Hi guys! I've been busy lately trying to work out a good plane design - and thanks to your help in my previous post on this subject, I have done some experimenting, and came up with something that, I think, is very promising. it's based on the classics, "infill like" looking so I would be real nice to make a lever cap for it. (blade is a 4 1\2 inch long Hock with chipbreaker)
* the cross pin is 5mm diameter stainless steel. Ideally the lever cap should match.
1. do I stand a chance it the world working with stainless, using a belt + disk sander and files..? do I need a special tap?
2. how can I cut a half round into the top of the levercap to fit into the cross pin? I was thinking of looking for a router bit with the right diameter and going only
about 0.5mm or less deep at a time... could this work with stainless? any other ideas of doing the accurately?
3. if stainless is a problem to work... can mild steel or something like that be good enough? my only concert would be rust and the point on contact with the blade.
4. the lever cap will need to be about 10mm thick... as I had originally made the plane blank for a krenov smoother with a wedge, so at 10mm thick I could make a lever cap out of wood, the sole is Ipe so an Ipe cap would look ok, but do you think this would hold as well as a metal one?
*I'd rather not use brass because it doesn't really go well with the wood I have used.
Thanks again
P.S
Derek if you read this, I was wondering how the LN tool event went? I didn't see a post about it.