A couple of small planes
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Here are a couple of small planes I made.
Both were made in the way Paul shows.
One has a radius bottom. The other is set up like a smoother with a little handle. Both about 6″ (150mm) long.
Looking good what did you do for blades
Frankj
I used 1-1/4″ wide 1/8″ thick O1 steel I got at McMaster Carr.
For each plane I shaped the blade on a grinder, heated it up with a gas torch, quenched in oil and tempered in a toaster oven.
Quenching.
I tempered the blade in a toaster oven.
To test the temperature I heated up the oven and put in some sugar on some aluminum foil. Around 360F sugar should melt. Here you can see that the sugar is melted. I turned the dial down to 350F and left the blade in for an hour or so.
I shined up the blade and shaped it and sharpened it.
That’s fantastic, Jude. I recently watched the first video again from the curved plane series in the hopes that I’d make one soon. Did you find it difficult following Paul’s method? It looked like the accuracy of the plane hinged on the glue-up. How did that go for you?
Matt, the curved plane was supposed to have a flat bottom, but things went awry when I glued up. The bed shifted forward and I had to chisel and file the mouth open again. I didn’t like the way it looked so I curved the bottom and went to make another with a flat bottom.
For the straight smoother, I put glue on all the parts and rubbed the parts together until the glue got tacky before I clamped the plane together. I found it easier to use F-clamps rather than using a vise.
I still fine-tuned the mouth by planing the base until the blade could be fed through the mouth and not let the plane get clogged up with shavings.
The glue-up is the hardest part for me. I think I might make some kind of clamping jig or hold the lot together temporarily with rubber bands or something. Salt in the glue, I’m told, can help to stop sliding.
Thanks, Jude – that’s exactly the feedback I was looking for. I’ve thought about drilling a hole through the side, into the body and out through the other side at both front and back sections to help align things (using a pin in the drilled hole) for glue-up. But I’d like a cleaner look. I tried that in one of my experiments making hollow and round planes, but didn’t care for how it looked. Those I was able to clamp reasonably well with F-clamps and trued up the sole and top later with a plane. I was happy not to have to chisel and file the throat and mouth.
Nice! I’ve been thinking about making some. I really like wooden planes. I may go and buy a transitional plane and reuse the wood for one. Often find those in terrible condition. Then reuse the iron too. I may do the Krenov style pin to hold the wedge and iron in.
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