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Thread: Metal and Wood

  1. #1
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    Metal and Wood

    Hi all, I have a question about metal and wood. I guess it's more on the topic of infill planes a bit, but I was wondering if anyone had advice on keeping from contaminating the wood when sanding and flushing wood and metal surfaces with each other.

    Thanks for your time

  2. #2
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    Fist off I haven't a bit of experience with your exact application. I just saw the title metal in passing and I couldn't pass up a look.

    What does everyone (who has experience with this) think of sealing the wood with a few coats of quite thin shellac ?
    That would keep the wood from taking in stuff and yet one should be able to apply finish to it when the project is ready for final
    Sharpening is Facetating.
    Good enough is good enough
    But
    Better is Better.

  3. #3
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    Travis,

    Welcome to the Creek. I always am curious as to where folks call home. Sometimes I can even remember.

    Most of my experience with this doesn't have to do with infill plane making. Just that when ever the sole of a plane is lapped it seems to transfer metal particles to any wood that is worked for a while after lapping.

    My approach would be two fold. First it would be to clean the metal as well as possible once it is finished. Then like working dovetails all the trimming would be on the wood. Any metal transfer would mostly be to the high points that need trimming anyway. Besides, any place that rubs against metal to get the transfer will not be seen after assembly.

    Maybe my understanding is off, please elaborate if something has slipped my notice.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  4. #4
    I have made a half dozen infills or so, and have not had this issue. However, I tend to try to get the metal all shaped as much as possible prior to fitting and installing the infills. This means that any sanding of both metal and wood is minimal and at a relatively high grit. I use naphtha on the wood prior to finishing, and clean the metal with denatured alcohol and follow it up with paste wax. I suppose that because I tend to use dark woods and steel, I have not seen anything that may show up if I were to use steel and light woods, or brass and dark woods.

  5. #5
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    Thanks guys for all the feedback^^ I also had the same sort of outlook as how to avoid it, by finishing the metal off first and working the infill down and flush to to keep any metal dust to a bare minimum. And yeah, I'm making an infill shoulder plane, which will have steel sides and a curly maple infill, so I'm definately going to have to be careful to avoid the maple getting black. Thanks again for your input it's much appreciated^

  6. #6
    Make sure to post pictures when it's done. I have an idea kicking around for curly maple infill at some point, but need to clear out some current projects first.

  7. #7
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    I have struggle with this from time to time and often wondered how the profession infill plane makers or just tool makers in general accomplish such an even transition on light colored woods. Maybe this is why you don't see a lot of light colored woods paired directly with metal parts that sit flush. I end up taking a long time to sand the parts flush as I am always taking a couple strokes, wiping of the sandpaper and project, taking another couple strokes, and then cleaning the paper and project. Even then I sometimes end up with contamination that shows up which frustrates the hell out of me. There must be an easier way but I haven't figured it out yet.

    I just recently had the same issue on a recent project. I am a reformed cigarette smoker and have switch over to vaping low nicotine juices. I ended up making my own wood box cigarette and couldn't help but make it look good as I am a woodworker. So I used some scrap pear wood and ebony I had small pieces of and made my own electronic cigarette. Sanding the ebony flush to the pear wood was a real pain as the ebony really stained the pear wood black if I didn't pay attention. Here is a picture of the electronic cigarette.

    mod in hand.jpg pear wood mod.jpg

  8. #8
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    I have had the same problem on some tools I have made.
    Basically, I use a wood that will not show the contamination in a bad way. For instance, rosewood.
    I know that's a cop out.

    Here is an example where I had to sand the two together.

    100_2935.jpg

  9. #9
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    @ Brian - Will do for sure, have a few projects on the table right now, but as soon as I get started on it I'll post my progress and see how much luck I have with it

    @ Tony - That's awesome^^ And yeah it's rough trying to keep from contaminating different species, I'm always taking a ton of time when I decide to mix a dark wood with a light wood.

    @ Jeff - Love the marking gauge, very well done^ Yeah I have a hard time substituting one species for another, more so when I'm set on what I want to use. But I dont think it's a cop out, mostly it's just good strategy If I wasn't so stubborn I would prob switch
    Last edited by Travis Knutti; 03-31-2015 at 9:35 AM.

  10. Use scrapers as much as you can.

  11. #11
    If you get all the metal shaped well, you can flush route some. If you use a good spiral bit, you will minimize the amount of sanding to be done. Now I kind of want to try this on something just for the heck of it.

  12. #12
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    When I use rosewood or or another darker wood with brass for a small hand plane. I epoxy the the components together, drill and countersink for #4 or #6 screws. Then I install screws to have screw slot just proud of the brass. Cover the wood and brass with blue tape, and carefully file down screw heads. Replace blue tape on wood components, and sand brass smooth on a granite plate, being careful not to sand the wood. Remove tape, clean brass and wood components with solvent, then just sand flush together on the granite plate. Clean often while sanding until the brass and wooden components are flush. I have used this method on maple and brass with good results, but a finish on the maple before flush sanding probably would get good results. Not claiming that this is the correct method, just the way I do it.

  13. #13
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    Thanks for all the continued advice guys^^ I'm definately considering the flush trim bit as an option. As well as careful finish sanding sealing and polishing.

  14. #14
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    Dec 2014
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    Hey guy, thought I'd give you an update on the shoulder plane. Since this is the first plane I'v built, I wanted to make a practice one first from cheaper materials, so I didn't waste the good material.

    WP_000184.jpgWP_000183.jpgWP_000188.jpgWP_000190.jpgWP_000192.jpgWP_000196.jpgWP_000208.jpgWP_000210.jpg
    This practice one has a maple sole and infill, with 1/8" aluminum sides. The adujstment screw is screwed into a tapped hole in the rear sole section to hold it in place. Then I turned a small peice of steel with a file on my drill press, since I dont have a lathe. The sides are pinned into the sole peices and the infill with 5mm steel pins that I peined over. Which I also found out I need to make the pins longer on the final version since I fell short of material to fill the counter sinks on a few of them. The blade is 3/4" shoulder plane blade from lie neilsen. All in all it works really well, so I'm excited to move on to making the final version.

    The fina version will have an african blackwood sole, because it's extremely dense. The sides will be 316 stainless steel, along with the pins. The infill will a peice of curly maple I'v been saving for some time now.

    Well that's all I have for now, I'll update again once I get started on the final version.

  15. #15
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    I thought I would add a couple more pictures to show the aluminum all flushed up with the infill. And also to say the I didnt put any finish on this one as it's a practice version.

    WP_000200.jpgWP_000211.jpg

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