Shop-made Small Router Plane

For several years now, if I needed to route a dado or groove that was less then 1/4" wide, I used a makeshift router plane.  This was nothing more than a block of wood with a 45-ish degree angle on the front end, a 1/8" groove cut into that angled front, and a 1/8" chisel clamped into the groove.

My original small "router plane"

The clamp block holding the chisel in place is a piece of wood screwed to the main block

While this worked well during the infrequent times that I needed it, I always thought it would be nice to have a dedicated tool.  So recently I did something about it.

For the blade, I used an old 5/32" Allen wrench.  The 5/32" dimension is flat to flat, and the dimension from apex to opposite apex is close to 3/16".  The short leg of an Allen wrench has one flat face facing up when standing like an "L", so the 3/16" dimension is horizontal, and that becomes the width of the cutting edge after some filing, grinding and sharpening.

The Allen wrench in cross section

I heated the 90 degree bend to red hot and bent it to more like a 100 degree angle.  This gives a "clearance angle"; it allows the blade to cut a dado without the heel of the blade rubbing on the bottom of the dado.

This shows the approx. 100 deg angle on the Allen wrench

One major concern was about how to hold the blade.  I got a 1/4-20 bolt and tried to drill a hole through it.  Nothing doing!  That bolt must have been some sort of specialty bolt, as it was as hard as kryptonite.  I annealed it and it was still way too hard to drill.  So I got another bolt and that one was far easier to drill, though I found out the 1/4" bolt was too small for a 3/16" hole and I had to go with a 5/16-18 bolt instead.

Punching a center point into the insanely hard bolt

Successful 3/16" hole in a 5/16-18 bolt

Here's how it'll work: Allen key through the hole in the bolt, 
nut at rear of the wood block tightens the Allen key to the wood body

I grabbed a chunk of scrap from the bin that just happened to have a 1 1/8" hole bored through it.  About 2/3rds the way up from the bottom of the block, I drilled a 5/16" hole through the back and into the larger hole of the block.  The 5/16" bolt was inserted and a washer and nut placed on the back end.

Also made a groove where the cutter will rest as a sort of "bed"

Made two thumb holes in the back end for a better grip

Then made a large bevel on the top surface (as seen from the right end)

The plane's body is 4" wide, 1 1/8" tall and just over 2 1/8" front-to-back.

Shaping and sharpening the iron was not too tough, but it was tedious.  I filed or ground a flat on the bottom, then filed a bevel on the top.  The diamond plates were used to refine the surfaces and get a nice edge.

Dragging the bottom flat backward on the diamond plate

And sharpening the bevel.  This took a lot of patience.

But I got a good smooth surface on the bevel ...

... and the bottom flat

I finally got a wingnut to tighten the iron in the body - a nice upgrade from a hex nut and wrench to tighten.  A nice project - I'm looking forward to using it when the need arises.

In use cutting a ~3/16" dado

Glamour shot

Back view showing wingnut

And lastly, I made two more smaller irons - one about 7/64" wide and one about 5/64" wide.  It was a challenge sharpening these tiny irons, but they all came out great and work well.

Three small Allen keys became router plane blades

All for now.  Hopefully I'll get back in the flow soon and post more often.  I've been in a woodworking slump for the last couple of months.

Rehab a Snipes Bill Plane

Last post I asked for help in rehabbing this Wm. Banks snipes bill plane.  I also posted something similar on the Facebook "Unplugged Woodworkers" group and from the comments I developed a plan.

At first I thought I would need to remove the boxing from the plane and someone suggested using vinegar to loosen up the hide glue.  I tried that with no success.  I thought about steaming the whole plane body in a pan over the stove, but was dissuaded by a comment or two.  Eventually I decided to use an iron to heat the boxing side of the plane.

Used an iron and a wet rag to get heat and steam into the plane body

I then clamped the plane tightly to a flat spot on my workbench and waited overnight.  Surprisingly, this flattened the plane and straightened the boxing significantly.  But the gap between the boxing and the sole opened up a little more than it had already been.

I was able to fit a 0.005" feeler gauge about 1/2" deep into the boxing slot,
but only on the sole-side of the boxing - the other side was firmly glued.

So I used that same feeler gauge to force some hot hide glue down into the gap
and then clamped it up overnight

This tightened up the boxing very well and the gap is gone.  The plane body still needed a little flattening, so I took a couple shavings off each side.  I also took a few shavings off the point of the boxing (the quirk) to get it all on the same level.

Right side

Left side

And look how straight the boxing quirk is!

I did a little sanding of the sole to smooth out the profile.  Then I worked on the iron to get it to better match the sole's profile.  It took a LOT of iterations to get that right.  Work on the iron also included filing the side a little bit, as it was sticking out a little too much.  It's supposed to be proud of the side of the boxing by a couple thousandths, but this one was out too much.

I'm happy now with how it is.  After taking the pic below, I put some oil on it for protection and to blend the colors a bit.

Here it is, work completed

I don't know if I'll ever need this plane - I don't currently use a lot of moldings in my work.  But if and when I do, it'll be ready to go.  Regardless, I feel good about bringing a piece of history back into working order.  For $3 and a little time, that's OK by me.

(Hoping to) Rehab a Snipes Bill Plane

I'm asking for some advice in this post.  I picked up this snipes bill plane last year at a tool show.  I don't need or even know much about this type of plane, but it was $3, so I grabbed it.  It's by Wm. Banks and there are no other markings on it at all.  An internet search turned up nothing on Wm. Banks, so maybe that's a user-made plane and Banks is the owner mark.

Right side

Left side - looks like someone once nailed or screwed on a fence

Maker's or owner's mark

Toe-end view of sole profile, showing boxing

The bed is skewed at about 15 deg

The 5/8" wide iron is in decent shape and I think it will sharpen up nicely.  It's a laminated iron, though the lamination seems a bit sloppy.

Flat face - not yet flattened

On one edge, you can just barely see the lamination

On the other edge, the lamination seems to be "smeared" onto the bevel side - weird!

Well, now for the problems that I'd like to fix.  The body is slightly bent, but much more so near the boxing.  This next photo tries to show it, but it's a tough picture to take.

Looking down the sole you can see a bend in the boxing

The boxing seems to be glued well in place.  It's not loose at all, but it is far from straight.  You can see a little deviation from the body on the inside of the boxing where it meets the rest of the sole, especially behind the mouth where it bows out away from the plane body.

Here's the right side of the plane - the boxing looks fine here

On the sole, it looks like it's coming away from the body a little bit

Another view of that area

Aside from that, the wedge is slightly banana shaped.  This is not so much of a problem.  I can still get it into it's mortise to tighten up the iron, but it's a little tight due to the warpage.

I tested the plane by first making a shallow groove with the quirk of a beading plane, then following that groove with the snipes bill.  It will work that way, but clearly not as well as it should.

My dilemma is this.  I'd like to get this plane in better shape.  I believe the curvature on the boxing is severe enough to cause the plane to cut a very ragged quirk.  The body and boxing should be straight.  I'm thinking of steaming the plane and then squeezing it between two flat blocks to straighten it out.  I might have to pull out the boxing to get that straighter too.  If I steam the plane, the boxing should be easy to remove.

Any suggestions out there on how best to proceed?

Sellers Woven Stool

It's been a while since I've done a Paul Sellers project, but this one caught my eye because of the weaving.  I've done a couple projects that involved weaving, but this was a new pattern for me.  It's a simple project: four legs, 8 cylindrical rails and Danish paper cord weaving.

The legs for this stool splay (and rake) 3 degrees.  I bought 7/8" hardware store dowels for the rails.  They were all undersized, so my mortises were 13/16 and I shaved the rails to fit.  Here are some pictures of the build - the captions have relevant info.

Four leg blanks squared up and marked for front/back and left/right

Mortises marked out

Boring the mortises about 3/4" deep.  This 97 deg angle block guides the bit.

After mortises done on two pairs of mating sides, shaped the legs.

Checking one side frame for leg parallelity.  I was careful when gluing
them up to get it right.

The mortises for joining the two side frames were done after the glue had dried.
You can see the perpendicular tenon at the bottom of this mortise.

Due to the shaping of the legs, I had to make an 87 deg guide to bore the lower mortises.

First dry fit.  All the tenons will be fox-wedged into their mortises.

Glue up was not too stressful, but I did need to hammer the joints home
with a bit more vigor than I wanted.  Titebond III was used.  Once dry, 
I gave the frame three coats of shellac, sanding in between coats.

Now for the weaving.  I'm using Danish paper cord.  I bought a
10 pound roll of the stuff a couple years ago.  This'll last me quite a while.
I think I used about 300 feet on this stool.

After the first few wraps: note the H-shaped cord carrier in the picture.
It helps to corral the cord when weaving.  But I couldn't use the carrier
after the hole in the center got too small.

Here's a close-up of one corner after a dozen or more wraps.
Not exactly perfect, but passable.

Making a lot of progress.  I stopped here after 2-3 hours.
Another 2-3 hours the next day and it was done.

Here's the underside and I see that I should have paid more attention to this.
See the two angled cords where my fingers are?  I think this is the reason
that my weave wasn't quite even on top.

At about 2/3rds complete, I stuffed cardboard between the top and bottom.

And here's the top view of the completed stool.

And a glamour shot of the stool.

The underside reveals the places where I tied on new lengths of cord.
It also shows some areas that are not woven evenly.

I like weaving, but it is tough on the hands.  Maybe sooner than later I'll try another simple stool to get more practice with this weave pattern.  I'd like to see if more focus on what's going on with the underside will lead to a more consistent pattern on the top.