New plane feedback.

Ok time to unveil my new plane idea. Now before you comment there will be a couple of changes once I get the parts. First the mortise and bolt will be different. There will be a ¾" mortise with a ¾" washer with a ½" by ¼" slot in it. So that will neaten things up a bit. Plus I am debating and will go by feedback should I go with slotted or go to a socket head? I think I will stick with stainless as brass is so limited on the bolt sizes. One thing I goofed a bit on these first planes is I underestimated how much the mouth would open up with a jointed the sole. The mouth would not close enough on some planes so I had to make a new mouthblock. On all future planes the block will be the same piece of wood as the sole. With a smaller gap in the sole. This design allows me to use the iron full width without the corners knocked off. Plus it lets me make all the planes the same width so wedges will be easier to fit. Before I had to depend on the thickness of the wood for the thickness of the main body. No I can shorten the coffins to around 7.5" and still have the same amount of hand space on top. I did not have time to re flatten the sole after I put the finish on and get home before 8 so the soles are a bit dirty looking.

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on the hole in the wedge cool or should it go? I seem to be wedge challenged and I have not thought of anything new to do with them.
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Reply to
Steve Knight
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Why do anything new, unless it is functional or more productive for you? Looks like this will be more effort and I can't think of any possible increase in functionality.

Nice plane, BTW!

LD

Reply to
Lobby Dosser

I love doing new things (G) but after I did it I found it has several benefits to me too. it makes the planes more uniform in width and height. before all the wedges had to be fitted for width and the mouth blocks as it was hard to get the

1 7/8" width I wanted.then there is the time to fit and sand and adjust the mouth block . then when tuning the plane I had to turn on my edge sander to knock the excess mouth block off before I could joint the plane. now I skip that and I may be able to skip the third jointing too and go right to lapping. plus the time to adjust the mouth opening. Now I can make any plane to fit any iron without having to have someone make a mouth block or me make one the right size. so it gives me a benefit and the user gets a better plane too I think. one without that ugly mouth block and one that is easier to adjust.
Reply to
Steve Knight

In which case, go for it!

Reply to
Lobby Dosser

it's been a long time since I had a new idea. I was wondering if I ran out (G) I am still limited to the tools I have and the money I don't have to try new things though. so many idea's so few resources.

Reply to
Steve Knight

If you ever want some free, semi-skilled labor now and then, give me a shout. Remove .mapson to e-mail me.

Reply to
Lobby Dosser

Nice plane. After I get a few havetos out of the way, I'm going to try some more handworky things. You are right about making the mortise more organized. You can't go wrong with a good screw. Imagine having to find an allen wrench late at night when fine tuning is needed to finish up the days work! With a screw, most anything would work in a pinch. Stainless won't show the wear from using this and that to make adjustments. Now, if you got a brass bolt with a nice knurled head an inch in diameter that might be different! Wilson

"Steve Knight" wrote in messagnews: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Reply to
Wilson Lamb

but then again it's not like you need to adjust it often though either. I would include a wrench with the plane. I thought of the knurled knob but they don't make large ones in much of any material without a special order. It also would get in the way of your hands I think.

Reply to
Steve Knight

I'm wondering if the sole will stay perfectly flat with small adjustments to the mouth and if repeated adjusting of the mouth will cause compression and distortion of the wood, again causing the sole not to be perfectly flat. That's just something that occurs to me. Don't know if it will really be a problem, but it seems like some cuts would need to be perfect, and bad things happen to me when I need to be perfect.

Reply to
Hax Planks

Steve, what is your method for cutting out the side slots (trapezoidals?) that the wedges fit into? Hand done with floats?

Reply to
AAvK

I used to do it with a saw and chisel. but it was hard to get both sides accurate and one of them always had a bunch of tearout because of the angle. so I finally broke down and I had a fellow make me a jig from thick aluminum cut on a waterjet. so I use a router now. floats don't last long on tropical woods they dull pretty quick.

Reply to
Steve Knight

I am not the first to use this idea. several of the European plane manufactures do it. plus the tropicals tend to be more stable. and the sole is far thicker now too.

Reply to
Steve Knight

Cool. I'll likely end up with one eventually. I already have two of your planes, which are excellent.

Reply to
Hax Planks

I don't think this makes the plane work any better it just makes it more practical. easier to adjust easier to tune and easier to hold.

Reply to
Steve Knight

Interesting. I cannot picture how a router could cut at the inside side walls of a small mortise... is it a geared corner thing?

Reply to
AAvK

not sure what your talking about but here is the jig I use. the sides are clamped underneath

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Reply to
Steve Knight

I still prefer iron Bailley style planes so I'd suggest you try a knob, similar to what is done with block planes with adjustible mouths. Then you could use a threaded rod instead of a bolt. That's how I did a prototype several years ago. I never got the hang of adjusing an iron held in place by a wedge. Either the iron slips up into the plane when I use it or it's too tight to adjust it at all. Finally I put a machine screw through the wedge so I could loosen it slightly for adjustment then tighten it during use. I put a knob on that bolt too. Guess I'm just a knob guy.

But if folks like to lay their palm on the toe of the plane then a socket head should feel better. Slot heads tend to develop burrs when some numnuts tries to use the wrong sized screwdriver on them.

For looks as well as function I'd move the hole down a bit so the diagonal meet it tangent to the sides of the hole. Wedges on old wooden bodied planes typically are forked with a prong on side that fits in the slots on the inside of the cheeks and a shallow ramp inbetween, either cut straight accross or curved to lift and curl the shaving. Your vee-notches appear to be unique. If they work well then cool, that is something distinctive about your handiwork.

--=20

FF

Reply to
fredfighter

Thanks Steve, then the sides of the planes are separate pieces instead of the body being one solid piece, which is what I thought they were. Makes more sense for manufacturing to sell to the public.

Reply to
AAvK

here is the new washer. it is 3/4" and will go in a 3/4" mortise. it will look far nicer then the setup I have now.

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Reply to
Steve Knight

I was wondering if you did not realize they were glued up. I know how to make them out of two pieces but I can't afford the tooling to do the job.

Reply to
Steve Knight

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