Infill Shoulder Plane I made

[Mark Baldwin III]

Awesome...now show the build pics

[Matt Bickford]

That looks fantastic.

At what angle is it bedded? what angle is that iron ground? It may just be the perspective, but it looks too close. You may want to back the angle off the iron.

[Brian Ashton]

When I first opened the thread and look at the thumbnails I went wow! I like the shape. It's very AC Cobra ish

[Pedder Petersen]

Hi Jeff,

this is the most beautiful shoulderplane design I've seen. These lines let me thin of Ford Mustang. I like, that the screw doesn't stand out over the shoulder tomuch. I never thought about making planes but this plane could change my mind!

Please more pictures!

Cheers
Pedder

[Derek Cohen]

Jeff, that is beautiful. Just beautiful.

Details please.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Matt Ranum]

I would say to post a tutorial as well! Lots of interest here with things like this.

How long did it take you to make this? Was there a particular reason you went this route rather than using brass?

[David Weaver]

Looks excellent, Jeff. Very automotive or boat like.

[Jeff Wittrock]

Thanks all for the kind comments. I'll start posting the pictures I have with some description. It might get drawn out over a couple days.

Maybe it would be a good idea to just show are describe some of the tools I use up front. I am no machinist by any stretch. I have never operated a mill or metal lathe. I have always thought I would enjoy using these types of tools, but I just try to get by with what I have right now.


As you see the tools I use, you may get the idea that I advocate using cheep tools. I don't. I simply had to make the decision to either be pragmatic and buy/make what I needed, or do without. I love fine tools, but sadly, I also love (need) a low price. These two loves are, unfortunately, often mutually exclusive.


I only have one workbench, so it has to do duty as both a woodworking and metalworking bench. For holding parts being worked, I use a small metal vice mounted to a wooden base that I can clamp in the leg vise. Not the most secure, but it works well enough and is quick for me to change over. I don’t have any kind of anvil, so the metal vise is also used when I peen the rivets.

For rough shaping I use a bench grinder.

For de-scaling and finer shaping, I use a pretty cheesy setup with a run down belt sander mounted in a very undignified position on my bench top. 100 grit works fine for most things, as long as I don’t let it get too dull. Once it starts getting dull, I just end up generating a lot of heat. A courser grit may work better for general shaping, but sometimes I find things just move too fast then as I cannot control the speed of the belt sander. With the 100 grit belts, material is removed slowly enough that I usually won’t make too big a mistake unless I’m really clumsy.

I have a cheap harbor freight drill press that I bought on sale for $39. I have to say this drill is probably worth about what I paid for it. It has a bit of runout, but is good enough for my needs. I have no doubt that a hand drill could be substituted by someone with a better sense of level than I have.

I have a mishmash of needle files and mill files.


For cutting interior lines, I resorted to just chain drilling holes and cutting between the holes with a coping say. I need to invest in a fret saw and some decent metal cutting blades.


Lots of wet/dry sand paper and a granite tile I used as a flat plate.
0003.jpg002 (3).jpg

[george wilson]

Don't forget,the original infill makers also worked with simple hand tools. The 2 steel infills Zahid posted in the FAQ section,were made by me when I had no machines except a lathe to make the cap screw. The dovetails were completely hand filed. Contours were roughed out with hacksaw and further refined by filing. You can make out with minimal equipment,as you have already shown.

I'd like to compliment your truly flat, flat surfaces,not sluffed over by excessive buffing. Also,your little bevels are very nicely done,and are also nice and crisp,not rounded over. Your surfaces are NOT what I have called certain silversmith's work as "high polish with deep scratches!!"

[Niels Cosman]

Hi Jeff,

Really really sharp looking plane!
I love the shape and appreciate the originality of the design!
It seems like you took some automotive cues and ported them over to the tool world. The profile reminds me of a 50's 250MM ferrari spyder.
nice work- MORE PICTURES!

Cheers,
Niels

[Jeff Wittrock]

Well, here is where it started…. a rough sketch. When you look at the pictures of the finished plane, you will see the shape is quite a bit different from my original sketch. I have never been very good at using 2d drawings to visualize a 3d object. Until I have something in my hands, I just don’t know if I will like the shape. That’s one of the reasons that much of the shaping was left until after the plane was assembled. Doing most of the rough cutting before assembly would certainly be easier, but when I am working on something where I have little experience to draw from (I have not owned or operated a shoulder plane before this), then I just find it safer to do most of the shaping after the fact.


I thought quite a bit about the shape. I tend to like shapes on small tools that are rounded to be easy on the hands. I wanted to try and make the level cap screw small enough and tuck it in low enough that it wouldn't be jabbing my hand but also make it reasonably easy to get at. That's where the lower "saddle" shape comes in where the lever cap screw is located. The other shapes kind of followed from this. The area around the bridge had to be high enough so I would have plenty of room to rivet the bridge to the sides so this area is higher. Likewise the area behind the iron is a little high er to give the hand a place to push while staying away from the iron and cap lever and screw.



Sometimes I feel a bit arrogant straying to far away from a "classic" shape for tools like these. I have no doubt that toolmakers of the past knew what they were doing, and to ignore the lessons they learned over many years is foolish. At the same time, there has to be some room to have a little fun with a shape that feels right in my hand.



00001.jpg

[Jeff Wittrock]

...What is the bed angle?
It looks like you are going bevel down..
jtk

Jim, I used a 45 degree bed angle and it is bevel down as you said. I was originally thinking of making a bevel up, and I may yet try one. The one thing I liked about the bevel down is that the blade could be extracted from the bottom of the plane (out the mouth) instead of making enough room to allow turning the blade on its side and removing from the top as has to be done with a bevel up plane.

Did you sand off the scale on the hot rolled steel? A tip..soak the steel in muriatic acid to remove the scale

Thanks for the tip Stephen. I did sand the scale off. I'll have to give the muriatic acid a try.

At what angle is it bedded? what angle is that iron ground? It may just be the perspective, but it looks too close. You may want to back the angle off the iron.

Matt, From the pictures it does look like there isn't much clearance angle, but the blade is ground at ~35 degrees, and the bed angle is 45. I still need to make a decent blade as the one that is in place right now is one that I just hacked together.

How long did it take you to make this? Was there a particular reason you went this route rather than using brass?

Matt, It's always hard for me to say how much time I spent on a project, but I would guess I spent the better part of four weekends. Probably about 40-50 hours. The actual construction is very quick. The thing that is most time consuming (for me anyway) is the fine detailed shaping and trying to get all of the scratches out. I guess the decision to use steel instead of brass is just a personal preference. I just like the look of the steel. I also find the mild steel easy to work with. I don't have much experience with different brass alloys.

I'd like to compliment your truly flat, flat surfaces,not sluffed over by excessive buffing. Also,your little bevels are very nicely done,and are also nice and crisp,not rounded over."

Thanks George. Considering the work I have seen of yours, I consider this very high praise coming from you.
Trying to keep the edges crisp while removing scratches is to me one of the more tedious parts. You see a scratch and become tempted to just rub on it a bit with your thumb and some sandpaper, but have to fight the urge and keep working at it on a flat plate instead.

-Jeff

[Tim Put]

Lovely work. Certainly better than what I produce.

The only criticism (intended to be constructive) I can give is to avoid feather-edged transitions, i.e. just above the mouth in the escapement.

[Johnny Kleso]

I like the design of it a lot..
Can you buy a store bought blade yo use?

[Jeff Wittrock]

Here is the material I started with. 3/16" hot rolled mild steel for the sides and 1/4" for the sole, ramp, bridge, and lever cap.

The parts are roughed out with a hacksaw.

When I started, I thought that this would be a lot of cutting with a hacksaw since I needed to cut the entire length of the sole from the 1/4" stock, but actually, rough cutting the parts took a very short time. The mild steel cuts very easily with a decent hacksaw blade.

After I rough sawed the parts, I used a belt sander to bring the sole, ramp, and bridge pieces down to the proper width (3/8"). Once these three pieces were close, I used a granite tile and 100 grit sandpaper to flatten and square one edge of each of these pieces that would mate to one side of the plane. Getting a good 90 degree angle and a flat edge using the granite plate and sandpaper is not terribly difficult. It just takes some patience and frequent checks with a good square.

As I'll describe in a bit, the other edges of the sole and bridge will be flattened and squared after they are temporarily mounted to one side of the plane.

The inside faces of the sides were then descaled and flattened using first the belt sander, then the granite tile and sandpaper. I didn't bother descaling the outward facing side or edges as these will need a lot of work later anyhow.


0002.jpg0004.jpg015.jpg