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