Is the rolling of the edge of the rear of the mouth, perhaps more noticeable on
a lower angle bed, the only reason not to opt for regular mild steel as a suitable candidate for plane making?
I had to do this recently for my shoulder plane, but its sound now.
Might be better if my plane were O1 if it got dropped I suppose, but for a plane
which the bed wasn't exposed, like a panel plane, has anyone came across any "never again" scenarios using mild steel for a plane?
Keen to know why folks use O1, but will use bronze aswell.
Thanks
Tom
O1 is a little harder to cut, but it pins files less and it comb cuts well. Mild steel for hand work is generally more of a cut most and file some, but it peins better than O1 (it moves more easily, which is why you can comb cut O1 better - as in cut the metal in a section so that it looks like the teeth of a comb and then hammer the teeth and break them off).
O1 is more often received straight and ground, too, whereas mild steel may not be as flat (not a huge deal, you're going to pin it together flat or close and then file it.
O1 probably laps a little better (no steel laps that easily, though) and mild steel needs really to be filed to flat to get a reasonable amount of flatness quickly. If one buys mild steel with mill finish, the oxide is a file killer and needs to be run off on the idler of a belt sander or something similar (again, emphasis that O1 usually comes precision ground already and doesn't have any of that.
If metal work is accurate, the ability to pein mild steel a little more easily isn't that big of a deal.
A portable metal bandsaw is a decent idea for wasting metal out of pins, but they don't have a throat deep enough to cut some of the long straight lines for a panel plane - since making the first five infills, I've bought a portable metal bandsaw and if and when I get back to making more infills, it'll prove useful as a metal waster. I'd imagine a die filing machine would also be useful, but there's the issue of finding files that they use.
This is all talk for people who are resistant to the idea of getting and learning to use a milling machine and surface grinder.
Mild steel and O1 annealed both waste off nicely with a body work float and can be filed to almost finish then after that (draw filing) with a decent file as long as one learns to avoid pinning files by using their length progressively and then combing them out (as in, work your way down the file draw filing so that the file doesn't pin in a spot and then gash a big ugly mark in the surface you're trying to finish.
I'm not sure that it's much faster to make a single plane with a mill than it is with a portable bandsaw and hand tools, and I notice that folks who start making planes with mills often suffer some issues of proportion. I don't know why that is (some people who make planes by hand suffer the same thing).
The rule that George Wilson told me long ago applies -one is better off copying design with good aesthetics and then learning why they're good aesthetics than attempting to design something from their own mind before knowing what's good and what's not. I hate to say it, but I semi copied (but took some liberties) my first plane from a norris A13 and it would look far better if I'd just copied karl holtey's version of the A13 (sans adjuster - I don't think any infill plane is improved with an adjuster, but I guess they had to have them because stanley planes did.
All infills with O1 or mild steel are sticky on wood (cast has slightly less friction) and any made with a bronze or brass bottom are super sticky. I heavier wooden planes is much more productive than a panel infill plane in anything except very fine work, and I'd guess that the larger infill planes were never common until power tools did the roughing work. I thicknessed a board yesterday with the no-name infill above, and within about 20 minutes, I'd put it aside in favor of wooden planes - as much as the infill is nice for small work and finish truing, it's just a duck out of water trying to do any middle or coarse work.
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