Paul Kierstead
Established Member
Ok, I will admit it is a bit of a specialized thickness planer, but I think it was a neat solution. I was inspired by a wildly specialized japanese plane for planing parts of shoji.
The need: I have a whole bunch of small parts, all roughly the same length, which need to be planed square 1/2" x 1/2". For several reasons, not the least of which they are too short, I did not want to use the powered thickness planer. Even this time round I will do about 32 of them; I may well do more in the future. Gauging and thicknessing to the line that many parts was not high on my list of good ideas. I remembered the Japanese plane for shoji; basically it is a plane with depth stops on both sides that ride on the bench/beam, giving a consistently thicknesses piece. I didn't have a woodie to use for the purpose so I set about doing something my metal planes could deal with. This is what I came up with:
The slot is 1/2" deep an a little over 1/2" wide. The rails guide the plane. Like a shooting board, the edges of the plane keep it from planing the actual jig (past the very first shaving or two); the rails help keep it from wandering off and let my brain rest. The screw in the slot lets me pull the plane straight back without ejecting the piece. You use it as such:
Ending up with lots of shavings (a small sampling!):
Like the power thicknesser, the opposite side (the down side in the jig) must be jointed reasonably flat; this jig does not make the pieces *straight*, it makes the two sides parallel. Of course a 90 degree rotation will make the pieces square. Fun and easy!
The need: I have a whole bunch of small parts, all roughly the same length, which need to be planed square 1/2" x 1/2". For several reasons, not the least of which they are too short, I did not want to use the powered thickness planer. Even this time round I will do about 32 of them; I may well do more in the future. Gauging and thicknessing to the line that many parts was not high on my list of good ideas. I remembered the Japanese plane for shoji; basically it is a plane with depth stops on both sides that ride on the bench/beam, giving a consistently thicknesses piece. I didn't have a woodie to use for the purpose so I set about doing something my metal planes could deal with. This is what I came up with:
The slot is 1/2" deep an a little over 1/2" wide. The rails guide the plane. Like a shooting board, the edges of the plane keep it from planing the actual jig (past the very first shaving or two); the rails help keep it from wandering off and let my brain rest. The screw in the slot lets me pull the plane straight back without ejecting the piece. You use it as such:
Ending up with lots of shavings (a small sampling!):
Like the power thicknesser, the opposite side (the down side in the jig) must be jointed reasonably flat; this jig does not make the pieces *straight*, it makes the two sides parallel. Of course a 90 degree rotation will make the pieces square. Fun and easy!
