But first, I couldn't help but try the plane after it was glued up.
First shavings - test cuts were OK |
The plane body shaped |
One detail that I see on most wooden bench planes is the "eye". That is the little "teardrop" chamfer shape on both sides where the throat meets the top of the plane body. I never knew what the purpose of this feature was, but now I know it is not just decorative. Using wooden planes requires a lot of reaching the fingers in the throat to pull out shavings. Without these "eyes", the sharp edge of the throat would scrape the fingers as you pull out shavings.
The final step for the body was to flatten the bottom. I did this first with a metal-body smoothing plane and then rubbed the sole on sandpaper glued to plate glass. Next I completed the shaping of the wedge.
The completed wedge shape |
When I tried the plane out, I was getting some "chatter" and the surface left by the plane clearly showed the problem.
Chatter shows up easily in an enlarged photo - not sure if you'll see it here |
Chatter plainly seen in this edge cut |
A face grain shaving showing chatter issues |
This worked perfectly for me. It clearly showed where the high spots were - I had an area on one side of the mouth where the iron was not touching the bed. After paring away the high spots (this took several iterations with the candle and paring), I got the bed flat and the iron started cutting properly.
Here she is, all done and fettled. The bed angle is 45* and the breast angle is 60* (don't know why, but my keyboard shortcut for the degree symbol of <alt>248 doesn't work anymore). The wedge angle is 10 or 12*, I forget which. The plane body is 2 9/16" wide at its widest point and is about 2 5/8" tall.
Glamour shot |
If you'd care to comment, I'd love to know about your experiences in building similar planes.
The plane looks amazing!
ReplyDeleteWhen I built the infill smoother, I used the same method to seat the iron. Except that I used a whiteboard marker.
Brian Eve had told me that I ought to do it, so I never tried the plane before seating the iron.
Brgds
Jonas
I remember that infill smoother you made, Jonas. That was a really cool build. That technique of marking the back of the iron to find high spots on the bed works so well. And it was easier than I thought it would be to chisel away those high spots - though I went very slowly and carefully.
DeleteNice plane! I made several bench wooden planes using this method of build.
ReplyDeleteI am sure the results will be better if you use a thicker taperd iron. Also a chipbreaker helps in planing difficult woods as well as In having a stronger cutting group. I found a 8* angle wedge works better than greater angles.
Ciao
Giuliano
Thanks a lot for the comment, Giuliano. I'm currently building a jack plane with an iron that has a chip breaker. Since the iron and breaker are thicker near the cutting edge than at the back (reverse taper of the wedge), I think I can keep the wedge at about 10°. The angle on the iron/breaker is about 1° to 1.5°, so the overall angle of iron/breaker/wedge will be about 8.5° to 9°. I'll report on this build soon and let you know how it works out.
Delete