# Planes You Have Made



## richardwootton (Jan 17, 2013)

I may be jumping the gun a bit here, but I haven't seen a thread for planes we have made. I thought this might be a good spot for folks to show off their hand tool handiwork!


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## starringemma (Aug 15, 2012)

I just bought a wooden bodied jointer plane at a flea market for $4.00 I probably over paid by about $3.75 it has a cast iron piece that sits on top of the body almost shaped like a rolling pin with a square hole that the frog sets in. Those are the only salvageable parts. I want to make a new body using oak with a black walnut sole fused together in a butt joint style. The sides would also be black walnut, so the front and back would look something like this.










I'll post a picture of the $4.00 jointer that I bought when USB connection to my phone decides that it's no longer on strike.


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## Dal300 (Aug 4, 2011)

Emma, instead of using the USB function, just email the photo to yourself… download it and then do what you want with it.


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## starringemma (Aug 15, 2012)

Good idea Dallas!

So, this is kinda what the side would look like except that the proportions all are obviously way off. The body that's on it now is about the same height and width as a 2×4 and is about 22" long.


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## shampeon (Jun 3, 2012)

There's no need for using finger joints for the plane body, and would be difficult to pull off to boot. All you really need to do is dimension the lumber properly and glue it up. If you search this site for "Krenov plane" you'll find a ton of projects similar to your plan.

Oak is actually harder than black walnut, so you're basically better off either making the main body walnut with an oak sole or making the entire thing oak.


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## starringemma (Aug 15, 2012)

I was shooting for a bit of style Sham. i knew that finger jointing wouldn't be easy so I figured I practice on some scrap 2×4's. As long as I can get the fingers and the spaces between the fingers the same on both pieces the side can be flushed on a table saw.

Matthias Wandle and a buddy of his were making his wood gear box joint jigs and selling them but they decided that they could never get the money out of them that their time and effort was worth so they stopped.


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## shampeon (Jun 3, 2012)

As long as I can get the fingers and the spaces between the fingers the same on both pieces the side can be flushed on a table saw.

There's the rub. That's a loooong finger joint. You'd best look into making or buying a finger-joint jig, and for sure you'll have to buy a flat-topped dado blade (I've got a Freud box-joint blade set that cuts perfectly flat and clean), or do it on a router table. You can't use a regular table saw blade, because it doesn't make flat cuts.

The router table method is fraught, because you'll probably have to make multiple passes to get the depth, but you'll need to avoid any tearout.

I'm not trying to discourage you, because I think I've been where you're at now. But I enjoyed woodworking a lot more when I simplified my plans and techniques to match my skill level, whereas before I was constantly running up against things that didn't work out as I expected.


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## starringemma (Aug 15, 2012)

Thanks shampeon,

I do have a router table. I'm guessing there's similar jigs for router tables.

Here's a picture of the jointer plane I plan on using the parts from.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

I built Stumpy Nubs's version of a wooden geared box joint machine. 
It was fairly easy to build and works great. 
Just an idea if you wanted to make a machine to do it.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)




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## starringemma (Aug 15, 2012)

Thanks William,
Stumpy kind of has a Red Green style to his videos just without the duct tape.

Thank Don W, 
Have ever made any wooden joint planes? Can you identify the one I posted?


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Emma, I'd say you've got a #33 or #34 transitional.


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

Should look like this??









Stanley #33 28" long.


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## starringemma (Aug 15, 2012)

Yes! Thanks Don and Bandit! That looks like the one.

What is the name of the iron part that the tote and knob are setting on? That part and the frog aren't in very bad shape. Some de-rusting jelly, EMMA-ry paper and black semi gloss engine enamel will take care of those. As far as the hardware I need a iron, chip breaker and lever cap… then it all wood from there.


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

That iron is a WIDE one, same width as a #8 iron. It is 2-5/8" wide. Chip breaker might switch from the #8 over to the #33, but the lever cap won't.


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## mds2 (Jan 28, 2013)

Here are a some that I have made.

http://i.imgur.com/DgMHQl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/4JFQCl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/AuQIHl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Qgq9Ol.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/3750rl.jpg


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## starringemma (Aug 15, 2012)

Bandit, 
So, a Stanley #8 iron and chip breaker… I this #33 made by Stanley?


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## starringemma (Aug 15, 2012)

OMG! mds2,

I hope those are under a glass dome with those random sweeping red lazor beams going up and down the room! I hope you don't lend them out to any nail bending friends. I'd like to do something like those only about 22" longer.


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## derekcohen (Jul 15, 2007)

36" jointer with 3" wide Berg blade. Jarrah body and brass lever cap ..










Here it is next to a 22" long Stanley #7 jointer plane ..










Link: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/CoopersJointer.html

Regards from Perth

Derek


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## grfrazee (Jul 17, 2012)

That's a great plane, Derek. Where did you get the brass lever cap?


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## derekcohen (Jul 15, 2007)

Both the blade and the lever cap were gifts. The blade was heavily worked on. There is a story that connects them ..

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/NowTHISisablade%21.html










Regards from Perth

Derek


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## starringemma (Aug 15, 2012)

This is a really good video on making a jointer plane. It's very long and in about 5 videos


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## mds2 (Jan 28, 2013)

Emma, thanks for the compliments. Nope not under lock and key. The sit on the shelf behind my workbench, covered in sawdust like most things.

Don W., those two bloodwood scrapers are gorgeous!

I'm new here, is it possible to quote posts?


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

There is not a quote function. You'll see a lot of lj put underscores around the text.


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## starringemma (Aug 15, 2012)

Great planes Don W.
I don't know how I missed those! You should make some instructional videos on making those planes. Also on making totes and knobs.


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## fatandy2003 (Apr 4, 2012)

This is the first project I posted on LJ: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/65056

I was in Woodcraft and saw one of the Hock hand plane kits and that inspired me. So, I found a Hock 1-5/8" replacement blade, a 2"x2"x12" block of Tasmanian Blackwood and a 1/4"x4"x24" piece of quilted maple.

I squared up the block of Blackwood, then cut a 45 and 65 out of the middle and glued up the maple on the sides with the help of some pieces of a 1/4" walnut dowel. For the pin I sawed off both ends of a 3/8" lag bolt to leave a smooth sturdy metal pin.

I left it square for a while, but it was uncomfortable to use it because of the way my hands sat… then it got interesting. I had a nice piece of koa sitting in the basement so I cut out a small handle with a coping saw. I then used the coping saw and an orbital sander to shape up the front a back to fit my hands perfectly. Yeah, it looks pretty funky, the sides are not symmetrical, and the front looks like a sloth with its mouth open, but it fits my hand like a glove and it takes thinner than paper thin shavings off everything from pine and mahogany to maple and ash.


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## starringemma (Aug 15, 2012)

Great web site on making wooden hand planes.
http://www.newchinkyworkshop.com/toolmaking.htm

A DVD set to put on my long wish list.





David Finck's book "Making & Mastering Wooden Planes" a real bargain at only $291.24
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Mastering-Wood-Planes-Revised/dp/140272022X


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## derekcohen (Jul 15, 2007)

May I suggest for future video makers that "video" allows one to talk AND demonstrate moving objects at the SAME time, such as focussing on a working plane making shavings, rather than the still face of the person commentating. 

5 minutes of listening to someone talk about a task they plan to demonstrate - as if on radio - seems to me to violate the principle of video, that is, to SHOW what one is talking about.

End of rant.

Regards from Perth

Derek


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## starringemma (Aug 15, 2012)

Watching just 5 minutes of part 1 in a 6 part video series couldn't have been very informative.


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## ksSlim (Jun 27, 2010)

Yer in the right place to learn Gal, everyone is willing to share.
All the best in your endeavors!


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

Here's a few. A jointer made of walnut with a cherry sole.

A compound compass plane.

A skew rabbet plane. I don't remember if I lost the
nicker or never made it.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

mds2:

Nice looking planes. What woods and blades are in each?

I notice you use a round pin (brass?). Have you encountered any issues with the small contact area crushing or deforming your wedges at the point they engage?


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Derek:

Is there a reason you didn't put a knob on the front of that plane. Well, not exactly at the front, as that would be a long reach, but somewhere comfortable in front of the mouth?

I understand that it wouldn't be necessary if used as a cooper would use it, but you did add a rear tote so why not something at the front?


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## derekcohen (Jul 15, 2007)

It does not need a knob. Often one uses a hand under the sole as a fence (if using a cambered blade) or just finger pressure on the top at a point where it feels comfortable.

The same principle applies to this much shorter jack plane …










Link: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/BuildingAJackPlane.html

Regards from Perth

Derek


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## mds2 (Jan 28, 2013)

Iguana, let me go in order of what they are made out of.

First- Maple and Cocobolo. The pin stripes are walnut.
Second- Ziricote and bloodwood. This is one of my favorites.
Third- Lacewood and walnut.
Fourth- Birdseye maple and padauk. This is my favorite. It works like and absolute dream.
Fifth- Hard maple and Osage orange.

You are correct the pin is made out of brass. When you tap in the wedge it they do get a little indentation, but they are very solidly in place. I have no complaints about them.


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## woodworker59 (May 16, 2012)

I just love the planes that have been posted, makes mine look very low class.. but she is a worker.. its a oak fore plane around 20" long with a cherry tote and a ash wedge


















and a very old iron from a coffin plane with a blown out side…. the iron is very thick and works real well without the need of any chip breaker.. thanks… nice thread.. Papa


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## lew (Feb 13, 2008)

From Shop Notes


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## fatandy2003 (Apr 4, 2012)

Derek,

I have been eyeballing that 36" cooper's jointer for a number of months now. To the point that I was in an all-out search for a blade 3+". I found one on ebay that was 3-1/2" for $7 plus $5 shipping, so I bought it. It is in REALLY rough shape, but at that price and the fact that I am a hobbyist and my time does not = $$, I will slowly work the blade to a usable state. My next step is finding hardwood here in Italy that is long enough and wide enough to turn into a 30+" jointer. My biggest challenge, however, will be designing some type of cap iron or wedge to hold the blade fast… I live the look of the cap irons you designed, but I am not even a novice at metal work. I am curious, could I make a cap iron out of maple (or other hardwood) reinforced with brass? or would that just be too flexible to hold the blade tight enough? Thanks.


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## richardwootton (Jan 17, 2013)

Fatandy, that blade is HUGE!


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## derekcohen (Jul 15, 2007)

Hi Andy

Rather than making a wooden lever cap, make a traditional wooden wedge. I think that would look better (and probably work better).

Regards from Perth

Derek


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## fatandy2003 (Apr 4, 2012)

Derek,

Thanks. After looking at the wedge in your jack plane, I think that a wedge is definitely the way to go. Thanks again!


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## derekcohen (Jul 15, 2007)

Here is another plane you can build yourself: a BU infill smoother based on the shell of a Stanley #3.

The bed is at 25 degrees. This means the primary bevel can be lower (mine is 35 degrees for a 60 degree cutting angle), and this also reduces the wear bevel.



















Fantastic plane!

Link: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/GalootSmootherII.html

Regards from Perth

Derek


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## grfrazee (Jul 17, 2012)

I have a #4 that someone has frankenplaned that I plan on doing this to. Just need to make a lever cap…or buy one somewhere. Got plenty of tool steel for making a blade.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

http://lumberjocks.com/donwilwol/blog/28472


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*A Formal Introduction*

I've been sporadically participating on LJ for the last year and a half under the nickname Iguana, but I thought it was time to make a formal introduction, and this thread seems to be the appropriate place to do it. (Keep reading, you'll figure it out 

Thanks to a bout with cancer, I decided to radically change up my career path when I was 40. I'd spent over 20 years behind a desk in IT and corporate finance, earning a B.Sc. and an MBA along the way. The long hours and stress were obviously not healthy for me, so I eventually hit on trading the desk for a workbench and table saw. This was about three years ago.

After teaching myself for a year, I decided that I needed some formal training. It was easy enough to figure out the broad strokes, and I read as much as I could get my hands on, but I also wanted to learn the subtleties that come with experience. Mid-life, I figured it was better to learn from someone else's experience than wait for my own to come along. As it happens, the local college offers a fine woodworking program (http://www.studio-woodworking.com/ and http://www.okanagan.bc.ca/Page28701.aspx), and retrospectively, I can say that it was tailor-made for me. Marvelous instructor and I learned more in 9 months than I could have in 9 years on my own.

On to the planes:

My first experience with handplanes were two 70's era Stanleys (the block with a red lever cap, and a Handyman smoother) I "rescued" from a drawer in my dad's garage two years ago. He had a brief flirtation with woodworking around the time I was 5, and the planes had obviously been unused since. The climate here is pretty dry, so there was only minor surface rust to deal with. I cleaned them up, worked on the soles a bit, and without really knowing what I was doing, turned the smoother into something usable. The block never felt right, though. It probably could be made to work just fine, as since I've learned a few things, but at the time, I decided to pursue the down path of making my own.

I should add here that I'm a problem solver and perfectionist, attracted to picky, detail-oriented work, so I suppose it was only natural that I'd gravitate toward making my own planes.

Going solely from Krenov's discourse on making a plane in The Fine Art of Cabinetmaking, I decided to make my own. I fully expected my first effort to be superior to what Stanley could achieve with 100 years of experience. Seriously!

So, getting back to the thread topic, let me show you the planes I have made. If I can count correctly (they keep moving on me), sixteen so far. I'll post one every day or two and hopefully keep this thread moving along to critical mass stage.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*The First One*

You always remember your first…









A block, built according to Krenov's description, but taking my own liberties with the pin and wedge.

Walnut body with a beech sole. Hickory pin sleeve. Finish is Watco Danish oil, salvaged from my dad's garage. The Watco is probably about the same vintage as the steel planes I mentioned in my previous post.

The iron is a cut-down generic replacement for a knock-off block. Happened to be the cheapest I could find. Why not, steel is steel, right?

As a learning experience, it was an excellent venture. Let me tell you what I learned, or, in less euphemistic terms, let me tell you what is wrong with it:

1) It is ugly. It is even less attractive than what the pictures makes it out to be. So, form is important!

2) Sanding end grain by hand sucks. You can clearly see the bandsaw marks because I simply ran out of elbow grease. Some kind of power sanding was called for.









3) Protruding pins pose problems. You can't use it on its side, and your fingers get roughed up.









4) You can also see that the wedge is crooked in this pic. I cut the wedge on a poorly set up bandsaw with a dull blade (bandsaw setup is another set of lessons, for another thread, perhaps), and then had some major sanding to do to get the wedge to fit properly. The crookedness contributes to the plane's ugliness … I mean … charm.

5) Krenov says that the mouth opening should be fairly small. Well, 1/16" is fairly small, right?









Yeah, maybe for a scrub plane.

6) Cutting the iron down so it fits below the top of the plane may seem like a good idea to enhance the fit of said plane in one's hand. It also makes it bloody difficult to effect small adjustments to said iron with a traditional plane hammer. Or with any kind of device, really.

7) Using a separate pin and pin sleeve, rather than a single piece wooden pin that gets glued in place is a really good thing, as long as one can drill a hole parallel to the flat on the sleeve. Drill press setup lessons, coming soon to another thread near you.

8) Applying finish to the plane bed, pin sleeve and wedge are all no-nos. Wedges need to say put, not ride on some friction-reducing surface coating.









9) Sharp counts. That generic knockoff iron really isn't ready to use straight out of the package. Not even close. You can probably argue that this iron shouldn't be used for any purpose. Since then, I have learned how to sharpen well.

10) Mass counts. A single, thin iron in a plane made out of a fairly light wood (walnut) tends to chatter.

Well, how does it work? Honestly, do you need to ask? With a really sharp iron, it will make shavings. If I'm lucky in how the iron drops in, I even get thin-ish shavings. I can't adjust the iron in any practical way, so I don't know if it could be a user. I suppose I could get another iron ($11 or so) if I wanted to find out. I quickly moved on to the second plane, which did (and still does) work very well, so I never bothered.

Stay tuned for plane # 2 in a couple of days.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*On Plane-making and a Jack*

Conceptually, a plane is a fairly simple device. It holds some kind of cutter that can be passed over a piece of wood to effect a cut. To work well, it needs to hold the cutter securely, and may have fences, guides or stops to help control the path of the cut. And even those fences, guides and stops aren't there to help with making the cut, just to ensure consistency.

So that's it. Hold the cutter securely. In a Krenov-style plane, there are a small number of pieces that factor into this. The bed, the iron, the wedge, the pin sleeve, and the pin. And the more traditional plane style with internal ears to hold the wedge in place has a smaller number of discrete pieces. The key is that those pieces need to fit together nearly perfectly for the plane to work well.

To be useful, most planes needs to be capable of taking shavings in some small multiple of 1/1000th of an inch. A thicker shaving is good when dimensioning or doing rough work, but we like our smoothers to be capable of taking us to surfaces that are ready for finishing. And blocks to be able to do final fitting or trimming of joints, among other things.

To create this plane that is capable of thin shavings, we need to be able to work wood in small tolerances. Wood is relatively imprecise at the 1/1000th of an inch scale - that is getting close to size of a wood cell. A board of wood can move more than this amount in a single day. This is why well set up woodworking machinery only aims for a tolerance of 1 or 2 thous - anything finer than that is often irrelevant.

So, when you need to stack the bed, the iron, the wedge and the pin assembly together - as simple as those individual pieces are - it is hard to get them to fit together so that the end result is within a spec that allows for a 1 or 2 thou shaving consistent across the width of the plane.

It boils down to getting the bed flat and fitting the wedge properly. And having a sharp iron, but how to achieve the pointy end is debated endlessly on other threads, so no need to cover the same ground here.

It obviously can be done. Witness the many examples of fine wooden planes that have survived 100 years and are still capable of producing good work. And the newly made ones where the wood hasn't suffered the effects of many seasons of movement.

For my second plane, the first good decision I made was to get myself a good iron. Not wanting to deal with a double iron, I picked one of the thick Lee Valley irons designed for wooden planes. http://www.leevalley.com/en/Wood/page.aspx?p=60009&cat=1,41182,43698&ap=1

And I paid a lot more attention to the little details that make a plane work. The bed flatness. The drilling setup for the pin assembly. The wedge shape and fit.

And the aesthetics, of course. First, making it comfortable to use, and second, making it comfortable to look at.

The result was this:









A jack plane with a hickory and beech body, beech sole and walnut wedge. Finish is tung oil.

To my eye, it has flowing, organic lines to it, aided by the natural color in the hickory. To my hands, it fits as if it were molded. It is fairly heavy, but can be used all day. The significant mass is a good thing.









I was cautious in opening up the mouth, and left it set at less than 1/32" of an opening. A bit more than 1/64". So, it really doesn't function like a traditional jack would, but more like a large smoother. It works well and I am very satisfied with it.









At one point, it was the only plane I used. Clumsy in doing smaller work, though, so I realized I needed to revisit the block plane format. With how well this jack worked, I thought I had the plane-making thing all figured out, so plane number 3 would be a different kind of block plane. Stay tuned…


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*The Mouse*

I wanted plane #3 to be another block plane, but I wanted it to be a different kind of block. By this point, I'd done a lot of reading about planes in general and plane-making, and some of it was starting to sink in. Low angle, bevel-up planes sounded like a good thing because of the versatility, so I hit on the idea of making one from wood.










The Internet is a wonderful resource for finding information on just about any conceivable topic. Usually, there is too much information, requiring you to sift through dozens, hundreds or even thousands of pages and decide what is good and what is not. Wooden low angle bevel-up hand planes, however, is one of those few topics for which very little information is available. There is some, yes, but most of what I found related to the problems to be encountered in trying to build one and get it to function well.

And yes, there are problems. First, the mouth opening. On a bevel-down plane, the cutting edge of the iron touches the wood somewhat ahead of the front of the bed. It depends on the thickness of the iron and the bed angle, but at 45 degrees and using decently thick iron like a Hock or the LV, the iron hits about 1/4" ahead of the bed. Add a small opening ahead of the iron, and you have a total mouth of a bit over 1/4".










Why is this important? The standard practice is to glue up the pieces so that you start with a smaller than desired mouth opening and then open it up using some kind of tool. A float, a file, or perhaps some kind of sanding board. Obviously, the tool has to be narrow enough to fit into the small mouth opening, but still function well enough to accurately remove wood. For a bevel-down plane, it is easy to make a sanding board that is exactly the necessary width using 1/8" MDF and sandpaper.

For a bevel-up plane, the cutting edge of the iron hits immediately in front of the bed, and in order to get a fine mouth opening of, say, 1/32", you need to have some way of gluing it up so that there is a finer opening, and then find a very thin tool to fit into that very thin opening and still be able to remove wood.

The second problem is that of a relatively thin bed. Typically, a low-angle plane has a bed of 12 degrees. A wedge of wood 3 1/2" long and tapering at 12 degrees is only 3/4" thick at its thickest. That's not particularly strong.

And there is a lot of pressure on the bed at the point immediately behind the cutting edge of the iron. Precisely where the bed tapers to a thin point. This makes the bed susceptible to cracking or chipping.

The third problem is created by requiring a fairly large opening in the body to accommodate space for the iron, wedge, pin assembly and clearance for shaving to escape. On a bevel-down plane, this opening is typically 60 to 70 degrees of arc. On a bevel-up, the opening would need to be larger, a minimum of 80 degrees, if only to allow a line of sight to the tip of the iron from directly above the plane. A larger opening means weaker cheeks on the plane.

Thinking through all of this, I came up with a design. First, build the plane seriously overlong in the front, and with zero mouth opening. After glue up, use my jointer to take down the sole until the mouth opening appears, and then cut off the unnecessary length in front. Second, build a small flat into the front of the bed, about 1/16", so that the bed doesn't actually taper to a point. Third, forgo the pin assembly arrangement, and glue in a piece - I won't call it "ears" - for the wedge to act against.










The plane is wenge and purpleheart, with paste wax as a finish. It works quite well, and I've successfully used it with bevel angles of 25 degrees to 50 degrees, for effective cutting angles of 37 to 62 degrees. Simply swap out the iron (or regrind), and it becomes a plane for a different use.

Despite my concern with structural integrity, it is solid. That is partially due to using two strong, hard woods, and (I'm pretty sure) partially due to reinforcement provided by the upper piece the wedge jams against.










It isn't perfect, of course. There are two primary issues which prevents it from being my daily user. First, it is too wide to be comfortable for single-hand use for any length of time. I used the LV wooden plane iron, and the narrowest available is 1 7/8" wide. Add to that the cheeks and clearance spacing around the iron, and the plane is about 2 1/2" total width. For someone with large hands, that might be OK, but something closer to 2 1/4" would be more comfortable for me.

The second flaw is that the bed slipped slightly during the glue-up and I didn't notice. As a result, the iron sits at a slight angle to the cut. There isn't enough clearance around the iron to skew it to compensate, so the cut ends up being uneven. I suppose I could grind an iron with a slight skew to match bed and solve the problem.









(The iron is retracted so it wouldn't cut my backdrop. When set for a cut, the mouth opening is about 1/32".)

I tend to pull this plane out when making chamfers. The slight skew doesn't matter, and the plane works well with a two-handed grip using knuckles as fences.

I will be making another of these, but building it for a narrower iron. Ron Hock sells a 1 1/2" by 4 1/2" iron which would be just about perfect.

The name? I have to credit a friend who suggested it looks like a computer mouse.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Shoulder Plane*

I don't remember the order I built the rest of the planes I've made, so they'll appear in no particular order. And with considerably less verbiage.










3/4" shoulder plane. Sapele body and two-piece walnut wedge. Waterlox finish. This pic is a bit harshly lit, but it shows off some subtle figure in the sapele.

From the rear:









And the front:









In use, it is a bit tall to comfortably hold, and I may eventually cut it down by 1/2" or so. Also wish I'd chosen to make it wider, say 1 1/4", but it does work well trimming smaller tenons. Good excuse to make one with a wider iron.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

Mark, that mouse plane is a nice solution to a problem
I have not seen solved in a wood bodied plane: how
to make a low angle bevel-up one.

I'm sure you're not the only guy with the same
good idea, but I thought about it quite a bit
several years ago and gave up. I made a couple
of wood bevel up shoulder planes but the pressure
of the wedge caused bulging behind the 
mouth and they just didn't cut right.


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## REO (Sep 20, 2012)

I just had to lol.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Loren: When I decided to build the low angle bevel up block plane, despite everything I'd read indicating problems, I figured there was no downside to trying. The sole on the plane has stayed dead flat across since it was made. I don't know if that means I'm good or just lucky, but it was encouraging enough to think that the concept has merit.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*A Pair of Pocket Planes*

Here's a couple of pocket planes:









The one on the left is made from walnut, the right is purpleheart and mahogany.

Meant to carry around in an apron pocket for quick accessibility. They definitely show signs of banging around with all the other detritus in apron pockets…










The irons came from Lee Valley, replacement irons for small planes. The iron in the walnut 7/8" wide and the other is 1" wide.










As long as the irons are kept sharp, they work pretty well for putting quick chamfers on small pieces. However, they are a bit light for anything remotely resembling a full-width shaving. If the iron is dull or the shaving is wide (relatively speaking) they get to chattering, and then it is time to pull out a bigger plane and fix things. That's too bad, because they are very easy to hold and control. A solid brass plane this size might be awesome!


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## Tim457 (Jan 11, 2013)

Ok, after all these beautiful hand made planes, I thought everyone could use a laugh. This will put all the others to shame. I had a door that wasn't closing without too much effort because the jamb was a bit warped. I needed a bullnose plane but don't have one, so I started paring at it with a chisel. The results left me less than pleased, so I went and cut this up. Oh yes, only the finest of materials here, yes that really is a piece of tuba four. This is my first hand made tool, though when I put a real effort into one I'm no longer going to claim this one as my own. 










It does actually work, and helped smooth out the results of my not terribly skilled chiseling. Because of the way the jamb was warped, I only needed the chisel plane to be open on one side. It was fairly instructive to build this too. I can see now how I could fairly easily improve it if I needed to.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*A Short Smoother*

I use this one as a smoother for some woods. It is short-ish for a smoother at 8 1/2", but does its job quite well.



















Made from wenge, with beech stripes and an ipe sole.










Finish is tung oil and wax










The bed is 50 degrees and the iron is another of the LV wooden plane irons. I cut it down with a Dremel and about 10 of those tiny cutting wheels.


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## vipond33 (Jul 25, 2011)

No laugh here Tim, that's quite resourceful and in the end you still get to keep your chisel! Show us the nice version some day, ok?
gene


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

do these count?


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## Tim457 (Jan 11, 2013)

Thanks Gene. I think it will be some years before I can make a plane as nice as those here, but if you're patient I'll post one when I make it.

Don those are great, the knobs and totes are already comfortable so it's a good repurposing. I take it they hold the paper pretty well too.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Tim, they seem to hold the paper really well.


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## vipond33 (Jul 25, 2011)

This is an early attempt at plane making from about 20 yrs. ago. 









I wanted a shoulder plane, couldn't afford one, so I made this during lunch times at work.

1/2" BB ply sandwiched between 1/4", a brass rod, rosewood veneer over top and a bit of jatoba for a wedge. I borrowed the iron from my Stanley 90.









The sole is anodized aluminum just screwed on. This stuff is surprisingly durable and is easily replaced when worn. Floor glides nailed in front and back are my striking knobs and along with the angled shape gives it a bit of a racy look.









You can see that I did a poor job of plugging the screws holding the ply together and they have telegraphed their displeasure.









I had good use of this tool, that is until the new sheriff came to town.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Laminated Block*

This one was an exercise in lamination.










6 primary species of wood - western maple, red oak, sapele, cherry, birch and walnut. Two pieces of each species, each piece at a different thickness, and some random veneer thrown in between each primary wood piece, for a total of 23 layers. The sole is white oak.










Glue is urea formaldehyde, so I could glue it up in one go. Didn't think I could get it done with PVA.










The bed is 45 degrees, and was my first double iron plane. I somehow acquired an iron for the Lee Valley low-angle block, and decided to build a wooden plane around it. However, at 1/8" thick, I felt the iron was too thin to be on its own. I ordered a Stanley replacement cap iron from LV, and had to take a dremel to the slot in the iron to make them work together. The cap is about 1/16" wider than the iron, but that overhang doesn't seem to interfere with the operation of the plane.










This is my go-to block plane. The weight is perfect, the iron holds an edge considerably longer than it should, and adjustments are surprisingly precise. (Perhaps due to the rigidity of the UF glue?)


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Low Angle Block*










This one was also an exercise in lamination. Cherry and walnut, with a white oak sole.










Finish is Waterlox and wax. It darkened the cherry considerably (and the cherry has continued to darken all on its own), so the contrast isn't what I was originally going for.










The glueup was done with UF glue. While the number of pieces would have been manageable with PVA, I didn't feel like rushing. It took 3 separate glueups to make the blank. The first glueup was alternating layers of cherry and walnut, which was then sliced into small strips. Every other strip was reversed and then the whole thing was reglued. The tricky part was to get the checkers to line up corner to corner, and get them to say put under clamping pressure. Glueing the sole on to the blank was dead easy.










Bed angle is 37 degrees, and this time I used another iron intended for an LV low-angle block but without a chipbreaker.










The plane is a bit light. Neither cherry nor walnut are very dense, and the combination in a plane meant to trim end grain doesn't work as well as I'd like. Not enough mass, and even with a very sharp iron, tends to chatter. A double iron would have been a good idea just for the extra mass, or making the plane out of something heavy, like jatoba.










The effect where the pieces appear to elongate as the back curves is kind of neat.










The plane feels really good in the hand, but sadly, doesn't get as much use as I'd hoped.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Gene: I like the looks of that shoulder plane. Did you ever experience the aluminium leaving marks on whatever wood you were using it on?


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## vipond33 (Jul 25, 2011)

Mark, anodized aluminum glides well and does not mark unless you scratch through the coating. The sliding table of our 10ft panel saw is this way and in five years of use I have never had any marring, with many thousands of boards slid over it. These strips also make great drawer slides for small, light duty applications.
BTW, that's a fascinating pattern on the LA block; good work on the tricky part too.
gene


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Curly Smoother*

This one is a smoother with a 45 degree bed. About 10 1/2" long









Curly maple, jatoba stripes and ipe sole. (I have half a plank of 1×4 ipe - what else am I going to use it for?)









And another cut-down LV wooden plane iron.










Finish is tung oil and wax.


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## BTimmons (Aug 6, 2011)

Mark, you sure are turning in some absurdly beautiful entries for this thread.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Thank you, I will take that as a compliment!

I make the planes to be users, and their ability to produce the kind of shavings I'm looking for is the primary consideration. They do get used - the marks and dings all over them attest to that. That they are also nice to look IMO at is just a bonus, but serves to encourage their use. Also good practice in designing and executing curvature.

I seem to be coming close to monopolizing this thread, so LJs, please post your pics too!


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

I've got one in the works. Click on my blog to see more of it.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Don, I saw you pics of that plane in the epic thread.

I have one question, and I realize the answer could be simply "Because" - what aesthetic factors led you to have the top of the knob/bun have grain running cross-ways? That's curiosity, not criticism; I think its an interesting look.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Mark, its pure aesthetics. I made the bun and set it on the plane. I kept turning it to see which way I liked best.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*High-angle Block*

This one doesn't see much use because it is fairly specialized. The bed angle is 60 degrees, and highly useful in certain applications. Completely useless in most others. 









It tends to be hard to adjust. Tapping the iron to advance is fine, but tapping the back of the plane is just as likely to either do nothing or loosen the wedge as it is to retract the iron. The applied shock when you tap it at the back doesn't mesh well with the bed angle, and tapping it on the top just behind the iron - besides feeling just wrong - likes to loosen the wedge. There's probably some sweet spot on the arch of the back that works well, but I haven't found it yet.










Iron is a 1 1/2" Hock. I've left it at the bevel angle it came with, although I'm considering steepening it as it needs griding, maybe eventually getting to something like 40 degrees. Considering that it isn't used often, it may take a couple decades to get there.










And in case it isn't obvious, the body is beech and the sole is purpleheart. Finish is tung oil.


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## richardwootton (Jan 17, 2013)

Mark you've got some great looking planes there. I really like that curly smoother!


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Richard, thank you. It is a pretty sweet user, too.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Jatoba Block*










Next up is a 50 degree block plane.










The body is jatoba with an ipe sole. The stripe in the middle is ebony and beech.










Iron is a Hock 1 1/2". Finish is Waterlox and wax. Thanks to the jatoba and the Hock iron, this thing weighs more than some metal block planes. It fits very comfortably in the hand.










Jatoba is extremely hard and dense. Sanding end grain is about the same as sanding hardened steel. Forget about doing any shaping by hand, it was all done on a belt sander starting at 60 grit and moving up to 180. I did use 220 and up by hand to polish it a bit.










I find the front of it a little bulbous. I used a bandsaw to get the basic curves in, and then a series of round over bits to put on the edges. I got as close as I could, but it apparently wasn't enough, as I wore out the 60 grit belt I had before I could get to the shape I wanted. The higher grits were only good for taking out coarser scratches, not any kind of shaping. I finished it as it was, and while I could take it back to the sander any time, I am hesitant to do any more shaping on it because it fits my hand so well.










Its only flaw is the mouth opening, about 1/16". It is very rigid and will take any kind of shaving I want, from just under 1/16" on softwoods down to ones I don't trust my caliper's reading on. I've been meaning to put a plate in the sole to tighten up the mouth - perhaps make it from brass - but I keep convincing myself that there are more pressing things to do than fix something that already works well.










How did I mess up the mouth? I typically make the mouth a hair over 1/8", and then use small sanding blocks to open it up to fit the iron. In this case, the thick Hock iron means a lot of sanding. As tough as jatoba is, the ipe sole is even tougher, so it isn't like I just sanded an extra 1/32" by mistake.

The clue is the line you can see behind the iron in the second and the last pics. When I cut the bed angle, I was very careful to measure it precisely and cut accurately. As it happened, I was measuring the wrong side of the angle, and got myself a very nice 40 degree bed. So I needed to recut the front part of the blank at the correct angle and ended up with a little 10 degree wedge to glue onto the bed. Basically, added an extra saw kerf, and that was enough to leave me a bit short at the front. I knew I was in trouble, but glued it up anyways figuring I could always patch in a plate.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Jatoba smoother*

This is another jatoba plane. Apart from sanding end grain, jatoba is a relatively easy wood to work with. Machines well, holds an edge and seems to be pretty stable. I've also not (yet) encountered any boards with reaction wood. Kind of smells like a wet dog when being cut. I like it for planes because it is dense - the added mass in a small plane really helps performance.










No stripes this time, just jatoba and an ipe sole.










The bed is a fairly steep 60 degrees, which relegates it to limited use.










The only "decoration" are the indents on the side. Meant as a general area for fingers to hold.










The shape of the indents comes from the rear wheel well of a boattail Duesenberg, echoed by the back of the plane. I oriented the endgrain to try to give the impression of the point of the boattail, too.










The iron came from Lee Valley, a replacement for a Japanese chamfer plane they carry. (http://www.leevalley.com/US/Wood/page.aspx?p=41197&cat=1,41182)


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Mark. You do have some really nice looking planes. Do you have a family shot? I'd love to see them all together.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Yeah, I have a couple of shots of most of the bunch. They keep wandering off, so its hard to get them all in the same location at the same time  I'll post those when I've finished with the individuals, think I've only got a couple more to go.

Is there a word for a grouping of hand planes? A gaggle of geese, flock of sheep, pack of wolves - that sort of thing. If not, maybe its time to coin one…


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## BTimmons (Aug 6, 2011)

A plethora of planes, a smattering of smoothers, a smorgasbord of scrubs…


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Two Cherries Jointer*

Neither as long nor as wide as the one Derek Cohen posted near the beginning of this thread.










24" long jointer, bedded at 45 degrees. The iron is a LV woodie, 2 3/8" wide.










Beech body with ipe sole. The tote is cherry, knob is jatoba. Finish is tung oil.










The reason I asked Derek about the lack of a knob on the front of his jointer is because I find this one quite awkward to use without a knob. The knob on mine is threaded in so I can remove it easily. Without the knob, I find it hard to get a good grip for planing or lifting it, so I just leave the knob on.










I must admit that I'm not a hand plane purist. If I need to joint something in earnest, the machine jointer is nearly always my first choice. This does come in handy, though, on parts that would be too small or unsafe in other ways to machine joint. It is also handy to match plane two wide-ish edges in preparation for gluing. Because of this, I left the mouth with a very fine opening, nearly as small as a smoother's.


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## mds2 (Jan 28, 2013)

How do you guys go about cutting the mouth in the sole? all of my planes are just laminated wood with no sole. Do you laminate them, cut the bed angle, then glue the sole on afterwards?


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Don't know how anyone else does it, but I glue up a blank that includes the sole. Then, I cut off the cheeks, cut the bed and shape the front of the opening before glueing everything back up again. This means that the sole ends up with 2 glue lines, but with good glueup technique they are nearly invisible.

You do need to take care with alignment when gluing it back together, or you will see a step in the sole at the cheek. There's probably other ways, but I find the technique of drilling dowel holes for later alignment prior to cutting the cheeks from the blank to be highly effective.


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## mds2 (Jan 28, 2013)

Cool, I was wondering if that was another way to do it. I was just assuming you guys kept the sole solid. I'll try that the next time I make one.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

I usually chisel through, keeping the sole a solid piece, although Marks technique sounds interesting. I leave it a little thick so if there is splitting it gets planes off.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*A Block for a Friend*

I made this plane as a gift for a friend. He took a woodworking course to build a chair, and ran out of time. Hasn't had any luck finding a shop to get some time in, so the pieces for the chair are sitting on a shelf in his apartment. I was hoping to inspire him to complete the project by giving him a tool he could use without needing a shop. We'll see what happens.










Jatoba body with beech stripe. Ipe sole. Tung oil and wax finish.










45 degree bed, Hock iron. I barely opened the mouth, couldn't even fit a sheet of paper through. Told him he had to put the finishing touches on it himself.










Just about kept this one for myself.










(Apologies for the overlit pics, was trying a different lighting setup)


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## sergiozal (Jan 11, 2011)

OMG… Those are fantastic, I mean all of them posted here. I wonder if I could at any time do something worth to post in here.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Sergio,

I read your thread where you are restoring some old wooden planes. Getting them tuned up to working condition is a great place to start. You'll learn what it takes to make a wooden plane work well, how to adjust them, and what you do and don't like in a plane.

The next step is making your own. Don't wonder if you can do it. Just go ahead and make some. The worst that can happen is that you learn something.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

I agree with Mark. Making hand planes is a lot of fun and you learn a little more on each one.


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## mds2 (Jan 28, 2013)

Sergio, if you look up near the top of this thread, find my post with links to pictures of my planes. The first plane I posted was the first thing I made out of wood, ever. You just have to go to town on it.


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## Mosquito (Feb 15, 2012)

I hope to be venturing my way into this realm soon… have a blade on order with no plane for it to go in… yet


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## DouginVa (Mar 5, 2012)

I'm seeing some beautiful hand made planes on this thread. I'm gonna have to try this hand made plane thing once.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Mos, you definitely need some wooden planes to go with that lovely bench you've just made.

What iron do you have on order?


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## SCOTSMAN (Aug 1, 2008)

Absolutely wonderful please keep em coming a great thread with great workmanship.Love it . Alistair


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## Mosquito (Feb 15, 2012)

Mark, are you confusing the bench I'm working on with the one Mauricio just finished? They're similar, by mine isn't done yet lol I've stalled a bit waiting to get some "shop time" in my parents' garage…


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

No, I wasn't confusing you with Mauricio. I'd remembered seeing your post on making a screw, figured you must be about done…

But you still need some wooden planes.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*Miscellany*

*Spokeshave*
Made from the Lee Valley small shave kit. Beech body.


























*Knives*


















The outer ones are small carving knives. Jatoba on the left and african mahogany on the right. The middle is an ebony marking knife.

The blades on the carving knives are HCS jigsaw blades, while the blade on the marking knife came from Grizzly.

*Chisel Plane*










Quite possibly the ugliest, crudest plane in my collection. Well, no. Definitely the ugliest and crudest. But it does what it needs to do. Mahogany with a birch cap.


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## Mosquito (Feb 15, 2012)

How does the mahogany work out for a plane body?

You're right, I do need some wooden planes (I've got a few, but they're not ready for action yet). I should get the iron tomorrow, and then maybe make a trip and get some wood this weekend. Depends on weather.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

*A Gaggle of Planes*

Here's the cabinet I keep the planes in. Seemed to make more sense to do it this way than to use a traditional till.










I have a plane hammer for adjusting the planes, but the chunk of brass bar (sitting in front of the checkerboard block) works just as well and is much easier to carry around. 3/4" x 4".

Here's the 4 blocks lined up in order of bed angle.










And some of them arrayed on a wine crate. Much safer to mix wine and hand tools than wine and power tools.










Here's a few pics someone else took of the lot:


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Mahogany - Might work OK in a larger plane. Probably a bit too light for a block plane. Not saying you couldn't make it work, but my personal preference is for something denser.

It does work OK in the chisel plane, though. But you're not trimming end grain with a chisel plane, either.


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## Mosquito (Feb 15, 2012)

That's what I was thinking, that mahogany seemed light for a plane wood, so that's why I was asking. Thanks for the input 

I'm intending to build a jointer plane


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Mahogany might work just fine for a jointer. It is only a bit less dense than the beech I used in mine, and mine is plenty massive. But it will need a sole made from a harder wood.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Who's next? There must be more LJs that make or use wooden planes. Let's seem 'em!


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## jap (Oct 10, 2012)

Lovely work Mark.


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## Mosquito (Feb 15, 2012)

I'm workin' on it, Mark. Doing some work on my bench this weekend, but I have an iron I ordered from Ron Brese, which is intended for making a plane in the near future…


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## guitarchitect (Oct 28, 2011)

wow - consider me inspired! Can anyone advise on what the best size is for a block plane? I'm thinking of something for mostly cleaning up dovetails and other endgrain conditions. And what's the best wood at that size - is it jatoba? I've got a tonne of maple and walnut bits that I could laminate together, but I'm hoping for something that isn't as complicated to start out 

another thought - has anyone ever added weight to a wood plane for a shooting board application? seems like it would be pretty easy in the krenov style, just hollow out an area and add some lead, then pop one of mark's purty ipe soles on top


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

One of the nice things about making your own planes is that the "best" size is the one that fits your hand perfectly.

To give you an idea on dimensions, my block planes run about 6 1/2" long, 2 1/8" wide and 2 1/4" tall. Give or take up to 1/2" in the length and height. The width is primarily driven by the width of the iron. You can always start out a bit longer and taller and shape it down until you get something you like.

Best wood for a block? I've come to really like jatoba, but just about any wood will work. A bit of extra mass can be a good thing, but if I were to build a block around a Hock double iron, mass isn't a concern.

Like you, I've thought about adding mass. While I doubt I'd melt down lead, I might embed some brass bar. If it were exposed at the back, it would serve as a strike plate…

Are you thinking of a dedicated shooting plane? If so, build it at something like the size of a jack and you'll have plenty of mass.


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## guitarchitect (Oct 28, 2011)

sorry, I didn't mean i'd melt down the lead, I would just glue it in there. my dad builds duck and fish decoys and uses lead to lower their centers of gravity, and it works pretty well! I also have fond memories of him using lead to increase the weight of my cub car when i was a kid so that it would have more momentum, haha! so I was just thinking that it might be a good option. but a thick brass rod as a striking point might be even better!

thanks for the tips… i will try laminating some of my walnut together for my first shot, since I can always just use the iron that I get inside a new block of wood if I decide i need something denser 

when you're putting your soles on your planes, do you laminate it onto your block and then slice the sides off to cut the mouth?


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Yes, I laminate the sole to the rest of the blank before cutting off the cheeks and then the opening. You just have to take when care when you're gluing it all back together to make sure it is aligned or you see a step in the sole.

In this pic of my jointer, you can see I got out of alignment on the right rear corner:









You might be able to come up with a plane design where that is used for good effect. In my case, it was just the joint slipping out of alignment during glueup.

As Don W mentioned, you can also do it the other way - glue on the sole as the last step, and then chisel out the mouth. No right or wrong, go with what ever method makes sense to you.


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## Mosquito (Feb 15, 2012)

I shared this on the HPOYD thread too, but in case there's anyone that follows this one but not that one. I got some good progress done on my jointer plane this afternoon


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## sergiozal (Jan 11, 2011)

Not mine, but I think this could be the good place to post it:


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

I've got a hock blade ordered so I'll post it in my projects when it gets here.


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## guitarchitect (Oct 28, 2011)

Hey Mark, any idea what the solution is when the index pin isn't totally parallel to the ramp where the blade sits? 

I started a block plane and I'm making it out of maple… all per David Finck's book, except I used the table saw for the ramps and a router table for the slot. I don't have a plug cutter so I'm using 5/16" maple dowel for my index pin. I *thought* my DP was set up well enough (it's an old clunker), but I guess I was wrong! I'm somewhere between 1/32" and 1/64" off. I really hope the answer isn't "start over"  I'll try to email the author, too, to see if he responds…

In other news, remember what I said about weighting down a plane for a shooting board? Check this out… found it when I was googling solutions to my problem: http://www.forums.woodnet.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=5897066&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=all&vc=1

EDIT: Looks like it's covered in the book, sounds like I just have to muck about until it fits! I'll leave my dilemma in this post anyway


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

For those who don't have Finck's book, the answer is that you adjust the wedge to get a good fit between the crosspin assembly and the iron. Really, the crosspin doesn't have to be even remotely close to parallel to the ramp/iron, although it helps. The wedge just has to be shaped to account for the variation in the gap.

Finck suggest jamming the wedge in place and looking for where the wedge is burnished. Another method is to use chalk dust to check the fit. (Not my idea, but I can't remember where I read this.) Dust the top of the wedge (lightly) and the slide it into place. The chalk will get pushed into the wedge where it touches the crosspin. Remove the wedge, blow off the loose chalk, and then use a rasp/float/scraper/sandpaper to take down the wedge where the chalk remains. Rinse and repeat until you have a perfect fit over the entire width of the wedge.

Embedding those lead slugs is cool. A 7 lb "wooden" plane! I'm not sure I'd take on the hazard (^) of casting lead, but you could accomplish adding weight in the same manner by epoxying in round brass or steel stock.

(^) I guess we each have our own personal tolerance for what constitutes an acceptable hazard. I ride a motorcycle, blithely use potassium dichromate and have been know to modify electrical circuits without shutting off breakers. Yet I won't cast lead.


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## fatandy2003 (Apr 4, 2012)

Guitarchitect,

Another idea (not that Mark's idea is not a perfectly fine answer) is to add cheeks to the mouth like Derek Cohen did in this post on his blog: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/AddingCheeksToAKrenov.html

Just another option to throw into your decision.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Yeah, I was thinking I might try that on my next plane. Seems like a good way to avoid fiddling around with fitting the wedge, allows some more design options and could make the side of the plane stronger.

Looks like Mos is shaping cheeks directly into the side of his jointer.


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## guitarchitect (Oct 28, 2011)

Well that was easy! A some delicate finger work on the belt sander and it fits quite nicely 

now if only my jointer was working properly, I'd be most of the way to being finished!


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## fatandy2003 (Apr 4, 2012)

I am working on a jointer that will have cheeks integrated (similar to Mos, above). Derek's site also has a great instructional blog on building a jack plane with integrated cheeks, but it looks like it is the same concept for my jointer…


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

More Pic's


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Fantastic, Don!

How long did it take you to polish the brass?

This image shows a reflection almost good enough to take a fingerprint from


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Thanks Mark, polishing brass is sweet. Its polishes pretty easy.


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## unisaw (Jan 31, 2007)

I'm taking a Scott Meeks online course as we speak (he's sanding at the moment). I'll post pics shortly. He does a nice job teaching. Ooops - gotta get back.


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## ScaleShipWright (Mar 28, 2013)

Here are some little wooden planes I have recently made (first attempt, I need to improve my knowledge):










woods are hornbeam (Ostrya carpinifolia) for the sides and pear. The metal pin is brass.

The one in the middle has a convex sole:










The small one in action:










Alessandro


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

very nice.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

I'll second that sentiment. Nice work on the wedges.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)




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## Hammerthumb (Dec 28, 2012)

Nice Don!!


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## richardwootton (Jan 17, 2013)

Don I love those infills, they are fantastic! are they all going to just be your personal users or are you going to sell some of them also?


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

the #3 is already sold. Eventually I'll run out of room and sell some I suppose.


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## derekcohen (Jul 15, 2007)

Hi guys

I have just posted two pictorials of plane builds.

The first is a strike block plane (for use on a shooting board or cross grain flattening of panels). This involves chopping out a solid block of wood ...










http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/BuildingaStrikeBlockPlane.html

The second is a traditional Krenov style smoother. This one has a 55 degree bed. I also have a picture of a 40 degree block plane …










http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/BuildingaKrenovSmoother.html

Regards from Perth

Derek


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## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

I wouldn't call myself a craftsman, but I built a low angle black plane from scrap hardwoods a few years ago and it cuts as good or better than the jack and smooth planes I own. There was a plan over on the "Wood magazine" forum that I followed.


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## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

Looking at some of the plane pictures, it looks to me that some of them appear to not be ergonomic. Don't get me wrong. They are beautiful, but they look just plain uncomfortable to use, especially the ones with the squared off corners and edges. Tell me if I'm wrong. 
Not to pick on anyone in particular, but picking as an example the shooting board and plane in post #127; how would one grip that plane in use? It looks like you would have an awkward grip on it.
Regards to Perth, I've been there.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

MrRon, can you post pics of that low angle block you made?

I think ergonomics is something that depends on the maker/user. I make my planes so they are comfortable for me, and I don't care if anyone else finds them comfortable or uncomfortable. I use my planes daily, and if something bugs me, I've got no problem with doing a bit of reshaping until I like how it feels. I usually don't have a problem with too square, but I definitely do with too wide.

That being said, most of my planes have rounded hand-holding surfaces. That's mostly a byproduct of starting with a square block and making it smaller without weird steps or awkward transitions.

Derek mentioned - on a different forum - that he grips that plane by the cheek and finds it quite comfortable. It makes a lot of sense to me to get your hand as close to the cutting edge of the iron as possible, enhancing your control of and feel for the plane. Plus, you're probably not making a lot of strokes - the setup is just for final squaring up - so hand fatigue shouldn't become an issue.


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## sergiozal (Jan 11, 2011)

I am ashamed. You guys are posting some art pieces, not tools !!!


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

The blog is here.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Very nice, Don. Are you building infills full-time now? You seem to be putting out about 2 per week…


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## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

Mark Kornell, Here is the low angle block plane I made.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

That's an interesting design. How much use does it see? What's the bed angle?

You pinned the front of the plane in two places, and if I'm seeing correctly, also once in the bed? I like the look of that. Was that an aesthetic decision, or something you felt structurally necessary?


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

MrRon, I agree with Mark, interesting design

Mark, infills art getting full time. Metal should arrive tomorrow for a couple of shooters.


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## derekcohen (Jul 15, 2007)

Coffin smoother (solid billet of Tasmanian Blackwood). Jarrah wedge. 6 3/4" long, 1 3/4" tapered vintage (NOS) iron.




























Router planes in Jarrah using Veritas router plane blades (range of sizes from 1/8" - 1/2"). Brass adjuster and depth stop. These are "medium" in size - between the Large and Small router planes. Great size!




























Regards from Perth

Derek


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## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

Mark Kornell, I use this plane quite a bit, usually for breaking sharp corners. The two brass pins are 1/4" diameter and are there to hold the "iron" in place and for decoration. The Angle is around 15°, but I would have to check it. I got the design from a guy over on the "Wood magazine" forum. I believe he is a moderator, who goes by the name, MSWOODCRAFT.


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## LakeLover (Feb 2, 2013)

Mr Ron

Nice looking plane. Any problem with chipping the trailing edge of the mouth/sole.

From what I read 15 is getting pretty thin.

I have some irons being made for me now, waiting sort of patiently.


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## wormil (Nov 19, 2011)

Walnut and maple router plane, this is my first shop made plane.


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## Iguana (Jun 22, 2011)

Very cool. That design is quite striking.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

it looks great Rick.


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## ScaleShipWright (Mar 28, 2013)

Great! What about the iron?


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## wormil (Nov 19, 2011)

It's a hex key ground down on a crank grinder than finished by hand. The little iron took longer than the rest combined.


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## Hammerthumb (Dec 28, 2012)

Nice job Rick!


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## mochoa (Oct 9, 2009)

How did I miss this thread? Its so beautiful!!!


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## pjped (Feb 25, 2011)

Derek, those router planes are super… I bet the weight is just right. Now when I see toothless old ladies, I'll know where all their teeth have gone! nice collection. -Pete


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## ScaleShipWright (Mar 28, 2013)

I have just completed my router plane:










More photos and info at the project page:

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/89098


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)




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## ArtRafael (Apr 17, 2013)

Here's a pair I built some time ago. Ralph


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## Mosquito (Feb 15, 2012)

Can't remember if I've shared it here or not, but a 32" jointer plane I made from hard and birdseye maple (birdseye tote)


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## mochoa (Oct 9, 2009)

Wow Ralph, how did you make those? Little brass square tubing?

Mos, some sweet shavings there man.


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## ArtRafael (Apr 17, 2013)

Hi Maurico. Some of my models are cast and some are fabricated from flat stock metal. See the thread listed here. Ralph

Miniature Scraper Plane - build process


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## ArtRafael (Apr 17, 2013)

or try here. Ralph

" Miniature Scraper Plane - build process " And check "view all replies" to view first 17 pics.


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## ArtRafael (Apr 17, 2013)

Nice job, Mosquito. One can tell by the shavings that the blade is cutting thin and even. Good looking body too. Ralph


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## Mosquito (Feb 15, 2012)

Thanks Ralph. I guess it's a testament that sharp trumps tight mouth. Getting those shavings, with this mouth:









and just so it isn't just about the thin shavings…


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## Hammerthumb (Dec 28, 2012)

Cuts beautifully Mos! Are you going to fix the bottom, or leave it as is?


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## ArtRafael (Apr 17, 2013)

Here's a model of a coach maker's plane from my collection. Ralph


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## Mosquito (Feb 15, 2012)

Very nice work Ralph, that thing looks sweet.

Paul, I'm undecided as of yet. It's a jointer plane, so not really intended for smoothing, and it doesn't bother me that much. I may eventually fix it, but for now it works as is


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Mos, I'm not sure its fixable. You deserve something perfect. I suggest you send it to me and just start over.


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## CFrye (May 13, 2013)

Don, along those same lines of reasoning, Mos' plane wouldn't really fit in your collection either. Since I'm just starting out and don't have ANY jointers, It could be the first and appreciated as such, 'damaged' though it be ;-) 
Ralph, that coach plane is a thing of beauty!


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Sorry Candy, I just couldn't live with myself to let someone just starting out struggle with damaged goods. It just wouldn't be right.

Ralph, as always your work amazes me.


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## Mosquito (Feb 15, 2012)

Ha! I'll just suffer through it, wouldn't want to burden anyone else with my damaged product…


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## CFrye (May 13, 2013)

You guys are just too kind and considerate. Seeing your point of view, I'll agree to take your best off your hands. That would be more right.


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## Hammerthumb (Dec 28, 2012)

Mos - I was gonna offer to fix it for you. Course, it might get lost on the way back!


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## ArtRafael (Apr 17, 2013)

Here's one I built recently. Ralph


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## ArtRafael (Apr 17, 2013)

It turned out nicely. Ralph


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

my eyes hurt just thinking about it. That is amazing.


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## mochoa (Oct 9, 2009)

Ralph you do some amazing work! What is the scale on those planes?


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## CFrye (May 13, 2013)

Ralph, again, beautiful. Sigh. To say you built it is an understatement. You, sir, are a *craftsman*.


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## ArtRafael (Apr 17, 2013)

Thanks All. Most of my stuff is 1/4 scale, but sometimes I build to please the eye without concern for scale. Here's one from the archives in brass and Ebony. The graph paper background is 1/4 inch. Ralph


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## JayT (May 6, 2012)

First one I can post (the others are waiting for the swap reveal)


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## CFrye (May 13, 2013)

Here's my first…not my last!


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## Wolfdaddy (May 18, 2013)

I know this is kind of an older thread, but I wanna play! This is the first plane I have made, but it will definitely not be the last. This one was given as a Christmas gift. Next one is mine!


























More details and pics on my projects page. I also have some better pics on my wife's camera. I'll try to upload and post them later.


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## CFrye (May 13, 2013)

WOW Wolfdaddy! That is a gorgeous plane and shavings! And hammer! You done good.


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## richardwootton (Jan 17, 2013)

Wolfdaddy, that's a great looking plane! I'm glad to see this thread get a little breath of life again.


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## Texcaster (Oct 26, 2013)

Nice Work Fellas & Ladies!

Planes I have made and modified for Luthiery, mostly for carving the insides of double bass, guitar, mandolin and fiddle.



















Vietnamese style hollow and scraper.










The scraper is only used for the final shaping of double bass finger boards. These days I'm using Solomon Blackwood, a very hard and rowed timber. The DB finger board is a very complex shape…. a compound radius with planed in string relief 520mm from the nut ( 1/2 the 1050 scale ). 1mm relief for the G string- 2mm relief for the E string.










151 Stanley ground double convex and a Stanley scraper ground to smooth a DB neck




























This might look a bit agricultural to some but I'm 66 and past pretty. Now I only care about something that works.


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## Wolfdaddy (May 18, 2013)

Those look good to me, Tex. They might not be "pretty," but they have their appeal. Krenov didn't put much emphasis on pretty looking planes, but you can't deny their beauty.

These pics didn't come out as well as I hoped, but here are the ones from my wife's camera. They're better than the crappy iphone pics anyway.





































Meh…maybe not.


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## Texcaster (Oct 26, 2013)

Color with digital is a tricky thing.

My fingerboard straight edge. No relief yet, I've just started this one.


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## Wolfdaddy (May 18, 2013)

That's really cool. I'd like to get into luthierie someday.


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## Texcaster (Oct 26, 2013)

Half the battle is knowing how to sharpen your tools. I started by working on my own instruments, that and I couldn't justify spending the big bucks on my modest playing ability. Instrument Acquisition Syndrome is too real for some. IAS is not as embarrassing or expensive if you make your own. I'm afraid I left it too late for a proper career but it's a whole new world of interest for me.

When is the best time to plant a tree? 20 years ago. When is the second best time? Now.

I bought a 6×8 from this guy's nephew in Brisbane. It grows near Bauxite deposits and is very controlled.

Solomon Blackwood


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## LakeLover (Feb 2, 2013)

Bill and Ralph some real eye candy there.

I gt some irons made up for shoulder plane. Now that it is cold out, I will just shuffle to the shop and start in on them.

Ralph what method of casting. I had done some lost wax and cuttlefish. Can't remember were I saw, some guy cast a fire ant colony with aluminum. It was unreal.


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## ArtRafael (Apr 17, 2013)

Hi LakeLover. I have done sand castings with cope and drag, but most of my stuff is lost wax centrifugal casting because it allows greater detail.

In keeping with the title of this thread, here's a group picture of some of the planes I've made. Ralph


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## Texcaster (Oct 26, 2013)

Ralph are you a Wizard? Outstanding!!


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## CFrye (May 13, 2013)

Heck of a family portrait there Ralph!


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## Wolfdaddy (May 18, 2013)

Ralph, you work wonders! I love the shavings sprinkled around everywhere.


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## ArtRafael (Apr 17, 2013)

Thanks everybody. See my "action" video on youtube. Ralph


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## mds2 (Jan 28, 2013)

Art, your planes are amazing. Do you have any videos that show the process of making one?


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## ArtRafael (Apr 17, 2013)

Thanks mds2. Yes, I have posted a build process string under "Miniature Scraper Plane - build process" by Art Rafael on this forum. Go back to "show previous replys" and start at frame one to see the whole process. Ralph


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## fatandy2003 (Apr 4, 2012)

Spokeshave made from the large Veritas spokeshave kit. Works great!


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## SCOTSMAN (Aug 1, 2008)

One word, actually five,Beautiful. Alistair my name being six LOL


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## LakeLover (Feb 2, 2013)

Ralph.

Thanks for getting back. Lost wax does open some opportunities.

Nice pic of your work. Gonna go back and read your project page.

Happy New Years.


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## ArtRafael (Apr 17, 2013)

Sorry Lake Lover. The listed string is not the lost wax process. It is a fabrication process. I typically use the process that will most readily accommodate my intent. I'll try to post a lost wax casting process. Ralph


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