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Made a tote handle for a 5 1/2
Still at early stages of the journey, but today I had some time and decided to push on with trying to make a tote handle to replace one which I repaired (badly) but was never going to be up to scratch.
I used a piece of brushbox that I pulled out of an offcut bin at a supplier at Salisbury in Brisbane.
Towards the end of the day as spare time ran out, decide to just "go with it". I regret it a little now because when I added some shellac then wax some little bumps and imperfections became obvious. However it feels great in the hand. Also, there are little edges at the toe that stick out unnecessarily.
I thought I would post for - as much as anything - encouragement to any other newbies. Get in there and have a go, and see how rough it started! It is in the plane sole because each photo because in the first photo I wanted to check the screws fit in the sole, and for the latter, I wanted to keep checking how it felt lifting the plane.
I followed the instructions for the Lee Valley template but not too closely. I did not have imperial drill bits so used the nearest equivalent mm and they were fine. The basic technique is to get a blank of roughly the right specifications, and then drill holes and but it's very important the bottom edge and faces are square and parallel for tapping the hole for the rod.
A good tip I saw on a Youtube video which I managed to follow was to ensure you cut the hole for the toe before removing any waste other than the wedge at the base. Otherwise you are drilling into a fragile area that might split. Also, I found it very handy to use a handsaw to carefully cut a straight wedge off the base, because then you can use that wedge to clamp the base square and get the toe hole just right.
A lot of lessons learnt, but feels great having the confidence that the next time I have a good quality offcut I can try again for an improvement! It is certainly not as nice as a posh Veritas handle but for me just as functional.
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