My Stanley #4 Infill plane

Definitely one for the Neanderthal woodworkers among you.

This is an infill smoother plane I constructed from a derelict Stanley #4. My aim was to build a rendition of a modern Stanley Infill plane, had they attempted to do this. Most of the iron protrusions were ground out. The infill is Jarrah sanded to 600 grit and finished in oil and wax. The blade is a standard LN 1/8 and it is supported with a chip breaker from an old Mathieson woody. This combination is thick, heavy and solid. The blade is set at 55 degrees. The lever cap is copper as I did not have any brass to hand. In practice the plane works better than my expectations. It will take the finest of cuts in Jarrah (the mouth is .002"), much more so than even my HNT Gordon smoother. The rear grip is the most comfortable of all my planes (since it is so large). The absence of a vertical front tote is not felt since the place is guided by a thumb (behind the frog) and with remaining fingers pressing down on the front infill.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Derek

Very, very nice!

Just a quick question - where's the motor? :D

Wayne, of course it's there .... somewhere...

Regards

Derek

Beautiful piece of work, Derek. Well done!

Interesting. I read an article in the February edition of Popular Woodworking about a kit being sold in the US to build a copy of a Spiers No 7 infill smoothing plane. I was actually thinking about it but was put off by what looked like a huge amount of metal-bashing to join the sole to the sides. Your solution, using a Stanley No 4 as a base winds up looking more elegant, too.

Driver.

Thats just magnificent..... What a piece of work

Very nice piece, Derek