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Thread: Beech Jointer Build

  1. #46
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    Definitely on the glue. If you don't glue it, it will shift around tiny amounts while you're using it, which is very annoying, even if it's not a threat to come apart. It's like using a stanley plane where the handle is just a tiny bit loose and it clicks around under your hand. VERY annoying.

  2. #47
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    Then I wonder what do HNT planes do (yeah I know I bring them up a lot lately), I got to try a jack plane and the handle had a alen screw on top, so is he relaying on the "mild steel" wood of his again? (won't compress in use)

    Edit: I have used a wooden plane with a screwed on stanley handle (as an experiment) and it was ok. I don't see how the end grain would compress enough to cause a loose feeling tote? especially with the screw holding in down with a fair bit of friction. am I wrong? maybe just a drop of glue on the end grain.
    Last edited by Matthew N. Masail; 09-24-2014 at 8:38 AM.

  3. #48
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    Well, the screw is holding only the front. Over time, the handle is going to get a lot of pressure, and I'll probably be cutting that mortise by hand to begin with instead of drilling and paring. The screw in the front of the handle is keeping the front end from rising out of its taper, but the back where the taper is also somewhat gradual is not going to have anything holding it in. If it's worked a little bit over time, it'll develop the "clack clack" feeling that happens when you're using it hard.

    I've got a try plane in that condition right now (but with no front screw) and though it's been used for months now in heavy work, the handle just doesn't come out.

    I'm not sure what HNT does, the only plane I ever had from them had no handle on the back, but I'm sure Terry Gordon does something sound.

  4. #49
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    The back of the handle DOES have something holding it in. You need to have the contoured back of the handle fit into the angled back part of the mortise. With BOTH the front and the back fitting into the angled mortise,the handle cannot rise up when you are pushing forward. The glue is only to hold the handle in while you pull the plane BACKWARDS.

    I hope this is making sense to you.

  5. #50
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    George, that's right. That's how my handle is thus far without screw. It could not come out on a forward stroke as the back has less taper than the front, but it does have some. Pressure on the handle would lever it so that the front couldn't rise and if the front couldn't then neither could the back. I'd imagine the clacking feel that I'm referring to is a handle moving only a small fraction of a millimeter, but you can feel it and it's annoying. I like them to be glued in solid.

    A screw in the front of the handle is sort of like belt and suspenders, but it would ensure that the handle couldn't come out going backwards, anyway. Of all of the wooden planes I've gotten, probably 10-20% of them have had that screw, maybe signaling that there are other people who would also wear belt and suspenders.

  6. #51
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    Thanks a lot David I'm really enjoying your build. I look forward to seeing the handle and how you mortice it into the body and the final fitting of the wedge/mouth etc.

    Your comments and insights about your process and objectives at each stage of the build are also really insightful. For example, hearing your description of what you're trying to accomplish in each stage of mortising the bed for the iron and abutments have given me a much better understanding of how to attempt this.

    Any advice about how you get the bed for the plane iron straight, level and at the proper angle? Do you use a 45° guide block clamped to the top of the plane body to keep your chisel at the desired 45° angle? I've built lots of laminated planes but have never attempted a solid body plane because I can't figure out how I would get the blade bed straight, flat and co-planar with the sole. I assume that's important to both keep the iron stable when taking thick shaving and also to allow for accurate adjustment of the cutting-edge parallel to the sole?

    Thanks again for taking the time to post pictures and share your knowledge.

    All the best, Mike

  7. #52
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    I lay out the angle on the side of the plane with a protractor, draw the back line of the mouth on the bottom of the plane and then take that line and put a (noncritical) angle of 45 degrees on the other side of the plane.

    When mortising the bed, i leave the mortise about a quarter inch short of the line at the bottom of the plane, just eyeballing. i don't use guide blocks anywhere or anything like that, not that it wouldn't be a good idea to get close, but the money shot with the bedding comes when you bed the iron, and it's really not critical that it's perfect to your starting line.

    If you were to leave it just short at the top, then you could end up with a bed of 46 degrees or 47 degrees or something, but it really wouldn't matter as long as it's flat.

    Anyway, once I've drilled through the mouth, I just continue then to work what's left of the bed down close to where the mouth is (the wood is pretty resilient) and I have an almost flat bed with a lot of imperfections. When it's time to get those out, it's entirely by eye. If the mouth is not level, you can see a lot of trouble awfully quick just with a naked eye. I sight down it straight and across the diagonals, and if it looks good both ways, it will take *very* little work to get the iron to bed to it. When bedding the iron, I just want even contact somewhere near the top of the mortise as well as at the bottom, and I don't want any irregularities near where it's bedded well that could cause any part of the iron to high center. The even bed at the top and the bottom ensures that when you get a good wedge fit later, the plane will adjust like you expect it to (as in, when you strike the iron in the middle, it will advance evenly, and when you strike the back of the plane, it will retract). You can use a plane without it adjusting perfectly, but it's nice when it does.

    I suppose the critical part of it is not overcutting past your initial line when making the first rough mortise, which is why I leave it about a quarter inch short until I open the mouth from the bottom.

    The only jig of any type that i've used for any of it is a spacer to cut the abutments, and that's courtesy of Steve V saying in another thread that it would eliminate a lot of paring of abutments (which is a good thing).

    After getting what looks like an even bed by eye, it only takes about 5 minutes to get the iron to bed where I want it, and when I'm nearly done and fitting the wedge with the iron I'm actually going to use (jim matthews provided me with a nicer iron, and since I'm probably going to redo the wedge, I'll check the bed with the new iron), i'll check the bed again with the iron under tension to make sure it's beddling like I want it to. All I use to mark the bed is a drop of oil spread over the back of the iron. I put a picture of the scraper chisel I showed in another thread - it's a two hander, blunt on the front with a crisp bottom, and makes very short work of any bedding of irons.

    It may be a wise thing to use a guide block when trimming the sides of the handle mortise, I don't know, but I love so much working by eye - things seem to come out OK regardless.

  8. #53
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    I feel that a screw sort of messes up the design,David. But,of course,it's up to you to secure the handle as you feel fit.

  9. #54
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    It does a little. I'll sink it flush and make sure it has nice color.

    Besides, george, I already dropped the blank on the floor the other day, so it's got visual boogers right off the bat!!

  10. #55
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    Can't you apply wet paper towels and a clothes iron or soldering iron behind it? That will get nearly all of the mashed corner. Or,saw a little off the end. Who's gonna know?

  11. #56
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    I was thinking about steaming it. Laziness is going to be the issue. it's a dent about 3/8" wide and probably 3/4" long, and it's lifted probably a 16th. I already planed off any part of it that protruded from the side of the plane (I troubled to make sure the sides of this plane are square, but I don't know that i'd use it to shoot long edges - it's too big). I want to use this plane, too, it's only a matter of time until I run it into a holdfast or another plane sitting on the bench.

  12. #57
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    3/4" would be a bit much to saw off!!

  13. #58
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    Yes, I'm not going to saw it off. It only encroaches laterally a little bit. I was pondering not showing it in pictures on here because it's so unsightly, but I may include a final picture. I was, after all, making a plane to use and not to look at.

    I'm never going to be able to pry your big jointer out of your hands if you know I drop planes, anyway!!

  14. #59
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    Quote Originally Posted by David Weaver View Post
    I'm never going to be able to pry your big jointer out of your hands if you know I drop planes, anyway!!
    I seem to recall quite a discussion about designing new planes that are capable of being dropped without damaging the planes - something for beginners. Welcome to my world. LOL

  15. #60
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    Yeah, my daughter was standing there in front of me. She's not afraid to get in the way in the shop, but I think she had kind of that "I think he's going to think I did it" look on her face, and she was stunned by the noise.

    I have never dropped a metal plane that I can recall, but I'll bet I've pushed wooden planes off of my bench at least a dozen times over the last 5 years (because they're close to the edge of the bench and I know it but I don't want to stop what I'm doing - and they're often about $20 each), but when metal plane gets remotely close, I always move it right away.

    I guess that's the height of laziness. This is the first wooden plane that I didn't do that, though, and I can't even remember what I did - if I just had a spaz or what, I wasn't working on the plane at the time and it was just sitting at the front of the bench.

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