Thread: Building smoother/scraper plane

Kman,
I have made a smoother out of jarrah that worked quite well.

It was an experiment to see if I could do it and I followed the direction given in a book by David Finck called Making and Mastering Wood Planes. I got the book from the liberary but ended up buying it because I intend to make more.

The blade and cap iron I used came from another plane the body of which was broken.

I have since purchased a bandsaw and a drillpress which will make it easier to make more planes but following his instructions it was easy using hand tools.

Originally Posted by kman-oz

A simple wooden plane for working hard woods with a scraping option seems like a good step forward, but if anyone has some different advice, I'm all ears!

kman, this is a very good article on blow by blow building of a wooden smoother.

The design shown is a 50 degree smoother so making it into a scraper means you need a 40 degree bevel or you could use a blade with back bevel. My understanding is that a 60/30 degree system would work better.

If you mainly want to scrape as opposed to smooth then a dedicated scraper plane something like this is probably better. One advantage is that you don't need a plane blade and can get away with a scraper blade as in the common blue steel floor scraper blades that you can buy at bunnings for $8. You can cut these to size using an angle grinder.

Also if you do a search for a post by Derek Cohen you can see how he turned a long jointer into a large scraper.

Cheers
BobL

Thanks for your help fellas, have looked at that title and the links and Derek's posts are among my favourites around here. Learned a lot already.

I had some free time yesterday evening and this evening so I've built my first plane purely as a proof of concept. 60 degree bed, roughly a 4 1/2 equivelant in size using the blade from my No.6 Falcon. Had a little trouble keeping the blade from moving in the planing position (the wedge is temporary), but as a scraper it's a little champion! Obviously this is an extremely agricultural example of a timber plane - made from some OB off-cuts left over from bearers used in floor repairs a couple of years back. Regardless I've had fun building it and testing it out.

Also a pic of the spotted gum that had given me trouble, looking a lot better again after a quick once over with the new scraper. Very pleased with myself.

Nice work k-man! Looks like you are on your way.

Just been talking to my timber supplier this morning, he's recommended Iron Bark, Jarrah and Brush Box. An ex-Cabinet Maker, he's made about 15 planes in his time and reckons Brush box would be the best choice for a beginner because it's a little either to work, but is still very dense, prividing for a reasonably weighty plane when its finished.

rat52, does that book cover techniques for carving the mouth from a single peice of timber also? So far all the simple examples I've seen use cheeks first cut from the main body, but I'd at least like to try making one from a single un-cut peice also. I'm hoping this book will provide some insight, because I just don't see how I can manage this accurately with my current array of tools.

I've ordered that book from Amazon (cheaper than a local special order).

I'm thinking I'll make my first real plane using the this method, but perhaps add a 3-4mm Ironbark sole to it. Does anyone care to comment on the idea or perhaps the complexity for a beginner?

I was also considering treating it with Tung Oil or Hard Burnishing Oil after it's complete for the sake of appearence. Hopefully this will also help to keep it from moving due to moisture changes. I'm curious if this might be deteremental for the fiction required to keep the plane iron from slipping in the mouth though, any comments?

A good looking plane for a first try. Terry Gordon says the fit of the wedge is one of the most importnat things to get right.

After that effort why not try it with a thicker blade?

Thanks jaspr. I have considered a thicker blade but I'm not sure if I can justify the expense to the Minister for Finance I have tried this one with and without a chip breaker and there appeared to be no real difference. The pics above were taken without the chip breaker, hence the shims under the wedge, so I've left room for a 4-5mm thick blade in future.

Got a couple more newbie questions while I'm here:

1) Glue, Polyurethane ok?
2) Will I perhaps be considerably better off going for a Hock or similar 3/16" plane iron with or without a chip breaker? The general consensus seems to be that a 60 degree bed angle really doesn't require a chip breaker.
3) Oil finish or Polyurethane finish for sealing out moisture?

Hi Dave

For the questions you're asking...


1) I wouldn't use polyurethane. My experience with being a good veratile glue but not a particularly a strong glue. I've also tried tight bond 3 and the result wasn't all that good. The constant high stress of the wedge driven against the blade is too much for anything other than epoxy over time.

2) I think a thin blade is going to be a problem with such a high angle in a wood plane where the surfaces may not be perfect. A flexing blade with produce a lot of chatter marks - especially if you're trying to scrape with it.

3) I've never liked a poly finish on anything so for my last plane I didn't put a finish on it. The other ones have danish oil.

Other stuff I've found:

I didn't find the bevel up scraper feature worked all that well on mine - especially at the 30 degree bevel angle. It did improve significantly when I changed the angle to 40 degrees. It most likely would be even better at 45 (that would then match the Lie Nielsen 85 scraper angle of 85) but that's too much when using it at as a bevel down plane. I've pretty well given up on the idea that you can have both features preform well so mine is now only high angle plane. I don't find there is a need for more than one high angle (a little smoother for cleaning up tearout is about all I need) plane so the rest I've stuck with the standard 45 degrees.

The bed that the blade rests on is very important to keep dead flat. It pays to use a good drop saw here. I haven't found a slightly off wedge to be as critical - especially with the 1/4 thick blades I buy from HNT. Generally the wood fibres will compress and or flex and the plane, blade and wedge will merry up well over time. Or you can use a scraper and tune them if it's a bit too far out. I don't have a plane float and have found a file isn't all that good so I scrape.

I've added lateral grub screws to mine similar to Veritas and find them a treat when adjusting the blade. All my planes will be fitted with them.

Smokos over so I got to go - may update later tonight

Nothing quite compares to advice from someone who's done it and buggered it up in the past, eh? Many thanks mate!

P.S. Err, if that sounded like an insult it wasn't intended that way. What I mean to say is you learn a lot more from failure than from success.

Kman, the David Finck book doesn't cover solid construction only the 4 piece style

It does cover in detail how to tune the tools needed to make a plane and also how to make a cap iron.

Sorry about the delay in getting back to you

I'm a little late to this thread. Some may like to reference my homepage (see sig.) which details the making of a woodie.
There are no plans yet but I hope to get some posted shortly, including one for a HA smoother/scraper. The plans won't be anything special but should contain enough info to make one.

Good to see your enjoying it. If your fond of this sort of thing...you'd probably appreciate using a card scraper as well(if you don't already use one). But I'd just buy one if I was you. just 10 bucks or something like. Different tools for different situations uno.

Well, after a second attempt (or first attempt at a useable plane) and some months without further progress, I've read 'Making and Mastering Wood Planes', built a hammer specifically for adjusting the planes and proceeded to destroy my first attempt at a fair-dinkum wooden plane

Toolin's suggestion of epoxy glue only for building planes rings true, it appears that the peices of the plane body have come appart at the glue line due to distortion of the timber. Of course, bashing it with a hammer only made it worse. Pity really, because while it was working it worked pretty well.

So, off to get some West System 2-part epoxy, some more Spotted Gum and some 100 year old Red Iron Bark. The intention is to see if I can successfully make a laminated plane from a fairly stable timber like Spotted Gum, then try my hand at a solid body plane from Red Iron Bark.

Here's to biting off more than I can chew!