dimensioning wood by hand

[bugbear]

I'm popping to my local glass shop this wknd to get some float glass and I'm going to order some rolls of abrasive from ebay to fettle the soles of both.

Please don't. Especially for the #7, but also the #5.

Flattening plane soles by "lapping" is not a very effective or reliable process, and as far as it works at all, it works better on shorter (e.g. block or #4) planes.

BugBear

 

[mickthetree]

Ah, cheers for the heads up bugbear.

I've seen a few videos online that suggest doing just this.

http://woodtreks.com/how-to-tune-up-a-hand-plane/19/

This is one, but I've got another bookmarked (somewhere) where this guy (australian I seem to remember) goes through a number 4, 5, 6 and 7 planes truing the sole.

I'll hold fire on this till I've read a bit more about it.

or maybe picked up those DVDs ;-)

 

[Mikey R]

Hi Mike

I'm sure my grandma wont mind ;-)

Yeah I'm pretty bored of pulling the workmate back across the room after its skipped and danced its way along with every stroke of the plane.

Can you brace it against the far wall?

BugBear

Im also a B&D workmate user - I dont have a permanent workspace, otherwise I'd build myself something big and heavy

Bracing it tends not to work because any decent sized project would overlap the edges of the bench, and a #7 would be longer than the becch anyhow - you'd just keep hitting the wall with the plane.

I might try bracing it sideways against a wall, so that Im planing parallel to the wall, but I suspect the metal legs might scratch the wall rather than stop the bench moving.

For the meantime, the only knockdown bench that seems like it would stand up to handplaning is a Japanese style bench / planing board:

http://blog.woodworking-magazine.com/bl ... bench.aspx

I was thinking of adding dog holes for work holding, maybe with wonder pups.

Has anyone here had any experience using one of these with western style planes?

 

[Benchwayze]

Question:

If you need winding sticks to get a board flat, how do you make accurate winding sticks?

:twisted:

 

[Benchwayze]

Mick,

Try this:
http://khalafoud.com/media/roubo.wmv


The video is mainly about a bench, but there is a great demo on flattening a board with handplanes.

This guy makes it look as easy as it is, when you've been hand-planing a long time. But watch it a few times and you will see what's happening.
Incidentally, the guy attracted criticism for using ivory, but I am told it is fossilised Mammoth tusk, that he utilises, which AFAIKnw, is legal.

Anyhow watch the vid.!


John

 

[mickthetree]

Great John!

Thanks for that. Along with the vids of chris Schwarz on youtube I think I understand this all a bit better now.

Its funny I tried going across the grain and it seemed effective with my #5 but left marks from the corners of the plane iron, hence my thinking I need to round them.

I'm going to give that a go tonight.

It takes a pretty fine shaving now with much less effort but I'm sure it could still be better.

 

[Benchwayze]

Don't round them too much Mike. If you do, you will get scuff marks at the edges of the cut. Much better to have a very small radius across the width of the edge.

 

[beech1948]

http://www.oldtoolsshop.com/z_pdf/shopImprov/BobAndDavesGoodFastAndCheapBench-ne.pdf

The above link is to the resurrected Bob Keys Quick, Cheap Bench plans.
The plan is excellent. The bench in pine is excellent and gpood place to start.

alan