Plane Making

[ByronBlack]

Fellow Galoots, I need some expertise here.

I've been reading a few articles on making your own wooden planes, and I really want to try this as I need to make a jointing plane and can't seem to find an affordable old record or stanley - and I just want to be able to use a tool that i've made with my very own digits.

I've decided to use purpleheart as the body of the plane (mostly for the looks, but also the hardness of it) but would like a contrasting sole, what is the hardest wood availble to us at the moment (UK) and how often does a wooden plane needed flattening bearing in mind I would be using it quite often to edge and joint boards ?

Also, I was thinking of making the plane 22" long, is there any justification for making it any longer/shorter for the purposes of jointing?

One last question, just out of curiosity, is it possible to make a wooden BU jointer? Or is there any inherent engineering problems with this?

 

[Scrit]

A couple of hard wods you might want to try are European hornbeam, which some of the German plane makers use and the other (if it is still available) is lignum vitae (is it in CITES III?) which has the advantage of being self-lubricating. I have a couple of ECE Emmerich "woodies" with lignum soles and they do glide well.

Scrit

 

[ByronBlack]

Scrit - i've just been reading up on lignum, it does seem to the best choice, just got to hunt some down now ;-)

Thanks for your mail, i'll send a reply shortly!

 

[Chris Knight]

Byron,
I saw some LV in Timberline on Monday - http://www.exotichardwoods.co.uk/

 

[ByronBlack]

This is weird, I was just looking at the site only a few mins before I saw your post ;-)

 

[ByronBlack]

So, I have the dimensions and wood choice sorted:

Length: 21"
Width: 2-7/8"
Height: 3" (at its heighest point)
Blade: 2-3/8" Hock A2

Sole: Rosewood
Body: Hardrock Maple
Sides: Probably Hornbeam from the generous Mr. Scrit.

Its going to be 21" simply because of the rosewood that I have isn't long-enough to make a 24" which was my first idea, but I think 21" should be fine. I've chosen hardrock maple because I found a slab of it in the back of the workshop and is very heavy and solid - should look nice stained aswell. And cost is the prime factor here, even the Hock blade is making think of using an old Record blade - need to think about that.

I'm not sure which angle to set the blade at, I was thinking of making it slightly steeper because I'll be jointing difficult woods and aswell as the run-of-the mill stuff, can anyone recommened a good compromise on which angle to use?

 

[Scrit]

47.5 degrees? That's what Norris infills were generally set at (or around) I believe.

Scrit

 

[ByronBlack]

Is that still using the standard angle on the blade?

 

[Shady]

Just some observations on bedding angle: you talked about recommended angles and why not a 'bevel up' pattern. Be aware that I actually knocked up a bevel up prototype for interest about a year ago. I was interested to see if the better 'support' profile (ie more support right up to the tip of the blade) would reduce chatter. Well it might do, but the resultant angle I had to cut the bed at made the mouth way too fragile - I wouldn't bother trying a bevel up woodie again - you'd be pushed almost by default to some sort of transitional design, I expect.

If you really do face significant amounts of difficult wood, try a blade attack angle of 50 degrees - 'York Pitch' - but be aware that it does make it all a little harder work. On a nice heavy jointer, this shouldn't be too much of a problem. Work out your bedding angle from your preferred 'included angle' on a sharpened blade. HTH - let's see the wip posts!

 

[ByronBlack]

Thanks for the insight regarding the bevel up design - now you come to mention it I do remember reading about problems with the old stanley BU's and cracked/chiped mouths, so I guess it stands to reason that a wooden isn't going to be up to much.

You mention about the weight of the plane, and i've been thinking about this, considering the woody is going to be a fair bit lighter than an iron counter-part, would there be an adverse effects from inpregnating some lead in balanced area's of the body to add some weight to it?

 

[Scrit]

The Norris irons are bevel down, but their substantial thickness and the thickness of the lever cap makes then pretty inflexible, that, together with a solid frog makes them almost completely chatterless - like a good woodie. The intermediate angle between common and York pitch is quite a good compromise, I feel.

Scrit

 

[Scrit]

Actually I doubt that you need the extra weight. Wooden planes seem to "glide" much better than metal ones, IMO. Certainly the two Emmerich planes I have seem OK without the extra weight.

Scrit

 

[ByronBlack]

Cheers for that scrit - i'll leave the lead alone ;-)

 

[ByronBlack]

I just had a quick thought - will I need a chipbreaker or does the wedge perform that function well enough?

 

[Shady]

I'd be inclined (ha ha!) to agree with Scrit re weighting: make it without, try it and see. If, subsequently, you really want more weight, drill a forstner hole in each end, fill with lead shot in epoxy or wax binder, then seal with some nice 'decorative' end caps in contrasting wood. The beauty of woodies is that you can make it, play with it and then make an improved version on 2 consecutive weekends, all for the cost of the wood. Don't agonise too much - just make one and see what you think..

(edit - cross posting!) Forget the chip breaker initially, if you go for a York pitch - makes it less complex, and the steeper attack angle makes one less relevant, given the technicalities of chip formation/breakage/leverage.

 

[ByronBlack]

Shady - i'm glad you said that (about the chip-breaker) as that is one less thing to spend on!

I'm aiming to make this plane for under £40 if I can and the hock blade seems to be taking up almost all of that, although I've noticed that Ray Iles make blades for just £28. Although I do have a spare 2" Record blade, do you think that would be a good (and free) option compared to a new blade from Ray Iles or Hock ?

 

[Shady]

It's up to you mate: funnily enough, I used a record spare in the bevel up experiment. I've said elsewhere - and this is relevant to your jointer - that my all time favourite blade (and I have all the usual suspects - Hock, L-N, L-V, cryo A2, non-cryo A2, Victor, HNT Gordon, some antiques, etc, etc) is my Ron Hock standard O2 blade in my heavily tuned Stanley No 7. It seems to hold its edge for quite ludicrous amounts of time. Not fashionably thick, not fashionably exotic, but just a really, really, nice good plane blade. Easy to shrpen, and cuts beautifully. If cost's an issue, use the record. If not, try a Hock for the **** of it.

 

[ByronBlack]

If I go with the record - to enable me to build and use the plane quicker, is there any issues when retro-fitting a hock blade? I'm concered that if I did that I would have problems with the blade being thicker/thinner and not sitting right in the mouth - or are the standard hock blades of similar thickness to the record?

 

[Shady]

From memory - but you'll have to check, his 'special for woodies' blades are considerably thicker. However, his standard blades (like my jointer's) are pretty much the same - and there's no reaso why you couldn't use one of them. You'd need to check on specifics. You could always joint off some of the bottom to widen the mouth for a thicker blade, but your problem then is likely to be space between your crosspin and/or wedge and the bed if the newer blade is spectacularly thicker. Again, my honest response at that point would be, make one to suit the blade you've got: if you like it, make another to suit the thicker blade in due course... It's easy to agonise too much - you end up with 'paralysis through analysis', instead of actually making things... Good luck!

 

[ByronBlack]

shady - you've convinced me, i'm going to build this bad-boy around the record blade, if its pants and doesn't turn out too well i've wasted virtually no money and as you say can build another around a hock blade.

I'm going to start this on the weekend and will post WIP pictures as I go ;-)