First post, new plane

[Steve Voigt]

Hi Folks,
First time poster here. I've been reading the site avidly for a while now, and have learned an unbelievable amount. A huge thanks to everyone who posts here for all the great info!
I thought some people might be interested in seeing this 26.5" jointer plane I just finished. I'm particularly happy about the design of the mouth block (3rd photo). The basic idea for that was stolen from pictures of Steve Knight's planes, but in this case the mouth block is the same width as the iron, and slides in a slot in front of the abutments, so there's no gap on the sides of the iron. I guess it works like the mouth closer on a British mitre plane, except it's secured with screws and threaded inserts, rather than a wedge.
Some other details: The plane body is some ridiculously heavy tropical stuff that came out of a couple pallets I pulled apart 5 years ago. Most of the pallets were low-grade mahogany, but there were these 3 boards…the stuff was a nightmare to work, but it's extremely hard and stable, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. After making a couple maple planes, I decided that I really prefer heavier planes. Still, it's not as heavy as a #7. The handle is walnut, and the mouth block is a scrap of cocobolo.
Because all my material was thin stock, the plane is laminated (well, also because I don't have the chops to build a solid plane yet). I laminated the abutments as well, and pinned them to the sides with oak dowel rod, because I was concerned that the wedge pressure would cause them to delaminate.
Anyway, after a few test cuts, the plane works incredibly well! Thanks for looking!

-Steve

[James Scheffler]

That looks really nice! Do you have any other pictures showing the mouth block? What does it look like from the bottom of the plane?

[Bob Jones]

that could be the best reclaimed lumber project that I have ever seen. nice work

[Chris Griggs]

Great stuff Steve. Very nice work on the shaping. Welcome to the creek!

[David Weaver]

that could be the best reclaimed lumber project that I have ever seen.

Most definitely. Wish I could find lumber like that on pallets. Looks like the plane works well, too.

[Chris Vandiver]

Very Nice Job!

[George Beck]

SWEEEEET! Nice plane

[jamie mack]

Beautiful!

[Steve Voigt]

Thanks everybody for the kind words.
James--I've attached another pic of the mouth block (with the iron/wedge removed), and one of the bottom. Sorry, all I've got is an older Iphone camera, so quality is lousy. But the mouth block is pretty simple--just a 1/2" thick piece with 2 slots, and about a 15 degree taper cut on the bottom, so the final thickness goes from about 1/4" at the bottom to 1/2" approx. 3/4" up from the bottom.
It's not meant to be adjustable in daily use. Like with Steve Knight's planes, it enables you to dial in a semi-permanent mouth opening you like. Later, when the plane wears and the mouth opens up, you loosen the screws and lower the block, closing up the mouth. Then you have to trim the bottom of the block flush with the sole. Hope that makes sense.
Yeah, that's some nasty tearout on the sole. Naturally corrugated! Doesn't seem to hurt the performance.

-Steve

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Looks great! You should be proud, congrats!

That's something I've been thinking about making for a while, just waiting for the right piece of lumber to find it's way to my shop; I hope if I ever tackle the project (a million other things going on) it comes out looking half this nice.

[Juan Hovey]

Steve - Impressive work. Did you measure the shavings in the photo? If you've made other planes, I encourage you to post pix of them as wel. JVH

[Terry Beadle]

Nice ! Very nice... superb!

I was trying to read the blade imprints but failed. Is the blade a recovered two part or an old wedge single?

[Jim Koepke]

Steve,

Beautiful work on the plane.

Welcome to the Creek. Your profile doesn't show your location. I would bet everyone wants to know where they can find pallets like that.

Don't worry, most of us will stay where we live right now.

jtk

[Steve Voigt]

Terry--the iron imprint is "Hancock Tool co." It's an old (probably mid-19th c.) tapered, laminated double iron.

Jim--I'll update my profile. I'm in VA, but I scored the wood back when I lived in Brooklyn. I'm not normally one for pallet wood, but my landlord literally left these outside my door, so I couldn't pass it up.

-Steve

[Tony Shea]

I do like the plane a lot. It looks like Jatoba to me. Not really positive though with the pics not real clear so I could be way off. It looks like your glue lines are nice and tight which is important on a laminated plane. You still may run into issues with your different laminations expanding/contracting at a slightly different rate but this is easily remedied by whatever method you choose to flatten the sole with. I made a laminated plane once out of Jatoba and have had no issues other than what I stated. I like the tote a lot on your plane and the mouth block idea is great. I also want to make a plane of this size some day.