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Matt, given that's a side-grain to side-grain joint, and as long as it's a reasonably neat fit, I don't think you need to do other than just glue it. The metal dowel will give you some extra shear...

Bob, indeed, as you point out, measuring kerf widths can be a fraught & inaccurate procedure! I was going to mention some of what you covered, but you did a much better job so I'm glad I waited. :;...

OK Andy - all good. The rake looks a bit variable (may be picture perspective) but definitely appears to me to be in the ball-park.

The #4 cut is the one I recommend for 15-20tpi. It may just...

I've read all sorts of figures ranging from 20% to 50%, and they could all be correct according to circumstances. As Paul said, green (wet) wood needs lots of set, and softwoods (more fibrous)...

Actually Graeme, it didn't replace either of our 2 or 3 potato-powered saws. It was bought because my father & uncle had a contract to supply firewood for the butter factory in Millaa-Millaa. The...

She won't be stuffed around. eh?

:D

:U All I can say is it mustn't have been a Danarm "blue streak", which was the first chainsaw I met. I think it got the "streak" part of its name from folks chucking them over cliffs into the sea! ...

You could stop here, Matt, but I reckon it will be a tad more comfortable to use with a bit 'o stuffin'......
:D

Andy, as Paul said, the pic is a bit too blurry to get a clear view, but I don't think the teeth are too bad. The gullets should be about the same area as the teeth, give or take a bit, and yours...

Ah, right! Hadn't considered that one - it's one type of wood-screw vise I've never made. I did seriously consider one when building my bench, but at the time I had a very cramped little basement...

Matt, it all looks ok to me as you've got it set up. You need very little clearance to slip a single-iron blade in & out. The acid test will be when you get the blade in & tighten the lever cap -...

Just remove the front of the jig, run the screw back in & you should be able to cut right up to the boss. To be able to do this, you need to have thought ahead & made the jig with enough clearance...

David, I think we are getting into concepts for which most of us just don't have the technical background to fully understand. We all go by personal experiences, which even for prolific woodworkers...

Well David, I have some experience of North American woods from my 14 or so years in southern Canada, so I can make some limited comparisons. Not sure which locust you are talking about, do you mean...

rb, if you are thinking metal scrub planes, most people would picture the Stanley #40 or its various clones like the Veritas version.

What my old pot (& perhaps yours) would've called a "German...

Yes, turning the thing consistently & smoothly is a problem, especially when making several screws in one session, yur fingers get pretty tired of turning that lump of wood! I've tried using a dowel...

Well, I guess you can say the puddin' is proved Brad... :D

After you've put your luverly new toy through a few duty-cycles, I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on any strengths &...

That's pretty creative Andy, you got the grip and the connecting piece at the bottom looking much more like the handles of old. The grip looks far more hand-friendly than when you started. :)
...

Yep, like I said, perseverance wins the day. :U

Chipping can be a sign of several different things, it could be a dull cutter, a slight mismatch of cutter & guide thread, or just bad choice of...

Yeah Derek, I have to take you to task for a bit of blatant age-ism there! :U

However, I think I understand what you are trying to warn about, the hard yakka that prepping hard woods from...

Well, as aldav sez, it may not win a beauty contest, but you'd have to take line-honours for practicality & efficiency, and it's certainly getting the job done nicely. :)
I would probably have...

Brad, that was meant to be a subtle commendation with the implication that there's not a huge amount of improvement necessary. :U

You've done a pretty impressive job for your first plane, in far...

So what'll you do differently on #2?
:D

Yes, you definitely want the router & jig sitting solidly. I clamp the router on my bench sitting upright 'cos it's easy to do with my set-up & puts the jig at a comfortable height & gravity helps...

Onya, MA. Why not use the best saw you have for the job!? No point in struggling with an inferior, too-short hard-point when you can cruise through the job with a "real' saw (unless you fear...

Better register your design, Matt, before the people at Bridge City see it......

:U

Hmmm, very hard to do much for you remotely, but obviously something is a little out of whack.

It takes a little bit of practice to get a clean start, that first half-turn of thread is nearly...

Since the votes have either been "YES PLEASE", or "Don't mind either way", and no-one has objected to an extension, the organisers have declared it a done deal.

The closing date is now 30th June,...

Yep, probably took me that long or a bit longer for #1. It takes even less time once you get the hang of it, but if it takes 20 minutes, or even 30, to tap a nut in your bench & you get a lifetime's...

:D I think I have enough challenges to keep me from boredom, Graeme. Maybe someday I'll attempt an upgrade on my smithing skills (or should that read "lack of skills")....
:)
Cheers,

Absolutely agree - I've made a few chisels without bolsters, and they offend me every time I use them! They are just small skews for cleaning out half-blind D/Ts so they never get hit, but it just...

Nice!
Are these chisels intended to be struck, or are they intended to be parers? If the latter, do you think a bolster (which you've done exceedingly well, btw), is absolutely necessary? I do...

That's a neat refinement, saves hunting for the plate in the bench clutter after each adjustment. :U

Something to note, I find I need to press on the plate a bit with my left hand to keep it...

Looks like the goods, Jonesy. I would make the 'chip relief' at the front of the cutter a little larger, myself, it looks a bit skimpy as-is, but hard to tell from a pic. Once you start using it in...

"River oak" (Allocasuarina cunninghamiana) would be my bet, croccy. The ones around here commonly get that black-heart spalting. It makes the wood more interesting than its usual pale greyish...

:B
Yep - senior moment! Hopefully, I would've discovered my blunder before I'd got too far making the tap! :doh:

But what I said about plenty of clearance holds, so go with 40mm for your hole...

Ok, I was debating discussing this above, but decided to skip it for fear of complicating things too much! :U

So let me address your questions by stepping through the process:

First, there are...

Paul, if I were prototyping the brute (which to be fair has the potential to be a rather handsome fellow when scrubbed up - a John Wayne of planes maybe?!), I would need to spend some time deciding...

Sorry folks, been ignoring the "General" section of late, so only just saw this thread, but you seem to have sorted most of your problems without me.

The reasons I prefer 60 deg. thread angles are...

Lookin' good Brad, lookin' reeel good! To get shavings like those straight up with very little final fettling is very impressive, in my book! Took me a lot more fiddling to get my first plane to...

Cost could be anything from minor to major. It depends on exactly what you have in mind - it could be quite modest but any bound book done commercially is going to be pretty expensive, particularly...

Yup, I see you've just made a new newell post for your stairs.....
:D

:C Yep, how I wish I'd thought of it myself when drilling my panel plane. Having the rivet hole exit right on the edge of the metal on the far side is much worse than a nasty surprise.

With...

It's interesting that Disston patented the closed-top handle, but seem to have abandoned it before S &J. I don't know when taper-grinding of handsaw blades ceased, but I have a post WW2 Disston...

That's terrific Andy, you've done a grand job of finding a real handle inside that mawkish lump of wood you started with! I agree, it's probably mostly perception bias that makes a sculpted handle...

Yeah man, forget the 'lectric stuff, you can do it all with cornflake power. Start with a fresh blade, worn hacksaw blades tend to skate over 'greasy' brass. The straight cuts are easy, but hacksaw...

Before this debate gets heated, we should agree on terminology. The word "figure" is somewhat inexact, but most take it to mean, as Elan implies, some pattern in the wood that is over & above the...

Nah, you're safe from me, Vann. Names do matter, but as long as we know what bits we are referring too, I'm happy to speak in whatever language is preferred. I suspect you are correct about "tote"...

No worries, Rick I've never seen the bit of wood on the front of a Bailey referred to as anything other than a 'knob', so I think you're safe there. But you better stay away from British infills,...

:) I don't think you are alone there, Vann - it took me a few years for the full penny to drop too!

I also didn't appreciate what a clever bit of engineering the cam-operated lever cap is until...