Anyone ever make a larger wooden plane, something along the lines of a jointer? If so, some comments on where the plans came from, wood sellection, what were the hardest and easiest parts of the build, etc, would be appreciated. Even better, got any pictures of the process?

Paul
the little guy

Yep, made a jointer sized woodie before picking up some #7s and #6s. "Krenov" style, 2" Hock Blade. Body made from Sapele, sole is a rosewood.

Worked OK but ultimately the heavy iron body planes worked better for me in this application. Letting the weight of the plane give it momentum to power through some of the heavier shavings for which a jointer is called upon.

There are some pictures of mine over in my Blanket Chest thread. Nothing special about construction technique, just a laminated body with the blade set back using the 5:9 ratio.

Making and Mastering Wood Planes, by David Finck is the next book I will buy. I have heard and read rave reviews on several blogs and pod casts. Hopefully I'll be picking it up early next week. I'll let you know what I think.

I have no direct experience with making them...
but there seems to be a fair amount of online instructions.
Have you looked at these sites?
Woodworker's Institute
College of the Redwoods
How To Build 3 Basic Hand Planes
How to Make Wooden Hand Planes
there is also this video Make a Plane from a HOCK Plane Kit

Thanks muchly for the excellent feedback guys.

I've seen the Hock video before and it's one of the things that put the seed of an idea into my mind. The first three on the list are now saved in my favourites file. The fourth was a simpler version of the video. Interesting, but I'm thinking more of scratch-built.

There are two main reasons for my interest: a lack of planes in casa Tiny (other than the two rescued sad cases I picked up to rehabilitate) and these being projects ideal with my limited shop room and funding. They should offer some interesting challenges with my limited number of power tools too, and I think will give me some great learning/skill building opportunities.

Any advice on what to beware or any shortcuts would be great too.

Paul
the little guy

Ron's kit is pretty good and if you don't have a way to process your own pieces makes a quick and easy way to start. That is the only shortcut I can recommend.

A 9" smoother with a 1-3/4" blade would be my suggestion for a first build. The longer jointer style planes, in my opinion, aren't as useful when built as "Krenovs". The way you maneuver the small tote-less planes feels "right" for smoothers but not for heavy stock removal. My opinion, and worth what you pay for it.

David Fink's book, "Making and Mastering Wooden Planes" is well worth the money. David also has a YouTube channel with maybe three or four videos outlining some of the steps. Also worth watching.

For your first plane, go ahead and BUY a blade or blade+breaker set. Get the heaviest, thickest blade you can find. I don't know what would be the best bargain for you in Canada. In the USA I'd purchase a Hock blade+breaker set from Craftsman Studios. I've heard some reports of good results using replacement Muji brand blades supplied by Lee Valley but I have no first hand experience with their blades. Later on you can get into making your own blades but for now just buy a good one.

It isn't difficult to modify the basic Krenov 5 piece plane design (side, side, front, back, pin) from a fixed mouth to an adjustable mouth. Something to think about.

I've used both wooden pins and brass pins. Both work well, your choice. If you go with a wooden pin and later it breaks you can replace it with a brass pin.

Pay attention to the shape of the wedge, making sure you get good contact to the pin and the chipbreaker.

Consider building a small brass head hammer too. Or just use a small tack hammer. The roofing hammer isn't such a good idea.

Wood selection - pick something reasonably stable and easy to work for the body. You can laminate the sole with a harder wood if you choose. I've used white oak, rosewood and purple heart for soles. All seem to work well. Cherry makes a good plane body. Sapele did OK but I think long term it will be much too soft. Walnut and red or white oak are also good domestic species. I wouldn't use anything softer than cherry for the body. A cherry sole would work but it would also wear very quickly. Ash would probably work but I've never tried it. Hickory would make an interesting choice.

If you can't find 3" thick stock, don't worry. Just glue up thinner stock to make the billet. It will work. Purists that insist on quartered beech will pooh-pooh the choice but it will work just fine.

Watch the grain direction when you laminate, I've goofed on one, getting them reversed so it made final shaping a bit of a bugger. Not a show stopper, just annoying. Also watch the grain direction when orienting the front and rear of the plane. You get a slightly better "feel" if the grain of the sole runs top to bottom, front to back.

Consider the purpose of the plane before starting. Maybe if making a smoother you might want to make it 50 or 55 degrees instead of 45 degree bed. Maybe you want a compass plane. Maybe you want a scrub plane.

I wouldn't recommend epoxy or TightBond III in this application. Both exhibit cold creep and could mean you have to spend more time re-truing the body over the lifetime of the plane. The last couple I've made I used liquid hide glue. Longer clamping time but hide glue is glass hard when dry, doesn't creep like plastic based glues. That said, any type I or type II PVA glue (yellow or white) will work if you already have a favorite.

And finally, don't fret if you make a mistake. Try and reshape or re-design to recover the plane. Worst thing that happens is you have a small bit of firewood and a nice blade. Just start over.

Another excellent reply!

I've been thinking of a walnut body, mostly because I happen to love walnut's appearance and a tool should be beautiful as well as perform well whenever possible, and why else would one make their own?
I had in mind using a dovetail bit to attach the sole to the body, with the fore end adjustable as a sliding dovetail. I'd cut shoulders on both sides of the sole plate to the thickness of the sideplates minus the required material for the DT, then route the slant to the shoulder to match groves in the plates. This will help with registry and keep things aligned while allowing the foresole to adjust.
Comments?
I'm still up in the air about the sole material. Rosewood is a possibility, but I'm not sold on how it will look next to the walnut... How about boxwood? Nice contrast if it's hard enough.

If I can figure out how to export sketchup drawings to a format uploadable here, I'll try doing a doodle of it.

Paul
the gratefull little guy

Paul

While in SketchUp, with your sketch open:

Click on "FILE"
Click on "EXPORT"
Click on "2D Graphic"

This will enable you to save your drawing as a "JPEG" (*.jpg) file that can be attached to your post.

Hope this helps.

Bruce

Here is an example

Boxwood is one of the traditional plane making woods. Finding an 18th century coffin smoother made of 100% boxwood is considered a coup. Especially if it is still near its original 3" thickness with a nice tight mouth.

Walnut will make a nice plane body but two cautions about the wedge and cross-pin. First, don't leave the wedge tight when not using the plane and make the pin portion of the cross-pin at least 3/8", a little larger if you can so that the forces trying to stretch out the hole in the sides are spread out. Alternatively you could carve or just glue in what are known as "cheeks" to hold the wedge.

But for a first plane follow the KISS rule. After using it for a few weeks, you can always pull out the blade and make a new body with improved features, etc.

The more we get into this, the more interested I get.
Glad to hear the boxwood would be a good choice. Now to haunt the local suppliers to find a couple of nice pieces of it and the walnut. I'm drooling already.
I can see me doing a fancy one later on with marquetry decoration on the top. The possibilities are endless.

Paul
the enthused little guy

Hi Bruce.

Boy! I'm learning TONS here today!
I'll have to try that out later and see if I can commit it to memory. Much obliged.

Paul
the thankful little guy

I just HAD to try this out, so here goes...
This is a celtic corner design for marquetry I'm thinking of using on a piece for Mrs Tiny.

Paul
the little guy

IT WORKED! YAY!

Paul
the ecstatic little guy

Okay, here's step one of what I'm thinking of. The sole plate is dovetaiuled into the side plates and the fore end will eventually be moveable, explaining the extra piece on the end above the sole, it's the future adjuster.

Unless you want the aesthetic, cutting the dovetail seems a lot of extra work for a sliding mouth in a wooden handplane.

Assuming you are making this in the 5 piece (side, side, nose, bed, pin) style after you have cut the two sides free and have the angle cut on the nose piece, just cut free what will become the sliding section. Maybe 3/4" thick or whatever strikes your fancy. True up the face of the new small piece and the larger piece so they will side against each other easily.

Use a threaded brass insert in the new small sliding piece. 1/4-20, maybe a little larger. In retrospect, this will determine how thick you cut the sliding piece. Cut a slot hole in the larger piece such that a nice brass or stainless steel bolt can drop through and engage the slider. You can get fancy and make a knurled knob for the top, a brass wear plate but the last one I made I just used a brass bolt and washer with a recessed slot for the washer.

Once the plane is glued together (wax in the sides of the adjustable mouth and have it snugged up to the other nose piece for the glueup) it will move just fine and keep its registration.

This isn't the prettiest look since it is so basic. It only adds maybe 30 minutes to the whole project including the trip to the hardware store for the brass bolt and threaded insert. For me it was less about cutting a sliding dovetail and more about getting done so I could use the plane. I'm like that with pretty much all the tools I've made. They are just that, tools.

I'd seriously consider just making the simplest, most basic version first. Use it for a while and then make a new body and recycle the blade and breaker. Or if you become attached to the first one, another blade and breaker isn't all that expensive compared to the "joy" it brings.

Something else occurred to me looking again at your drawing. As shown, how do you plan to split the sole to form the mouth? Will the sliding section be the entire width of the sole as implied by your drawing? It should work more like the adjustable mouth on a 60-1/2 block plane or a 62 LA jack. There cheeks remain fixed to support the plane completely at the sides of the mouth all the way to the front of the plane. Only a small block of material moves.

As I said, it's a rough idea so far. Still in the "what'll happen if I do this?" stage.
I was at the local hardwood dealer the other day, and although he's totally OUT of rosewood, he had the purtiest piece of purpleheart... How would that work as the body? Tough on tooks I know, but talk about an unusual look! How long does the purple take to discolour and what would be an appropriate finish for it in this project? Oil/wax?

Paul
the little guy

when making tools it is easy to forget that they are in fact tools

I would say go for something that can take proper shavings first,
then make another for the function plus the looks.

You can make the plane all from purpleheart. It will be heavy and dense for its finished size. I've found that purpleheart isn't all that much more difficult to work with power tools so long as things are sharp and well adjusted.

Oil and wax makes a fine finish for a hand plane. Time and use also makes a good finish. If you go with oil and wax, keep it to a minimum on the sole. The oil will want to leach out for a while so just keep an eye on it and wipe it down frequently. The sole will burnish itself pretty quickly and become quite slick. Then just the smallest bit of wax once in a while will keep it slipping right along.

I think the color shift in purpleheart is related to how much UV light strikes it. I've got some scraps in my box that are still quite purple on the surface after a couple of years. But they also don't see the light of day.

More and more to think about. This is FUN!

Seriously, I really appreciate the feedback on this, as it's something WAY out of my comfort zone. Before I joined this assylum for wood fanatics I would never have even considerred trying something like this. I guess that's the 207 in a nutshell, eh?

Paul
the intrigued little guy

Nutshells on the otherhand would not make a suitable material for the plane body.

No nutshell plane bodies?
Aw, shucks! NOW what am I gonna do with them?

Dumb question time: could someone please explain all the different NAMES for the various planes? Scrub, block (I think I have the head for that one), bench, jointer, etc etc etc...

Paul
the uninformed little guy

SCRUB = bevel up, narrow and heavily cambered blade, body has wide mouth opening. The sole can be flat or some wooden body versions have a round bottom. Used to hog off lots of wood fast in 1/16" to 1/8" thick shavings. Often used cross grain or diagonal.

BLOCK = usually small, holdable in one hand but can be used with two, blade is bevel up so the effective cutting angle becomes a function of the bedding angle plus the bevel angle. Classic example is the Stanley 60-1/2. Lots of variations on a theme with bevel up jacks and jointers and smoothers.

BENCH = generic name for planes with the blade bevel down. Also restricted to those with a fully formed mouth with cheeks. That is to say the blade doesn't run all the way across the body of the plane.

JOINTER = "long" plane generally longer than 14" used to joint an edge or face of a board.

FORE = (not four or #4 as in the Stanley numbering system) a plane used BEFORE the others. This isn't exactly the same as a scrub plane but it is a medium long (12-14" perhaps) plane with a wide mouth, cambered blade and set for a rank cut. I've read some arguments that the FORE plane predates the scrub plane by a long time. Good for taking wind, cup and twist out of a board and not worrying about the surface finish.



A good website for learning about the Stanley planes is Patrick Leach's Blood and Gore (all the gory details, get it?). Start at www.supertool.com and browse around.

A good book to get is Garret Hack's Handplane book. Likewise Chris Schwarz has a good handplane book with his collected essays.

I thought some visuals might be helpful (they always are for me) to give you a sense of the size of each type
SCRUB

BLOCK

JOINTER

FORE

No image for the generic bench plane

Thanks for the visual aids, They DO help.

Paul
the little guy