Beech Jointer Build

[David Weaver]

George, I've never measured a cap iron set. I'd say it's just slightly further back than a tight smoother shaving, and those shavings are about 5 thousandths thick - not real thick, but not flimsy smoother shavings, either.

You should make some planes and send them to me You know I'm too cheap to pay you for them, though. You could make a slightly scaled down buddy plane for your gigantic 3" wide jointer.

I think if you cozied up to a couple of folks down at the museum, you could probably get some of their stock. I'm *very very* fortunate that Prashun shared what he has with me. If the topic didn't come up on this forum, I'd have never known horizon had beech (you could call them, too).

[David Weaver]

Here's my pro wrestler heat post, which I say tongue in cheek because I know this stuff irritates some people. BUT -on the sharpening and the cap iron.

- The iron was dull enough that it wouldn't stay in my first test cuts. That thwarted my video efforts. So the washita sharpening is pretty much genuine to the process for a dull iron (not freshly reground, either), and I faffed around a little on the strop because I never fully flattened this iron properly (it's 95% of the way there, I guess I gave up on it at the time in an urge to use the plane it came in), so the wire edge doesn't come off evenly on the stone (i'll rectify that later). What's the total time sharpening, even fetching the strop? I don't know, but it doesn't take long and I don't have to keep track of anything.

- The second thing is setting the cap iron. I have only a couple of years experience with this (and very little with this particular iron and cap iron set*), not like warren who has decades of familiarity with the tools he uses on a daily basis, but it looks like about an extra 15 seconds to set it closer than I normally would. I didn't want to horse thick shavings in this video just to get the chips to straighten out, so I set it a bit closer to get normal jointer shavings to straighten out. My point is, it's not fiddly, I didn't need to reset it to figure out where it would need to go. I can just look at it and tell what it should look like. The surface that's left behind could take a finish, despite the little bit of curl or wrinkle in walnut that looks light colored.

* sometimes the old double iron sets don't behave like you'd expect them to.

[Steve Voigt]

Looks good! and more importantly, works well.
Any thoughts of adding a strike?

[David Weaver]

I probably won't. Presume you mean somewhere middle front, and not a dedicated replaceable strike block in the back? Most of my planes don't have them.

At some point, I am going to myself a simple maker's stamp (I've got reverse stamps to do it now), but later. After several planes nobody would take credit for, I think I could finally mark my planes on the front (the really funny thing about this plane next too others at this point is that the wedge is short, but it's short because it was made for an iron that's already 1/3rd spent).

Probably order of business no 1 would be getting rid of that filthy HF faced hammer, as the faces are always unscrewing....or at least gluing them in.

[Bruce Mack]

Thanks David, esp. the video. The build is beyond my skills, but so much fun to watch.

[Alfred Kraemer]

Being more familiar with European beech I second that statement about the pleasant fragrance of beech. It was my parents favorite for smoking meats.

Alfred

[Tony Shea]

Thanks David, esp. the video. The build is beyond my skills, but so much fun to watch.

Although David did a great job with this plane and nailed the details of the aesthetics I highly doubt that this build is beyond your skills, or most peoples' skills on this site. These planes can be time consuming for the un-initiated, like myself, but as long as you take your time with the important details then this is a very doable and rewarding project. What sets the good ones apart from the bad is how you deal with the bedding of the iron, the shape and size of the mouth, the iron, and the fitting of wedge. There actually is a lot to these planes to get a good one, which David just proved that his is, but I personally think that most people here could accomplish this if you take your sweet time.

[David Weaver]

Total time for this plane is probably about 15 hours. I know I could never do it in 5 totally by hand ,but 10 would be pretty easily attainable.

Anyway, yes, anyone who can make anything where you have to be a little free with the hands and work on the fly can make a good plane. The bigger deal is knowing ahead of time what things should look like and why they're designed the way they are. (as in if you don't have a plane to look at and someone else doesn't pitch up the measurements for certain things, you could end up with something not so desirable).

The only suggestion I have is not to use good material on the first ever mortised plane. laminating some short boards together isn't even a horrible idea. It's pretty easy on the first one to cut into some part of the abutment and have a fatal error, or drill into the wear or into the side of the plane by accident when opening hte mouth. Whatever mistakes you make in the first one won't appear in the second, and there will probably be a lot in the first.

[Brian Holcombe]

Nice work David! That turned out some gorgeous shavings.

[Pat Barry]

Nice work on the plane David! Who was the youngish dude dong all the demo work?

[David Weaver]

Nice work on the plane David! Who was the youngish dude dong all the demo work?

Thanks Pat, and Brian.

That fat guy pushing the plane is me!! I see from the overhead lighting that I'm starting to lose hair, too!

[ian maybury]

That surprisd me a little too. So who is your avatar David?

[David Weaver]

Richard Collins - now deceased actor who played Phil Collins on Trailer Park Boys.

You can go to youtube and type in "best of phil collins" and you'll see who I'm talking about if you match the picture, but don't do it if you're easily offended.

I'm almost 40. I'm always a little surprised when people expect me to be older just because I'm a crab!!

[steven c newman]

Might look into a front knob screw from a transistional plane?

Looking very good so far, by the way...

Wasn't there a dovetail like joint at the front of the totes? You had to slide the tote into the socket to allow the rear of the tote to drop into the mortise...

[Matthew N. Masail]

looks like it works fantastically... (pretty too). I think you might just get a bunch of people to start building these.