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Really nice job. Someone told me it loses 90% of its value if you paint over its original finish. But that’s not a problem, because you are going to get decades of happy use of of it, right?

My experience of those I’ve made is that there’s a natural tendency to push against the workpiece, and even if your edge is dead square to the shooting board base, it’s very easy to inadvertently lift or rattle the plane out of square a little. Also I found it very uncomfortable to use with my...

Here’s something “interesting” I’ve stumbled on recently. Many people know that the finial of moulding plane wedges changed shape from a rounded shape to a more crescent shape in the mid-1800s. I always thought this was simply fashion. Out with the old, in with the new etc. Left = old style and...

Here’s how I use my calipers most of the time. When making moulding planes you usually find yourself working in thousands of an inch because it’s more convenient to work out all the dimensions that way. Also CAD and Excel deal better with thou than fractions, as does the brain. Originally I...

True, but in practice they don’t come off even if you want them to, and you can swap the Jacob’s->mt adapter if you want to put it in another tailstock or arbor, which can be very useful.

That’s interesting, of the two I’m tending towards that one, partly for the extra power and also it has a wheel mechanism for moving it - a bit. But also, being a relatively new machine, it may not require constant fettling to keep it working. I’ve fixed a lot of old machines in my time, and...

The thing is, that’s where I started. I was trying to cut these billets By hand, I made a mistake on Friday morning, and spent the rest of the morning fixing it. And it really ought to be a five minute job to make these cuts. Here’s an example, these billets are about 5” x 3” x 10” long. I...

Hi I really really could do with a bandsaw for chopping up 5” beech plane billets, and ideally some mild milling of deeper beech and other hardwoods. I’ve been trying to make do for a while but I think I have to take the plunge, even though I don’t really have space for one. I’ve never had a...

An essential accessory! No idea what’s in it. Perhaps something I can’t find. The petrol strimmer is high up on the wall because my wife refuses to use it and I refuse to get rid of it. But yes it’s a toss up between accessibility of tools and protection from dust. The tools I have that are...

I made a thing for this…. Excellent at trapping dust too. Colour coordinated with my other ones… Et cetera et cetera. Dust traps but at least organised and to hand.

Thanks John - funnily enough it wasn’t my idea really. The came from the 1962 video on YouTube showing Norman Bayliss, Marples’ last plane maker, using a very similar template to make moulding planes. Obviously his was not 3d printed. But you can imagine that a historical plane manufacturer...

Thank you. They took quite a bit of working out but should allow me to make similar planes quickly and consistently.

3/4” skew rabbet/rebate plane made with the skew floats I made last week. Made using a 3d printed template system I created. One template for each side plus a little circular template to locate the forstner bit for the hole that turns into the escapement. plus also a 3d printed jig for use...

Great effort! Nice to see someone else suffering like I am.

Making a nice neat job of something like that is a good achievement. What material? What lathe? What thread? The thread looks turned, rather than using a die? Nice neat knurling. edit - I presume you made this rather than bought it!

I’m not sure it would be easier to use a router. For a small run of sash bars for example it’s incredibly efficient to get the sash planes down from the shelf and stick the mouldings - quicker than setting up a router table and the planes produce a much finer finish. Plus they don’t try to...

I’m going to post something about my planes to try to renew my enthusiasm for doing it and push on to the next level. I’ve now completed a half set (even numbers) of hollows and rounds. The anomaly is, I haven’t yet done the #2 (chickened out, but I will get to it) but I have done a #11. It’s...

It is indeed, if your float isn’t straight, your mortise won’t be straight either. In fact one thing I didn’t show above (because it takes two hands to do it I think ) was the step where I jointed the floats with a flat file, then sharpened them and shaped the first tooth on the grinding wheel...

Thanks John. I should point out, that it’s perfectly possible to make floats using a hacksaw a triangular file, and a lot of elbow grease - rather like sharpening a very thick saw. Traditionally they would have been shop made by hand by the planemakers themselves. Obviously you won’t get the...

That inlaid scale is interesting- never seen that before.