Making an Infill Pocket Plane

[Brian Thornock]

Hey guys, thought I would share the little project that I am working on between larger projects. It is an infill pocket plane prototype. Now, the design is not mine, it is Malcolm MacPherson's, but I loved it so much, I made a set of plans in CAD to try and make one. The vital specs are these: 4" long, 1 1/2" wide, 1 1/4" iron, 1 1/2" tall, 12 degree bed angle. Sides are 6061 aluminum (just to try out the plans more than anything, it's cheap if I mess up and easy to work to make it fast), sole will be 1/4" steel. Infill is undetermined, but I will probably go non-traditional with it. The whole reason I wanted to do one of these is that I have several full size block planes that I love, but sometimes I want something smaller and lighter for putting a light chamfer on something, or just working a small area. Construction will be glued and screwed with brass screws for contrast. I have everything on hand except the O1 for the iron, but I need some 1 1/4" for a rabbet plane I have in the works also. If all goes well, I'll make some G-code to cut one out of aluminum on the little CNC mill. If that goes well, I'll CNC myself a nice one out of brass or something. However, aluminum should be fine as I don't intend to shoot anything with this, and there is no need for additional mass. Anyway, some pictures of my first hour's worth of labor.

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Updates will be posted as progress gets made.

[Matthew N. Masail]

Looks great. looking forward to seeing the progress. I'm not sure Alu is the best choice even for a mock-up. mild steel would be better and if it turned out well you would still have a keeper plane.

[Brian Thornock]

I'm not worried about the aluminum (didn't have the right steel on hand for this) as it will be completely supported this being an infill. Were it not an infill, I would be less sure. However, if it ends up a total failure, then I will have learned not to do mockups in aluminum. But the way I figure is that planes have been made out of wood for a bazillion years, which is less wear resistant than aluminum, so it should at least work in theory, right? Who knows! I just love experimenting, so let's see if it blows up! (Though I won't sand aluminum and steel on the same belt, because that will blow up, or at least light on fire).

[Matthew N. Masail]

I didn't mean strength wise, I'm sure it's strong enough. but it will not work as well, it's gummy and will load up files. then in the end. if you made it and all is good, it's quite an ugly metal. if you plan to do dovetails, other here will tell you if you can peen in well or not.

[Brian Thornock]

Nope, no dovetails. It does load up files, but because I am doing just the sides with it, I can sand most all of it. Also, as to the ugliness, I have a desire to see how an anodized plane would look. Now I have given my secret away...

[Matthew N. Masail]

Well you could have hid it, but you just made things more intresting !

[David Weaver]

It'll be interesting to see how things come out. As the possessor of a cordless drill and some tools that have little or no inherent accuracy, the method itself (cnc and precision drilled holes and screws) is completely foreign to me.

[Brian Thornock]

David, I still haven't learned the CNC really well yet, but I figure if it can help me in cutting plane sides, that's all I need it to do .

[Cody Kemble]

David, I still haven't learned the CNC really well yet, but I figure if it can help me in cutting plane sides, that's all I need it to do .

It made both sides in under an hour. That's incredible. My shop is currently my escape from technology but this definitely sounds neat. Good luck.