 90 degrees to the soul centre line?.

An Ye Fancy Pansey pics, bet you hope the Judges noticed them[emoji6].

Cheers Matt.

Originally Posted by Simplicity

.......I’m curious how did you set up for the hole drilling for the rivets,with relational to the sides being curved yet you need them to be 90 degrees to the soul centre line?....

Pay attention, young Matthew!!

He dunnit while the sides were still flat (it's somewhere back there on page something-or-other), so you are correct in thinking the holes may not be perfectly co-axial after the sides were bent. However, imo, that's neither here nor there because the rivets are going to fill any small deviations.

What I'd be most interested to see is how he's going to get the holes through the wood to match on each side. I guess the best way will be to set up very carefully & drill from each side & if the holes don't match perfectly, the rivet should still go through ok. I do advise care, 'cos this step has gone wrong on me twice (I'm a slow learner, sometimes). On my big skewed panel plane, the twist-bit kept clogging in the dense wood & needed clearing every few mm. It was getting to be such a pita I forced it a bit. So it got even with me by wandering & coming out on the far side in the wrong place. I thought I'd learnt my lesson, but blow me down if I didn't go & do the same thing on another plane just recently! Insert many expletives here.....

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

Pay attention, young Matthew!!

He dunnit while the sides were still flat (it's somewhere back there on page something-or-other), so you are correct in thinking the holes may not be perfectly co-axial after the sides were bent. However, imo, that's neither here nor there because the rivets are going to fill any small deviations.

What I'd be most interested to see is how he's going to get the holes through the wood to match on each side. I guess the best way will be to set up very carefully & drill from each side & if the holes don't match perfectly, the rivet should still go through ok. I do advise care, 'cos this step has gone wrong on me twice (I'm a slow learner, sometimes). On my big skewed panel plane, the twist-bit kept clogging in the dense wood & needed clearing every few mm. It was getting to be such a pita I forced it a bit. So it got even with me by wandering & coming out on the far side in the wrong place. I thought I'd learnt my lesson, but blow me down if I didn't go & do the same thing on another plane just recently! Insert many expletives here.....

Cheers,

But Mr[emoji6].

Surly if you inserted the pin rivet, it would have to be a bit smaller to take up the degree error so the hole on the left can align with hole on the right?
Then meaning more bashing to get rivet to disappear.

But saying all that, I think I would do as Brad did, and just drill the sides while there sitting on top of each other.

Cheers Matthew[emoji6].

Yes, the holes were drilled before the sides were bent, and if I remember correctly, I clamped the 2 sides together and drilled through both sides at once.
As to drilling through the timber and having everything line up, I have a devious plan, it’s so simple everyone will be wondering why they didn’t think of it ( maybe they already did and I am late to the party)
All will be revealed soon .

I sanded the front more this afternoon, it’s all good now and ready to have the timber installed, ( fingers crossed )

That's looking really nice Brad and your photos are even better. Can't wait to see the cunning plan for the drill alignment.

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Surly if you inserted the pin rivet, it would have to be a bit smaller to take up the degree error so the hole on the left can align with hole on the right?
Then meaning more bashing to get rivet to disappear

My motto has always been “ if it doesn’t fit, get a bigger hammer “
Seriously though, the misalignment will be minor, and easily taken up with peening,
well hopefully anyway .

Originally Posted by Picko

That's looking really nice Brad and your photos are even better. Can't wait to see the cunning plan for the drill alignment.

Hi Brad. Probably the best photos we have seen so far and nice curves. The only thing missing is a table cloth.

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Hi Brad. Probably the best photos we have seen so far and nice curves. The only thing missing is a table cloth.

I think Brads trying to be more “sophisticated” then table cloths[emoji6].

Between him and Bob, I’ve got no chance with my IPhone photography.

Cheers Matt.

Originally Posted by Simplicity

I think Brads trying to be more “sophisticated” then table cloths[emoji6].

Between him and Bob, I’ve got no chance with my IPhone photography.

Cheers Matt.

Tablecloths only get bought out for very special occasions here, like Christmas dinner or a wedding ( when everyone is likely to get drunk and start spilling stuff)
Bobs got a bigger camera than me , so I better brush up on my technique