Using Planes To Make A Plane – Part Two

“The venerable woodworker stood, trembling – looking into the abyss of his ‘to be wood plane.’  What he saw scared him speechless – no cross-pin.”

Yes, this is where the last post, part one of this saga, ended.  Finck actually warns you to remember to install the cross-pin during glue up and I was so proud of myself that I had done so when I did the dry fit and assembly walk-through.  But…stupid is as stupid does is an expression that originated in my shop.

But, the budding novelist that I am, I wanted to build tension into this scene.  So, what did I do?  Quickly disassemble this and start to pry one cheek off with a chisel.  Then the chisel slipped, taking a gash out of my thumb.  Sometimes sharp isn’t all its cracked up to be and I started bleeding like crazy.  So, while holding a finger over my new thumb hole, I continued.  I got the side off, inserted the cross-pin, and slapped the plane back together and reclamped.

I “knew” the plane was ruined but my brain suddenly switched to the blood on the table, blood on the floor, and blood dripping from my thumb.  Remind me why do we do woodworking, again.  Up the stairs, two at a time – tough for an old man like me.  While washing out the cut I realized that it wasn’t as bad as it looked, that I could move  the joints on cue and so I wrapped it up tightly and went back to the shop.  I had cleaning to do. The blood came off the table with a few spritzes of alcohol.  The concrete floor, however, will remind me of plane-making for some time to come.

Analysis of my RE-glue up suggested that things might not be so bad if the glue hadn’t set up too quickly.  If only I’d been using my preferred hide glue.  I could have just heated/wetted the joint and fixed the problem at my leisure.  But, alas, I’m trying to use up the Titebond I have hanging around and I used their quick-set veneer glue because “this was an easy glue-up.”  Sigh.

I suppose you see this as an unfortunate accident, brought on by my stupidity.  Nope..it was all part of the plan.  I needed to mark a reference face from which to check squareness of the sole as I did the final work on this plane.  My pencil was all the way on the other side of the shop, you see, and I innovated.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

With the reference face marked, it comes time for flattening and squaring the sole.  Here Finck uses a jointer.  I used a plane to plane my plane, which was plain easy.

During this process you want to get the sole square to the reference surface, flat along its length, and you want the mouth to be square to the reference surface.  Using Finck’s approach, you need to remove around 1/8″ of wood to open the mouth sufficiently for the blade to protrude.  Nevertheless, go slow.  Check and recheck as you remove wood.

As you proceed, insert the blade regularly, looking at how close it is to being able to come through the mouth.  When it gets close, switch to sandpaper.  At this point the sole should be flat and smooth so you’re just removing stock more slowly so you can obtain an opening in front of the protruding blade  of just a few thousandths.

Here’s my fancy set up for sanding.  I used 80-grit paper until the mouth opening was just large enough to let the blade come through.  Then I switched to 150 and finally 220.  I used a file to micro-adjust the mouth opening and shape according to Finck’s instructions.

Finck uses a bandsaw to cut the curved front/rear and to cut the dip to relieve the blade opening.  I used my bandsaw for the later.  I could have used my bowsaw just as well but, at this point I was discouraged, thinking that the glue up would surely have made a mess of the joints.   If not for this blog I may well have given up and started over.  Thank goodness I write this blog as things turned out just fine.  Never fret over things that ‘might’ be.

I used rasps, files, and spokeshaves to remove everything else that didn’t look like a Krenov plane.  This was fun as there are no rules.  I used sandpaper to smooth all the curved surfaces, applied 3 coats of boiled linseed oil, and then some wax.  While this wasn’t a fancy piece of wood, I was happy with the results.

In conclusion, making wood planes using these techniques is much easier than I thought it would be.  And in spite of my best attempts to scuttle the project, the plane works very well.

If you’ve never used a wooden plane that’s properly set up with a keen blade, you’re in for a treat when you try one.  They glide so nicely over the wood.  They provide a ‘feel’ that you don’t get from metal planes.  Try one, you’ll like it.

Oh, I mentioned how proud I was of my dust collection system.  Thought I’d gloat with a close up view of it.

I will conclude with a few comments about using hand tools to build planes while following  Finck’s instructions.  It’s my belief that some of the dimensions should be thought through and adjusted for how you work and what tools you’re going to use.

Finck assumes you’re going to take a 1/16″ kerf when you cut the cheeks.  He assumes you’re then going to run the cheeks and center block through your jointer. My handsaw takes nearly the same 1/16″ kerf as Finck’s bandsaw but smoothing the resultant faces wit hand planes doesn’t require the amounts of wood his jointer removes from the four surfaces.

This resulted in two outcomes when I used Finck’s dimensions but worked with hand tools.  First, the blade ramp and mouth is wider than it should be, at least by 3/16″ in my case.  Also, the overall width of the plane is considerably wider than necessary, probably 3/8″ to 1/2″ too wide, making the distance from the blade edge to the plane edge much greater than normal.  These things are no big deal, I guess, but when I make my next plane I’ll adjust the dimensions somewhat.

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com

Using Planes To Make A Plane – Part One

Sometimes my buying habits are embarrassing.  At last count I owned 4 books and a DVD on how to build wooden planes.  I have a Hock blade for making a chisel plane, bought as a “response” to the Fine Woodworking construction article.  I have a Hock blade/chip breaker, bought shortly after I bought David Finck’s book.  I’ve  also bought a whole pile of O-1 steel in all of the sizes necessary to make a set of hollows and rounds.  But I haven’t made a single wooden plane – ever.

A recent Twitter discussion about David’s book,  Making and Mastering Wood Planes, inspired me to do something about this silliness.  If you’ve never seen David’s book, it’s a fantastic text on how to make and use Krenov-style wood planes.  It’s gone in/out of print several times and the current edition, the “revised 2nd edition” was welcomed when it was released as the older versions drag down prices that require a second mortgage.

I decided to build a basic plane following Finck’s instructions, but with a twist.  Finck assumes you have a shop full of power tools and depends upon them to make his wooden hand planes.  I find more than a little irony in that and thought I’d try to make one using, mostly, hand tools.  I’m not going to replicate David Finck’s instructions here; that would be unfair to him.  Rather, I hope I can outline the steps, show you how easy it is, and get you to buy a copy of David’s book and build planes yourself.

Choosing the Wood

Traditionally wooden planes were made from beech, oak, maple and other hardwoods.   More important than species, though, is a need to choose a block such that the grain runs along the length of the plane and you want to orient any deviation of that such that the grain descends from front to back.

If you follow Finck’s instructions, you need a block that’s 2 1/2″ thick and as wide as you need to accommodate your blade choice.  The only 10/4 wood I had in my shop was a piece of red maple so, from that, I cut a piece the proper width and about a foot long (I wanted a 10″ plane using a 1 3/4″ Hock blade/chip breaker.

I marked the block with the triangle and on each side I put the line indicating front-back grain direction.  I then cut the cheeks off the block.  This approach (the Krenov approach) allows you to cut all of the internal angles and work up the ramp without a lot of fancy chisel work.  What is important is that the cheeks and center pieces form tight face joints as otherwise the seams will show in the finished plane.  Finck uses his jointer to smooth these surfaces after cutting them with a bandsaw.  I used a smooth plane after using a handsaw.  I took longer; he makes more noise.  My seams are not visible in the finished plane.

Cutting Front and Back Block Angles

The standard angles are 45-degrees for the blade ramp and 62-degrees on the front block.  The ramp angle will determine the angle of cut and while 45-degrees is called the “common angle” for a bevel-down plane. If you want a plane to use on highly figured wood, you might want to increase that angle.

Once the cuts are made, I used a low-angle block plane to smooth and square up both of the angled surfaces.  You need a really sharp blade here as you’re planing a fairly large end-grain surface.  Particular attention is given to the ramp as it needs to be very flat as it must support the blade.  I must be square as otherwise the blade will not present square to the work when you use the plane.  Just to avoid confusion, I’ve laid the center over on its side in the photo so you can see the angles.   In the plane the angles would face upward.  You can test the ramp on a flat surface and see if you can rock it in any direction.

Assembly Dowels

To create the plane you sandwich the two center blocks between the two cheeks.  To facilitate this dowels are placed in the top corners on each side.  Pretty is not the goal here as these dowels aren’t part of the end result.  What’s important here is that the dowels need to be tight enough to align the sides with the center blocks but not too tight as you’ll be opening and closing this assembly.

I drilled 3/8″ holes in each top corner, fitted dowels, and cut them flush with a flush-cut saw.  Nothing much to say here.   Mine were tight enough that I had to hammer the dowels into the holes and use a chisel to get between the cheeks and center blocks to pry the joints apart.  I think this is a good thing as they do loosen up as you move through the creation process.

Oh, you might notice my dust collector in the background.  I’m mighty proud of it.  Works great.

Cross Pin

The blade is held by a wedge that fits under a cross-pin that bridges between the two plane cheeks.  This cross-pin must be allowed to rotate, though it doesn’t need to be a loose fit.  Finck shows several ways of making the cross-pin; I used my lathe.  The distance between the cheeks (leave a small amount of room for expansion) plus the thickness of the cheeks determines the length.  I turned the pins on the ends of 1/2″ square stock.

I laid out the location of the holes for the cross pin according to Finck’s directions.  Finck suggests that that you drill one side, assemble the plane, and drill through the first hole to make the second, ensuring that your drill bit is vertical.  I used a drill press for this and drilled both holes at the same time.  A bit of test fitting is in order here.  Make sure the cross-pin can rotate and that there is no side-to-side binding.

Finck recommends using a chisel to round over one side of the pin (the side away from the blade).  I used a rasp and a bit of sandpaper for this.  The shape here is up to you as what’s important to operation is the flat side that will hold the wedge/blade in place.

Chip Breaker Screw Relief

At this point the plane is almost ready for assembly.  But if you’re using a blade/chip breaker combination, you need to provide relief in the ramp for the screw that holds the chip breaker to the blade.  Dimensions of the relief channel are determined by the size of the screw and how far down the ramp it will be when the blade is extended.

I marked this out and treated it as a mortise, chopping out the material.  Easy peasy.

Finally…Assembly

The time has come.  This is where those phrases, like “pulling it all together”, “the hard work is about to pay off”, and “oh how I wish I had 3 hands” flow freely.  Final assembly is both scary and exciting but in this case, mostly easy because of the assembly.

You need three clamping cauls, one for each side of the plane and a third to ensure that the bottom is flat.  This last one is the most important.  Notice that there is only one dowel in the corner of each center block.  Thus, they are free to rotate around them.  The “sole caul”  helps you align the center blocks to form a flat sole.

I clamped the sole caul in place using a couple quick clamps.  Then I used the other two cauls and three clamps to clamp the plane together.  And at this point I’m going to do what is rare in blogging…a cliffhanger.  Look careful at this last photo and see what I saw.  I’ll be posting the second part of this sequence “real soon.”

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com