# The “keeper” router plane WIP



## Sawdust=manglitter (1 Jan 2018)

I know... yet another router plane! But I set out to make myself a keeper of a router plane that’s hard wearing enough to last and also wanted to indulge and making something pretty. (Also couldn’t afford to pay for the Veritas router plane which I really fancied!)

I had an antique Lignum Vitae lawn bowls ball which I won on eBay (turned a mallet out of one already) which I decided to use for the body of the plane. So the first thing i needed to do was to get a flat side to the ball, so in order to safely take the ball through the bandsaw I screwed a piece of scrap through one side of the ball to give it some rigidity and stop it spinning and jamming in the blade.







I sanded the bandsaw cut on the belt sander to give me a flatter face to work from. Next step was to get a parallel flat face on the opposite side of the ball, so achieved this with my biggest Forstner bit (50mm) on the drill press.






Then used the same 50mm Forstner bit to drill the main off centre hole through the body. (I did drill through pith and the area with the most cracks)












I cut the perpendicular flat rear of the router plane by lining up the off centre hole by eye and cut it on the mitre saw.






The next bit was a little precarious. Can’t remember the exact angle I cut, maybe something like 22 degrees, but in order to hold the ball safely I had to clamp a piece of wood through the ball, but I did line it up perpendicular to the mitre saw fence with a machinist square before clamping a little harder that I probably should have.


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## Sawdust=manglitter (1 Jan 2018)

I then measured the approximate width of the blade support ‘tower’ and cut that on the mitre saw too with a depth stop, but the dewalt DW717 doesn’t let the blade back far enough to give me a flat cut all the way, but to be honest this was only rough to form the blade support ‘tower’. (And if I did want a flat cut I could’ve held the ball away from the fence with a spacer scrap)






I wasn’t quite happy with the angle of the front cut and wanted to slim it down a bit, so cut that again.











Next I cut a scrap piece of wood with an angle I though would be pleasing, in order to help cut the side angles on the bandsaw. Can’t remember what angle exactly, but was probably around 22 degrees too.











So after a bunch of hand sanding and sanding against the edge of the table saw table i got rid of the bandsaw marks. I then cleaned up the main hole on the bobbin sander.






I marked where I wanted the holes for the handles to go, and did my best to mark it evenly. 






Again, I cut some scrap to the same angle as the sides so I could get the sides as perpendicular as I could to the drill press for the handle holes (stuck the body on with double sided tape).


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## Sawdust=manglitter (1 Jan 2018)

I decided to thread the handle to the body (both Lignum Vitae and boxwood should be petty good woods for threading), so I went with M12 size thread tap, which I did on the drill press to ensure it was threaded perpendicularly. 






The next step I was dreading as I wanted to cut the tool V-groove as square and accurate as I possibly could. As I don’t have a morticer I throughly maybe the best way to give my a good start with the square hand file was to drill a perpendicular half circle at the drill press, which was done with a correctly sized scrap in the hole (done very rough/quick on the lathe).











The half circle that I drilled gave the hand file enough support to keep the V-groove as square as possible, and filing the rest by hand wasn’t too bad in the end.











Next was to decide where exactly I wanted the blade clamp eye bolt to go, which I thought exact centre would be about right, so drilled that on the drill press. I then had to cut out a recess to enable the eye bolt to clamp the blade properly, this was done with a small carving gouge.






In the meantime I’d actually tried out the Veritas plane in the Axminster store in Cardiff, and realised that you can use the blade on the read of the pane too which would give greater flexibility and provide greater support when cutting over an edge, so thought that would be advantageous and decided to make the plane adaptable to be able to use the blade at the rear too, so cut a V-groove to the rear as well. But in doing that it meant that I would also need a flat surface to be able to register the eyebolt thumb screw to either the inside or the rear, so I used a Forstner bit to cut a flat circular recess for a washer. I also drilled two holes to the top which I threaded to M6 size for the blade fine adjuster (I picked M6 as it’ thread has an exact 1mm pitch, so one full turn of the adjustment knob means a rise or lowering of exactly 1mm).











I then spent a while shaping the body by using carving chisels and lots and lots and lots of hand sanding, so the finished body currently looks like below. I’ve kept the outer circumference of the plane as the ball’s original surface as both a hint at its original use and to maximise surface area of the bottom. I’ve only buffed the body so far though (with an old waxy rag, hence a little sheen), but I do plan on using Alfie Shine once I’m satisfied that the plane body is finished.
















Will write up the handles and hardware when I get a chance next. And sorry for the long winded explanations and overkill on the photos


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## Sawdust=manglitter (1 Jan 2018)

So for the handles I decided to use boxwood, which I’ve got a small stock which comes in handy for just such an occasion. So I turned the first handle on the lathe until i found a shape which I liked and was happy with. Then turned the base to as close as possible to 12mm. Replicating the handles was a challenge for me as I’ve not done any replicating on the lathe before. They’re not an exact match, but I’m happy with the result.






In order to thread the handles into the body I used an M12 die. It’s not some special wood tap, but it worked great. The boxwood did chip out a little, but the threads work great.






I’m no metal worker, but I fancied working with some brass to see what I could do, so started off by trying to make some brass ‘accent’ washers to the base of the handles. So as I always seem to make life difficult for myself I ended up needing to make my own washers to fit the already turned handles! What I did to start with was buy a plate of 1.5mm thick brass from eBay (got more than I need for use in future). So I decided that the only way to keep the washers central was to tap two M12 holes in the plate first. Then I rough cut an oversized octagon shape around both tapped holes using a hacksaw. Unfortunately at the time I didn’t have any M12 thread rod which I could try and use on the wood lathe in a drill chuck, but I did have a very long M12 bolt somewhere, so being impatient I decided to improvise a dodgy lathe type spinny thingy which comprised my impact driver with socket adapter at one end and an offcut of Lignum vitae with a 12mm hole held at the other end. I used this to spin the two washers against the disk sander to get the octagons circular and to the correct diameter.






Once that was done I used my incredible lathe type spinny thingy to polish the edge of the washers using micromesh, working my way up to an overkill of 12000 grit.






Now the accent washers fit the handles, and the handles thread into the body.
















Will try to write up more again tomorrow after work... first day back tomorrow


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## marcros (1 Jan 2018)

excellent write-up, thanks for taking the time


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## CHJ (1 Jan 2018)

> I’m no metal worker, but I fancied working with some brass to see what I could do,


You can turn Brass on your wood lathe with normal HSS tools, try it next time to speed things up and make life easier.


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## thetyreman (2 Jan 2018)

that's a really nice tool, funnily enough I saw some lignum vitae bowling balls in a charity shop near me a few months ago, very similar looking for only £10, I wish I'd have bought them now, it's good to see them re-cylced as such a well made tool, bet it'll last a while that one.


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## rafezetter (2 Jan 2018)

If you do wood tapping again in brittle wood you might want to soak the area to be tapped with superglue - cheap watery (poundshop) stuff is better to really soak in, it will help stabilise the wood and make the threads stronger too. You might even cut the taps and soak again to get the deeper parts of the thread and go over again with the tap.

DO make sure that you leave it to completely dry - and a bit more after that (DIMHIKT) before cutting the taps and assembly!


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## Chris152 (2 Jan 2018)

Looks lovely Sawdust. I now want to find an old a bowling ball.


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## AndyT (2 Jan 2018)

That's looking rather special - a lovely sculptural shape, worth all that head scratching and problem solving to make it. With LV being self-lubricating it should work really well too.


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## NazNomad (2 Jan 2018)

That's beautiful.


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## DTR (2 Jan 2018)

Brilliant!! =D> Thanks for the WIP


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## El Barto (2 Jan 2018)

Great write up, thank you for taking the time to do it.


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## Sawdust=manglitter (2 Jan 2018)

Thanks all. Will try to write up more of the hardware stuff tonight if i can.




CHJ":176fjt1y said:


> You can turn Brass on your wood lathe with normal HSS tools, try it next time to speed things up and make life easier.



I thought you could, but i couldnt pluck up the courage to risk my turning tools! Will definitely give it a go next time. What I wish I could have done is some knurling and make my own thumb nuts from scratch, but that will have to wait for a small lottery win to buy a metal lathe i think. [I did try to keep all of the brass shavings tho for future inlays on turning projects  ]


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## CHJ (2 Jan 2018)

With a little ingenuity Knurling on brass would be possible on wood lathe.

If you can devise a method of holding one of these clamp type Knurling tools on your tool rest system you should be able to achieve the cut by tightening the adjaustment nut.

https://www.chronos.ltd.uk/engineering- ... w-chronos/

You might want to use a smaller version for your tool nuts.


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## Sawdust=manglitter (2 Jan 2018)

Hmmmmm, intriguing!? When I was thinking about it I didnt think I'd have a stable enough support for the knurling tool, especially as my lathe is only a cheap-ish Delta clone of the Axminster AWVSL1000 so prone to slight movement of the headstock. If I had something solid like a Graduate lathe then I would've taken a punt and given it a go. Have you, or anyone else, tried using a knurling tool on brass on a (not so solid) wood lathe?


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## AndyT (2 Jan 2018)

Not exactly, but I have used that sort of tool on my treadle powered Barnes metalwork lathe. It's the clamping that makes the knurling happen - I just pull the workpiece round by hand. As long as you can clamp the knurling tool so it can't escape forward, you're ok. You might be able to just clamp one alongside a short toolrest turned 90° . The height it sits at takes care of itself. With the ingenuity shown in this build, I'm sure if you bought one you'd find a way to mount it.

(My one has a longer shaft for a different tool post, which might be easier to mount, so check the models before you buy one.


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## CHJ (2 Jan 2018)

There are very few forces involved other than holding the tool rigid as per your normal tool rest, all significant forces are between the two cutting wheels.


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## CHJ (2 Jan 2018)

I made up an oddball tool post some years ago, not used often but it's surprising what you can bolt or clamp to it for that unexpected job.


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## Sawdust=manglitter (2 Jan 2018)

Ooooh, that looks like it would be very handy indeed for random odd-jobs! That’ll be added to my ever growing to-do list, thanks for the tip. May consider trying the knurling myself then when I get a chance to make improvements to this plane


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## Sawdust=manglitter (2 Jan 2018)

Back to the WIP...

In the meantime I’d bought a couple of the Veritas router plane blades, so I had them for accurate sizing. For the depth stop I bought a short length of 22mm diameter brass rod from eBay. So as there was a lot of experimentation during this build I thought I’d try and drill a hole into the rod using the wood lathe, so I mounted the rod in my chuck using the centre of the jaws to secure the rod (hopefully) central. I then drilled a small hole (maybe 4mm) and then worked up from 6mm to 8mm and finally to a 10mm diameter hole - also used 3 in 1 for lubrication, rightly or wrongly!







Once I drilled the hole I did a little shaping of what would be the top face of the depth stop using a file while the lathe was on. The i sanded it using the micro-grit pads. 

In order to cut it off, again rightly or wrongly, I carefully moved a hacksaw forwards while the lathe was on in order to cut the correct length almost all the way through, but tuned off when I was close to actually saw the rest off with the hacksaw properly. Note that I found it a cleaner/slower/less scary cut with the teeth of the hacksaw blade facing the wrong way.

I cleaned up the burrs to the bottom face of the depth stop using sand paper, working my way through the grits by rubbing on my table saw table, and even went through the micro-grit pads to an unnecessary 12000 grit.

I have some cheapy small files which I randomly received among random tools that came with my lathe, which I used to try to form internal corners of the hole in the depth stop to try and make a nicely fitting square hole the right size for the Veritas blades, which took a while. 
[As a side note, I bought a second cut and smooth cut Bahco 10mm square files (which are great by the way!) for this and for making the V-groove in the body, but I wish I’d gone for the 8mm square files as the 10mm files were too big to use effectively until the hole was already big enough for the depth stop, so I was only able to use the top tapered area of the files.]
Anyway, got there in the end and then drilled and tapped a hole for an M4 knurled bolt (which I got here... https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07 ... UTF8&psc=1 - again, a lot more than I need, but will no doubt come in handy for future projects in years to come)






As you can tell from the above and below photos, the hole isn’t the tidiest and was actually a little too big/loose for my liking as it wobbled to either side of the knurled bolt a bit when tightened(so would be too inaccurate for me as a depth stop), so this was my first attempt and I have since made another tidier, better fitting one.








So on to the blade clamp... 
So I bought this eye bolt from eBay 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-Pack-M6-Th ... 1438.l2649
As it actually gave the inside diameter as 10mm, which is needed for the blades. So similarly to the depth stop above, I used a combination of the small files and the top tapered end of the 10mm square Bahco files to form a nicely fitting square hole for the blades.
















The knurled thumb nuts I bought are a pair of these on ebay
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brass-Knurle ... 2749.l2649
One is used for securing the blade clamp, the other I used for the height adjuster.

Note that I did polish up the thumb nut (not the knurled edge) by mounting the nut on an M6 threaded rod and used the OTT micro-grit pads again.


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## CHJ (2 Jan 2018)

Try using your scrapers and parting tools next time to shape instead of files, just as if you are turning wood, better finish and easier diameter control.
No lubricant required for brass, machine dry as you would cast Iron.
Use paraffin for aluminium.


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## Sawdust=manglitter (2 Jan 2018)

On to the fine height adjuster...

So in the spirit of trying to keep as much of the hardware as I could in Brass, I bought some M6 threaded rod for the height adjuster. 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brass-Studdi ... fGDcKwwHcA

As I said before, I picked M6 for the height adjuster as it’s thread has an exact 1mm pitch, so one full turn of the adjustment knob means a rise or lowering of exactly 1mm.

So for the height adjusting knob itself I used one of the knurled thumb nuts and mounted it on an M6 threaded rod in the drill chuck on the lathe and I filed/turned it down to the exact thickness required for the Veritas blade. I also filed off the knurling here too. (Also polished up as before)

Eventually I plan to replace this height adjustment knob with a single piece turned myself, but until then I’ve epoxied the above shaped/smoothed thumb nut with one of these knurled thumb nuts from ebay
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M6-Knurled-B ... SwY~1Z61Pl

I properly scratched up both mating surfaces to try and ensure as good a bond as possible, and clamped/screwed them together with the epoxy on an M6 threaded bar (which I covered with PTFE tape to stop it gluing to the threaded rod!)






As you can see, I tried to protect the polished up brass surface with masking tape, but unfortunately the knurled nut did get epoxy stuck to the closest half of it, which I can’t think of a way of cleaning up without damaging the knurling.








So that’s pretty much it, apart from the extra brass washers I made for the blade clamp (same method as before, but it’s not threaded).

I’m happy with the result, and the plane works great. I’ve not finished it yet, but it’s useable (which now means things on the to-do list of the ‘boss’ takes priority!).

I will need to trim the height of the height adjustment threaded rod and then epoxy on another knurled nut to the top of the threaded rod to tighten/loosen it making it easier to swap from front blade use to read blade use. Also may trim the blade clamp eye bolt. I will want to try waxing the plane too, possibly using Alfie Shine, but wasn’t sure how best to treat Lignum Vitae due to its own waxes etc. 




























So thank you for reading my dyslexic waffle and please excuse my lack of photography skills too. Any future tips and advice will also be appreciated


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## Racers (3 Jan 2018)

Looks a cracking plane, love the LV.

You should be able to pick out the Epoxy from the knurling with a sharp tool like a scribe.

The LV is naturally greasy is should polish up with out any wax I have used a dremel with a felt bob on small objects.

Pete


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## Just4Fun (3 Jan 2018)

I like it. It looks really nice. It puts my own home made router plane to shame, but then again any tools I make for myself are simply tools with no pretensions of looking nice. Even ignoring looks though, yours is better than mine because mine lacks the screw adjustable depth control, and I cannot reverse the iron. I like the idea of reversing the iron so I may steal that idea.

When I made mine I intended to put knobs on it, similar to yours but smaller. I started using it without the knobs and have never got around to adding them. I found I always want to push from behind the plane rather than from above it. i'm not sure having the knobs would contribute anything. Can you comment on that? Do you think yours is better due to having the knobs, and if so, how?


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## Sawdust=manglitter (3 Jan 2018)

Racers":1nf4pyx4 said:


> You should be able to pick out the Epoxy from the knurling with a sharp tool like a scribe.


Thanks Pete, Will try picking out the epoxy when i get a chance, just didnt want to end up scratching the brass too much. 



Racers":1nf4pyx4 said:


> The LV is naturally greasy is should polish up with out any wax I have used a dremel with a felt bob on small objects.


Thats one of the reasons I've hesitated before applying any finish, as it looks pretty good as it is at the moment, so will hold off and buff it up more.


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## Sawdust=manglitter (3 Jan 2018)

Just4Fun":37by7hbt said:


> When I made mine I intended to put knobs on it, similar to yours but smaller. I started using it without the knobs and have never got around to adding them. I found I always want to push from behind the plane rather than from above it. i'm not sure having the knobs would contribute anything. Can you comment on that? Do you think yours is better due to having the knobs, and if so, how?


Hi Just4Fun, having the handles directly in line with the blade in its traditional position and held at the an angle, so kinda pointing towards where the blade would be cutting (where the force is applied), seems to be a good transfer of forces and it works great! Having the larger handles helps too as its much more comfortable in my hands (i do have large hands though) and i can get a good comfortable grip. So i dont know if its 'better' having the handles compared to without, but they work very well for me.


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## StraightOffTheArk (3 Jan 2018)

Just4Fun":g0ct4g8h said:


> When I made mine I intended to put knobs on it, similar to yours but smaller. I started using it without the knobs and have never got around to adding them. I found I always want to push from behind the plane rather than from above it. i'm not sure having the knobs would contribute anything. Can you comment on that? Do you think yours is better due to having the knobs, and if so, how?



This is something that also interests me - I suspect that handles were originally just a convenient way of holding a metal router, and this pattern has been copied by modern wooden routers. I've only ever used Old Womans Tooth type routers, where the body itself is designed to be held and it's easy to apply both downward pressure and forward direction from behind the iron. I am intending to make one with a bent iron, so I'll add one more drop to the ocean of hand router WIP's.

This is certainly a very handsome router however - anything that I am capable of knocking together will be rather more utilitarian in appearance.

Cheers,
Carl


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## Farmer Giles (4 Jan 2018)

Lovely job, I like that a lot =D> 

I have been considering buying a router plane but this has made me think again.


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## Sawdust=manglitter (4 Jan 2018)

Farmer Giles":11jnv5ap said:


> I have been considering buying a router plane but this has made me think again.


Not only is it the sense of satisfaction, but it also saved a chunk of money forking out for the Veritas one. The main cost was for the Veritas blades, so the cheapest I found them (and the sharpening jig) is from the below website...

https://www.canadiantools.co.uk/tools/V ... Plane.html





CHJ":11jnv5ap said:


> With a little ingenuity Knurling on brass would be possible on wood lathe.
> If you can devise a method of holding one of these clamp type Knurling tools on your tool rest system you should be able to achieve the cut by tightening the adjaustment nut.
> https://www.chronos.ltd.uk/engineering- ... w-chronos/
> You might want to use a smaller version for your tool nuts.


Thanks to your suggestion Chas I have now ordered a similar knurling tool to your suggestion, so will try to give it a punt. 

The fine adjustment thumb nut was actually too small to be able to reach the blade in both positions, hence having two holes and needing to move the brass threaded rod, but if i’m able to make my own nut from scratch that reaches both sides from one position then it would be a big improvement. 

If I end up doing that though, I may just fill the two existing holes with epoxy and maybe put a shaped brass plate over the top surface, which would hide the ugly filled holes


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## Sawdust=manglitter (12 Jan 2018)

Can you guess what’s coming up next...






The next phase is here. As per recommendations on here I bought a relatively cheap knurling tool from Chronos. The tool posts I have for the wood lathe don’t have a square surface, so also needed to make myself a simple tool rest for a square reference surface.

So bought a 25mm diameter mild steel bar and also a 25mm square mild steel bar from the bay. So started by sawing down both bars to size, which took a while. For now I decided just to bolt them together with M12 bolts, so was straightforward enough.
















So did the same with the square bar (but obviously not on the lathe)






So I now have a square surface to clamp the knurling tool to.






Started off just turning it by hand to see what happens, ended up trying with the lathe at low speed.











I’m so pleased with my first attempt experiment.






When I get time I will be making some brass knobs from scratch for the router plane


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## AndyT (12 Jan 2018)

Nice result!

Well done. And quick, too.


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## Sawdust=manglitter (12 Jan 2018)

Thanks Andy. Well if it wasn’t for yours and Chas’ advice i’d still be attempting to save up for a metal lathe :lol:


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## Sawdust=manglitter (19 Jan 2018)

So I’ve finished the height adjustment knob!

I started with a 1.5” brass rod from ebay. I placed this between the jaws of my wood lathe in order to drill a hole as close to the centre as possible. This hole is 5mm diameter in order to tap it for M6 x 1.0.






So once the hole was drilled i then tapped the hole for M6. I then mounted this on some scrap M6 threaded rod and placed this in a drill chuck on the lathe. I did use an old lathe centrein the other side of the hole for stability to stop as much chatter as possible. As per Chas’ recommendations I then (cautiously) tried using a wood lathe parting tool, and was plesently surprised as to how well it cut and the tool didn’t get too hot and start ruining the tempering, which I was worried about. Using a combination of the parting tool and a round nose scraper I slowly removed the waste to a shape I was happy with. Then I knurled the grippy part. (sorry not many in-between photos, I was “in the zone”)






Whilst turning this I had to re-tighten the drill chuck a few times and then it occurred to me, ‘what if I’ve crushed some of the threads of the threaded rod making this knob off centre’? Thankfully it turned out to be not too bad, but when it came to shaping the top ‘dome’ shape it was a little wobbly, so decided the best bet would be to get hold of a part threaded M6 bolt, as below, which I trimmed to fit as much length as I can in the drill chuck.






I’m glad I got the above as it did help keep it stable when turning the end of the dome with without a support. Once I was happy with the shape overall I then sanded from 320 grit up to 3200 micromesh.
















Oh, and I used a hacksaw to cut a small reference indicator line, so when using the router plane I can take mental note of where my the indicator line is for the first cut and then know that each full turn is 1mm.






In order to locate the height adjuster so it can reach both front and rear blade locations I clamped 2 blade body’s to the plane. I sanded a point to the end of the M6 threaded rod, which I could protrude slightly from the bottom of the adjustment knob and mark the new location of the threaded bar.
















I filled the 2 exisitng holes with epoxy.






I do plan on shaping a brass plate to go over the top to cover the unsightly filled holes, so that’s the next job before drilling the new hole.


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## AndyT (19 Jan 2018)

Brilliant! That should inspire a few more makers who don't have a metalwork lathe. And it looks really classy.

I like the idea of the reference mark as well.


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## Sawdust=manglitter (19 Jan 2018)

I'm still surprised with what you can actually get done on a wood lathe!!! I will certainly be doing more brass work in future, and I am no metal-worker


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## custard (19 Jan 2018)

Sawdust=manglitter":5mdg2b9y said:


> I'm still surprised with what you can actually get done on a wood lathe!!! I will certainly be doing more brass work in future, and I am no metal-worker



That's astonishing, and it opens the door for drawer pulls and all sorts of stuff on a woodworking lathe.

Do you know what type of brass you used? I've heard that there are dozens of different types and grades of wood, and apparently they can have quite different properties.


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## Sawdust=manglitter (19 Jan 2018)

custard":26cyhfm7 said:


> That's astonishing, and it opens the door for drawer pulls and all sorts of stuff on a woodworking lathe.
> 
> Do you know what type of brass you used? I've heard that there are dozens of different types and grades of wood, and apparently they can have quite different properties.



All of the brass I've bought has been in small quantities on ebay and the cheapest I can find, and they all say that it is CZ121 which i assume is the grade or purity. I never looked into it to be honest, i just took a punt on the cheapest available to me to try it out. But as you've said, my limited experience working with brass has now opened doors for future projects


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## custard (19 Jan 2018)

Oops! I meant grades of brass, not grades of wood. Freudian slip there.

I think Musicman is a metallurgist, if he reads this maybe he could advise?


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## Sawdust=manglitter (19 Jan 2018)

From a quick search...

Brass Classes
Brasses are divided into two classes. The alpha alloys, with less than 37% zinc, and the alpha/beta alloys with 37-45% zinc. Alpha alloys are ductile and can be cold worked. Alpha/beta or duplex alloys have limited cold ductility and are harder and stronger. CZ121 is an alpha/beta alloy.

Brass alloy CZ121 is used for machining. It has lead added to the composition to improve machinability. The lead remains insoluble in the microstructure of the brass and the soft particles act as chip breakers.

https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=2822


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## CHJ (19 Jan 2018)

You won't hurt HSS tools with Brass, they work fine on a metal lathe to cut mild steel.


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## AES (19 Jan 2018)

+1 for what "he" said about HSS tools on brass! I'm VERY impressed with the above metal turning on a wood lathe BTW. EXCELLENT looking results and something to be proud off. Makes me feel a little less "guilty" about the small amount of wood turning that I do on a metal lathe!

AES


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## CHJ (25 Jan 2018)

Another use for your Knurling tool, if you have jigs or wooden lathe spindle jigs requiring regular relocation.

Make up some simple Brass or Aluminium centre inserts to mount in them, that way it doesn't matter how many times you remount or re-locate they will run true. Just did these this morning for some Test turnings and sample use.


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## Sawdust=manglitter (29 Jan 2018)

Update... i finally got around to doing the brass plate to the top, so rough cut with a hacksaw then filed away to size.











I scuffed up and used a punch to knock some ‘dents’ to the underside of the brass plate in the hopes to help the brass bond with the epoxy and then glued it on and shaped further using files.
















I still need to sand/polish it up properly, but other projects are priority at the moment. But as a whole the plane functions perfectly!! Just been using it on some half blind dovetails on this sideboard/TV cabinet i’ve been making, and its been so satisfying to use.


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## AES (29 Jan 2018)

VERY impressive Sawdust=manglitter. IMO your metal working skills are a perfect match to your woody skills. Very well done Sir!

=D> =D> 

AES


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## Sawdust=manglitter (30 Jan 2018)

AES":2b51by8d said:


> VERY impressive Sawdust=manglitter. IMO your metal working skills are a perfect match to your woody skills. Very well done Sir!



Don't know about metalworking skills, it's the first time I've done anything with metal since school, but thank you anyway AES


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## AES (30 Jan 2018)

I don't know about "since school" but it's obvious you've taken care and used skill (yes, it's that stuff you earn by doing things - in this case in metal) and IMO you have every reason to be proud of your self and your work. That tool's not only a keeper but assuming you have interested kids and/or family, it'll become an heirloom ("My Great Uncle Arfur made that himself!").

It just looks "lovely" and assuming it works (which I don't doubt) you really have "gorn n dunnit"!

BTW, I really value this Forum for all the stuff you see and advice freely given - just FYI, until I joined up here I didn't even know there was such a tool as a hand router plane.

AES


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## adidat (30 Jan 2018)

really well executed tool! you should be very pleased!

Adidat


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## Sawdust=manglitter (30 Jan 2018)

Thanks both. Yes I am very pleased, with it’s performance in particular. I’ve never owned a router plane, but having used this one I wish i’d bought one/made one sooner.


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## lee celtic (15 Mar 2018)

Functional and beautiful too... very impressed with the idea and the craftsmanship.. Fine work...


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## MusicMan (15 Mar 2018)

custard":thfvaw4k said:


> Oops! I meant grades of brass, not grades of wood. Freudian slip there.
> 
> I think Musicman is a metallurgist, if he reads this maybe he could advise?



Not much to add to Sawdust's web research. You definitely do not want alpha brass (single phase), which is for rolling and drawing and doesn't cut freely. Alpha/beta brass (two phase, with the beta phase more brittle) is designed for machining as the chips break off. And preferably a bit of lead which helps the chips break off and lubricates a bit. You don't need lubricant/coolant with brass unless you are doing a heavy cut. But short rods that you get from ebay are likely to be the right stuff. Alpha brass is usually sold as sheet or wire, not rod/bar.

The technique Sawdust used is actually jewellers' lathe on steroids. Jewellers use gravers in much the same way woodworkers use scrapers. It can be very delicate and precise, as we see here. Nice work and great improvisation, Sawdust! I'm particularly impressed by your crisp knurling.

Keith


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