Help with Router Pane Plans?
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- This topic has 10 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 6 months ago by Peter Fitzpatrick.
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23 July 2017 at 10:46 pm #313970
Hey guys, I found these plans for a router plane, but I am not the most affluent when it comes to hardware.
Can someone help me identify these items, so I can try to find them online, or at my local hardware stores?!http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/BuildingaWoodenRouterPlane.html
I rarely use the depth stop on my router, so you can just skip that part. Rarely may actually be never.
The cutters are from LV ( http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=67484&cat=41182,43698&ap=1 )
The blade retainer in this design is just an eye bolt. Just ask for one at the hardware store and make sure it looks like what they show in the photo. You will find eye “bolts” that are really eye-screws on which the threads are really a wood/lag screw (comes to a pointy end). You don’t want that. You will also find eye bolts that have a thread that will match a nut. You can either grab nuts from the drawers or use a thread sizer to determine the threads on the eye bolt. Heck, it might even be labeled. Once you know the thread, maybe 1/4″-20, go digging through the drawers for a nut you like that matches that thread. I think this would work with a wing nut. The trick is to go back and forth between the thread options on the eye bolts they offer and the various nuts they offer until something matches up. You could ask them if they have a fancy knurled nut like in the photo (bring the photo), but it’s not essential. What’s essential is the washer, a nut you can do with your fingers (like a wing nut), and the eye bolt.
The LV cutter has a square shaft on it that is 3/8″ on a side. You should bring either the iron itself, or a 3/8″ square piece of wood a few inches long, to feed through the eye to make sure the eye diameter is appropriate to grab the cutter. You might want to draw your router plane in plan so you can hold the hardware up to the drawing to make sure it will go together.
The threaded portion of the eyebolt will come in various lengths. Pick a length that will fit in your drawing, leaving enough room for the wing nut or knurled nut to thread on and without being too long.
Hope this helps. There’s no magic link I can think of…you just need to draw up your router plane and then fool around in the hardware store. For me, the local hardware store is ten times better than Home Depot for this kind of thing because HD has so little hardware in bins for single-item purchase. So, you can’t explore there like I’m suggesting.
It doesn’t matter if you use metric or heathen units hardware. Whatever matches up to give you an eye bolt, nut, and washer is fine.
Others can comment on whether this needs to be stainless. I don’t see why it would need to be.
Derek Cohen (who owns the site inthewoodshop.com) is a seriously great woodworker, but I’m with Ed on this, even though it means disagreeing with Derek…I don’t think I’ve ever used the depth stop on my router plane (and I don’t recall seeing Paul use it, either) so I also think you can safely skip that part.
As for the brass channel at the end, it’s a very nice touch, typical of Derek’s amazing work, but I think it’s also not needed, esp given the nice touch he did on the eye bolt itself…this picture:
See how he filed the rear of the eye bolt so it has two flat faces which meet at a point? I think that’s brilliant, and really the key feature. Do that with the front of the eye bolt as well as the rear, and file or cut the matching notch into the wood at the back of the router plane (as Derek did) but for the cutter to seat, not some brass piece. That will result in a perfect seat with the flat faces of the cutter, and I think you’ll have a solid router plane without the need for any brass.
26 July 2017 at 7:45 pm #314034[quote quote=313979]Derek Cohen (who owns the site inthewoodshop.com) is a seriously great woodworker, but I’m with Ed on this, even though it means disagreeing with Derek…I don’t think I’ve ever used the depth stop on my router plane (and I don’t recall seeing Paul use it, either) so I also think you can safely skip that part.
As for the brass channel at the end, it’s a very nice touch, typical of Derek’s amazing work, but I think it’s also not needed, esp given the nice touch he did on the eye bolt itself…this picture:
See how he filed the rear of the eye bolt so it has two flat faces which meet at a point? I think that’s brilliant, and really the key feature. Do that with the front of the eye bolt as well as the rear, and file or cut the matching notch into the wood at the back of the router plane (as Derek did) but for the cutter to seat, not some brass piece. That will result in a perfect seat with the flat faces of the cutter, and I think you’ll have a solid router plane without the need for any brass.
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I had not seen that. What’s the point of doing it on the back side!? I could see the point of doing it on the top, as it would have more surface area to grip onto the blade’s shaft.
Thx for tip
- This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by mysticjbyrd.
“What’s the point of doing it on the back side!? I could see the point of doing it on the top, as it would have more surface area to grip onto the blade’s shaft.”
I don’t see the point of doing either *unless* the inside diameter of the eye is smaller than what is needed to pass the iron. In that case, the flats opened up the eye just enough to pass the blade. The question remans, why do it on that side instead of the front? It is probably for three reasons. Look at the photos on the blog page again and you’ll see that the blade points away from the eye bolt threads, so the force on the blade is directed towards the flats. Second, the closure of the eye is irregular. Filing the flats makes sure that the blade doesn’t bear against an irregular surface. Finally, notice the flats formed in the wooden body of the router. Those should really be what bears the force on the blade. Bottom line- I think those flats passed the blade and were an easy way to make sure the blade pointed forward. The flats on the wood then bear the force (and also direct the blade forward).
Best guesses based on the photos…
26 July 2017 at 10:01 pm #314045It doesn’t matter if you use metric or heathen units
Funny, I always think of it as Imperial or heathen units…
[quote quote=314045]Funny, I always think of it as Imperial or heathen units…[/quote]
Oh, I’m a devout heathen. Inches, feet, and fractions are ingrained in my visual thinking, but my training (science) was metric and most of the world uses it, so heathen I must be. Honestly, at this point, I use what works and frequently mix units in my work. Joules, KWh, BTU, furlong-squared slugs per week*minutes. Whatever. Just don’t ask me if you should put on a hat when it’s 9 degrees C. I’ll have no idea until I add 32 to 18. Oh, how I pray this doesn’t devolve into another One True Unit discussion.
@lorenzojose How do you do quotes? Your message seems to have a correctly formatted quotation. If I click quote in the message or hit any of the various buttons above the message text-box, I just get mangled HTML. How are you doing it?
27 July 2017 at 4:42 am #314058Tap on the B-QUOTE button, paste or type your text, then tap on the B-QUOTE button again. ( note it has changed to /B-QUOTE)
As to units of measure, I grew up where old carpenters still used líneas, varas, and pulgadas.
(Spanish guitar makers still use them)
It all works if you have a rule in the correct units.- This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by Larry Geib.
7 November 2017 at 5:27 am #358101I made a router based on the design mentioned above (though it’s not as attractive), learned a thing or two in the process. Considering that it’s a first go, it works reasonably well, but there are definitely a couple of issues to be addressed.
I wrote a series of blog posts about it, if you’re interested — maybe you can avoid some of the issues I encountered. The most recent post is at http://fitz-publicdisplays.blogspot.co.nz/2017/11/router-plane-revisited.html
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