Thread: Plane challenge 2020 - 2021. Bushmiller

Life was not meant to be easy. Who said that? Well, if you answered Malcolm Fraser I would award you one point (incidentally he was pretty much castigated for the comment), but if you answered George Bernard Shaw you get ten points! George coined the phrase many, many years earlier.

I decided my adjuster needed a little more thread on the lower part close to the spigot. Problem was with the fairly small diameter outer that was drilled and tapped to take an internal thread there was not much meat holding everything together and under duress the thread snapped off.
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I tried two more attempts and although they didn't break the tapping action was enough to distort them. As with most of my posted pix I only enlarge them a little to curry favour with the moderators (trade-off against future misdemeanours) so if you wish to see all the warts, you will have to double click on the pix to see the gory detail.

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I bought some more bolts and had a modicum of success, which is best viewed with my prescription glasses still in their case.

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The second pic above brings me to the next step in the saga being that of the lever cap. I needed to make up two stub axles that are threaded into the side of the plane body. I really need a small metal lathe . However, without the benefit of that machine, I managed in the following manner and I have to say it was one of my more successful exercises. Pity it is such a small component of the plane. The screwdriver slots were made in two stages. Firstly with a junior hacksaw blades and then opened out with a 32ppi normal hacksaw.

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Taking down the threaded portion was performed on the bench grinder. The head of the bolt was left on to provide a reference and a block of metal positioned so the bolt could be rotated against the wheel. When all trace of the thread had been removed it was done. Just cut off the head.

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This shows how the stub axels sit within the cap.

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I took this pic on dusk and took it out to where I had photographed the blades in my earlier post and promptly had a disaster. I forgot that the stubs are a loose fit in the cap and when I put it down there was only one pin: The other had dropped out somewhere, probably in the grass and the light was rapidly receding. Get out the magnets you say. Nope: Stainless steel. Luckily I found it, in the grass. Phew! Melt down averted.

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The two thick blades needed to be shortened. Done with the ubiquitous, in my shed, thin cutting disc in the angle grinder.

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Regards
Paul

Nice work MacGyver. Who needs a metal lathe when you've got a good imagination.

Originally Posted by Picko

Nice work MacGyver. Who needs a metal lathe when you've got a good imagination.

Ah MacGyver: A legend. "You can't kill him with an axe." (Peter Thornton)

Regards
Paul

While I plan to epoxy the timber infills into place I thought I would also do some riveting: That's about as close as my ever so slow plane build gets to riveting. Ideally I would use brass rod all the way through, but there are two problems. I can't find my brass rod ( I know there is some somewhere), but mainly with the low angle of the plane some of the rods would interfere with mechanisms and cutaways. However I do have some old brass screws and I have utilised (rescued/recycled/repurposed) these. I have retained the threaded portion and these locate in the timber. I cut or grind off the head after they are in place and pein them over into the countersink. So far I have only done two although the holes are drilled for the remainder.

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In some way I am compensating for the lack of refinement in the plane by incorporating gizmos. It occured to me that this plane could be used to shoot mitres and end joints so I have incorporated a handle to assist. This became a major drama when I could not fins any fine thread scews: I wanted fine thread as there is only the side wall of the plane to support the handle Fine metric or UNF were the preferred threads. I could only find the metal bizzo shown below, which as it happens was perfect and UNF, BUT I had already drilled a hole for 8mm or 5/16"! How was I going to open it up. Incidentally That piece of 16mm metal is titanium. I selected it for strength and light weight. Bull! It was what I had. Bright white sparks when ground and about half the weight of steel.

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I cut two holes in some wood. One to go around the ferrule and the other smaller hole to guide the auger bit. The hole for the ferrule had to be wrapped with masking tape to pack it out. The metal rod was cut behind the nut shape and epoxied in place.

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It worked OK but it was a hassle I did not really need. I then tapped a hole to suit. Actually the plane can be used for this purpose right or left handed as I tapped a hole on the other side too:

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I have probably bored you witless with pix of inferior looking blades (hell I am less than impressed myself), but I slung a new belt on the works linisher and had a modicum of success. I am convinced the belt speed of that machine approaches mach 1. I had real difficulty holding onto the blades and wore the tips out of the right hand glove. There was a fence that I could use for the thicker blades but there is too large a gape under the fence and twice the linisher grabbed the thinner blades and catapulted them across the workshop. Just as well I was the only one there or I would have been up for an incident report and a mountain of paperwork. The blades are more presentable than before and there is on each blade now at least 15mm of clean steel behind the cutting edge which we can work with. The backs of the thicker blades, from a distance look like a JP blade with the hollow back until you get up close and appreciate it is a crater .

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Getting close to some fitups. I cut two trial handles in scrap pine as I have only one attempt in the Casuarina Oak. The first handle would be more suited to a smoother and I felt was too far back for a plane of this size. I made up another, which brings the handle and the motive power further towards the middle of the plane. It will need quite a lot of refinement and of course shaping as it looks a bit like the duckling and not at all in keeping with even an "Antibody."

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The rear infill slopes and I had to shape the pine to sit in the mortice so I had reference for the good timber. Just a couple of blocks placed carelessly at the front for effect replicating the nobbly bit. All the hardware available is in place but not secured as I need to drill the holes for the stub axels into the lever cap.

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Not much to show for two days work and still lots of tidying up and flattening.

Regards
Paul

I guess along with "Antibody" comes "Antieasy". You should make no apologies for your progress - that is quite a task. Definitely worth points for difficulty and doodads.
Anyway, I think it's shaping up nicely.

Steve

Paul,
It is definitely looking like a plane now,
I’m still not sure why you have so many blades prepared, have I missed something yet again?.

Cheers Matt.

Hi Paul. Starting to appreciate how useful it will be. Handle idea is brilliant. How long is it and will it also work as a jointer?

Paul, that’s starting to look pretty damn good, impressive what you have done with a piece of steel channel. Looks like it will be a very versatile plane once finished.

Originally Posted by Simplicity

I’m still not sure why you have so many blades prepared, have I missed something yet again?.

Cheers Matt.

Matt, the two obvious reasons I can see are,
1- each blade can be sharpened with a different angle bevel, eg , you can have an array of blades to give you a range of pitches from 45^ up to 60^ in 1^ increments so you can find the perfect cutting angle for each task and possible timber used.

2- you can have a rack set up beside the bench, full of sharp blades. As each blade starts to blunt, you can quickly swap it out with a fresh blade and keep going without having to stop to resharpen. This will be a real timesaver.
You could have a slot in the benchtop to poke the used blades through, with a drum underneath to catch the blunt blades, once full it could be dragged over to the sharpening station to sharpen them all at the same time. Maybe the Easter long weekend could be set aside each year to perform this task.

, or maybe there’s a 3- Paul just wants a few spare blades.

Ummm heeeeer


Um Brad, there’s some very interesting and clever ideas there.
I certainly like the collection drum one, I would hope that would self empty an fill the tray with freshly sharpened blades.

Cheers Matt.

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Ummmm.....I certainly like the collection drum one, I would hope that would self empty an fill the tray with freshly sharpened blades.

.

I am sure Paul would be working on a solution for this as we speak
Cant wait to see what he comes up with

Ha, Ha.

I can see the pool table style of collection for the blades, but not the solution for sharpening.

Brad was pretty much on the money with the multiple angles. I thought I would have them sharpened at 30/35/40 degs to suit different timbers. Also I would like to try David Warner's 25 degs and then buffed to a steeper angle. I have five blades so all of this is possible.

I am not at home and about to go out but I think from memory the plane is about 450mm long and would be described in days gone by as a Try Plane. It could certainly be used as a small jointer.

Regards
Paul

Paul,

I hadn’t realised you were doing a multiple plane blade Odyssey,this will be epic.
An I hear length does matter in certain aspects of life.


Cheers Matt.

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Paul,

I hadn’t realised you were doing a multiple plane blade Odyssey,this will be epic.
An I hear length does matter in certain aspects of life.


Cheers Matt.

Matt

I console myself with the fact that many height and length challenged objects are probably only short at one end. The other end is fine.

Regards
Paul

Paul,
I feel a lengthy discussion hear will distract from the true point of the discussion being the girth an magnitude of the Antibody with its now multiple personalities blade thingys.

Cheers Matt.