If you would build a scraper plane, where would you start?

[Pekka Huhta]

If you started building a scraper plane from scratch, where would you start? As scratch I would count wood, pieces of metal, easily available hand plane bodies and such debris, found in most workshops.

I have needed a scraper plane several times, but not so badly as the people on eBay seem to, looking at the prices. Which made me thinking of building one.

Some of the questions that have crossed my mind:

- Are there any wooden scraper planes? What kind of a mouth would a wooden scraper plane have?
- What if I got a plate of steel, filed an opening to it and built the rest of it from wood? Would that solve any problems regarding the mouth?
- What would you use for the scraper holding mechanism? Perhaps something from an existing (bench) plane
- A used #4 is most available frame, but would it be too narrow? Where would you start with one?
- Are there any other easily available frames that could be used?

I'm not hinting at the direction of an infill scraper plane although that crossed my mind as well

Just that I am curious about your ideas. I have rumbled through my boxes of tool waste and picked up some interesting bits and pieces, but before I get too obsessed with any solution, I'd like to start as open as possible for all of the strangest ideas...

Pekka

 

[Philly]

Hi Pekka
Veritas sell a scraper plane insert to fit any metal bench plane. Have a look here.
Also there are some free plans for making a wooden plane. Have a search on the 'net-here's one to get you going.
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/featu ... sp?id=1093
Hope this helps
Philly

 

[engineer one]

not a scraper plane, but the latest issue of american magazine wooden
boat contains an article about making hand held scrapers for cleaning
the bottom of boats and also making the wood smooth.sure it
will be on their website.

paul :wink:

 

[Frank D.]

Hi Pekka,
Just a few offhand ideas:
from scratch I'd build a scraper plane from wood, like a wide scrub with a 60 degree bed. The mouth would be wide open, because mouths don't matter on a scraper plane (type III shavings are squished together right in front of the edge of the blade). Then I'd take a slightly cambered 2 1/2"-wide blade, sharpen it at 35 or 40°, and place it bevel-up. I'd also try (if I was really enthusiastic about it) making one with a 100° bed and just place the blade with the bevel toward the bed.
I guess you could also take a #4 and sharpen the blade at 45 or 50°, and turn the blade upside-down (bevel-up), but I'm not sure how well this would work. It would be easy to try though.
This said, I use a LN 112. I have an old scraper plane with a 95°-or-so bed that works, but I prefer my 112 because I can change the angle of the blade as it gets dull. I tried a wooden version of the 112 that was homemade, but it didn't quite do the trick. Obviously I've never tried to make my own scraper plane.
Hopefully someone who has made one will come along...

 

[Alf]

I ahve a nasty feeling there probably aren't many spare coffin smoothers in Finland, but just in case it gives any ideas, there's a simple conversion here.

Cheers, Alf

 

[Scrit]

I'd possibly start with Robert Wearings book - he shows a couple of wooden scraper planes there

Scrit

 

[David C]

We have built wooden scraper planes with great sucess.

The Stanley 80 geometry works very well, and I see no reason to vary this.

Width of mouth not important in this kind of scraping.

David C

 

[Racers]

Hi,

I have made a metal scraper plane have a look at
http://wdynamic.com/galoots/4images/det ... ge_id=1685

here is the adjuster
http://wdynamic.com/galoots/4images/det ... ge_id=1686

and cap
http://wdynamic.com/galoots/4images/det ... ge_id=1687

the sole is 6mm plate with 3mm side plates welded on, the adjuster post in also welded to the sole the cap is riveted together. The blade back plate has a round bar welded to the bottom with holes in the end for spring loaded pins you can just see them if you look closely. The wood is Yew epoxyed in and the brass rivets are actually brass screws in shallow counter sinks with the heads filled off.
The blade is 3mm Ground Flat Stock hardened in the barbeque with the aide of a hairdryer to get it up to temperature, quenched in old engine oil and tempered in the oven. It’s loosely based on the Stanley and Lie-Nielson 112 just simplified a bit.
It has been repainted and tickled up since those pictures have been done it is now black, it was all made with a welder a drill in a drill stand and hand tools.

It works very well on Birds-eye Maple quarter sawn Iroko and everything I have tried it on, leaving a glass like finish. I use a 45 degree bevel and a burr I have also used it with a plane blade with out a burr.

I have also made a small rosewood scraper plane with a 6mm thick blade.
http://wdynamic.com/galoots/4images/det ... ge_id=1971

Pete

 

[bugbear]

If you started building a scraper plane from scratch, where would you start? As scratch I would count wood, pieces of metal, easily available hand plane bodies and such debris, found in most workshops.

I have needed a scraper plane several times,

Proponents of high effective angle planes night disagree...

Anyway, Pete Maddex made one from scratch:

http://nika.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswi ... =1#message
http://nika.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswi ... =1#message

BugBear

 

[Pekka Huhta]

Thanks all, it seems that I should've done a bit of googling beforehand

My first ideas were to start from a scruffy #4-size Pexto plane. There is hardly anything else usable than the body anyway, so it would have been a good candidate. On the other hand, would 2" be too narrow for example scraping a veneered table top?

I actually have about five extra coffin smoothers that have been "sloped" to me, but they would have the same restrictions on width. Maybe one of them could be used on this one, but... Although I have no restraints on butchering a mass-production plane from 60's, I have a soft spot on the older coffin smoothers as I started with them instead of more modern planes. Probably explains the multiple samples on my "collection" Now that I think of it, it really might make sense anyway. A Real Smoother

Philly's article was intriguing - but then again, I already said the magic words "infill scraper plane" so Pete's plane really got me. It is a beauty. Well now, if I had all the time in the world, a brass version would probably do. With dovetails, of course, and all sorts of glittery bronze knobs and thumbscrews...

Well, starting from the coffin smoother really would seem the best option. My tuit-list is a bit longish, I really should get that roof to hold before it really starts pouring



I hope I'm able to send some pictures from the progress later on. - When I'm getting to it.

Pekka

 

[Paul Chapman]

Is that a roof or the Finnish version of The Slope :-k :lol:

Paul

 

[Colin C]

Is that a roof or the Finnish version of The Slope :-k :lol:

Paul

[-X

 

[Pekka Huhta]

If it is a Slope it isn't of a very good quality. Only tools I have seen coming down that slope have been a hammer, a small pry bar and a bucketful of nails. :lol:

Yesterday I had a look at the coffin smoothers and there would be one or two that could be used. At least one has too big a mouth already and bit of hollow in front of the mouth. So I could scrape the sole straight anyway, but I'd hate to cut the sole behind the mouth without understanding why.

I really couldn't figure out why to cut off wood behind the mouth as on Alf's example. It seems that the iron could be just set backwards on the plane and modifying the wedge to fit the iron without a chipbreaker would be the only required modification, so if I built a new wedge, the modification could always be reversed.

Any ideas?

Pekka

 

[Alf]

I think it's to allow room for the shavings to escape? But naturally my website has chosen now to go down again, so I can't refresh my memory. (Please direct complaints to Charley and maybe he'll tell you why it happens to my site and not this one even thougth they're supposed to be on the same server. )

Cheers, Alf