AARRRGGGH! Screwed up on a plane build

[Christian Thompson]

So I've had this massive 6' long piece of hard maple sitting in my shop for a few months waiting for my hock blade to arrive. I'm building a 6' cooper's plane with a 3.25" iron. I finally got the iron the other day and finished up the prep work on the maple.

blank.jpg

This morning I laid out the mortise, and excitedly starting boring and chopping out the waste. Unfortunately I skipped an important step in the layout and chopped the full width of the iron. I didn't leave anything for cheeks! Damn!

mortise.jpg
(ignore all the layout lines, I started scrambling after realizing my mistake to find a way to work around it)

The good news is that I only got down about an inch (the blank is 3" thick). So now I am trying to figure out what to do:

1. Finish the mortise and glue in some cheeks
2. Finish the mortise and use a dowel to hold the wedge.
3. Move back 7 inches and start a new mortise. Then I'll need to shorten the plane by 7" and patch up the first hole I created.
4. Sell all my tools and have a nice bonfire

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Christian

[Zach Dillinger]

1. Finish the mortise and glue in some cheeks
2. Finish the mortise and use a dowel to hold the wedge.
3. Move back 7 inches and start a new mortise. Then I'll need to shorten the plane by 7" and patch up the first hole I created.
4. Sell all my tools and have a nice bonfire

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Christian

If it was me, I'd either take the second or third option, probably the second.

[Mike Henderson]

I'd glue on the cheeks. I've done that on a couple of planes I made and they look good and work great. If you choose wood that is well matched to the rest of the plane it'll be hard to see that they're glued on.

Mike

[If you glue them on and don't like them, you can always chisel them off and fall back to option 2.]

[Jim Koepke]

I'd glue on the cheeks. I've done that on a couple of planes I made and they look good and work great.

+1 on what Mike says. Besides, as a cooper's plane it won't be seen since the plane is turned over in use.

jtk

[Jim Belair]

Can't recall where I've seen them but someone sells brass cheeks for user built planes.

[Matthew N. Masail]

HNT Gordon sells brass cheeks. you could also make a brass lever cap like in infill planes.

[Joe Bailey]

Your option No 1 (glue in cheeks) is the number one option, in my opinion.

[Frederick Skelly]

Your option No 1 (glue in cheeks) is the number one option, in my opinion.

Mine too. Just like Mike said, you can always fall back to option 2.

[Christian Thompson]

Thanks for all the responses guys. I think I am going to go with option 1 and glue in the cheeks. And in the future I'll try to remember that whole "measure twice cut once" thing!

[Steve Voigt]

A few years ago I made some planes with glued in cheeks. One thing to consider is that you will need to get the sides of the mortise really nice and flat to get a good glue bond. Also, I recommend pinning those cheeks to the sides, because the wedge pressure will want to push the cheeks up and out of the plane.

[Zach Dillinger]

A few years ago I made some planes with glued in cheeks. One thing to consider is that you will need to get the sides of the mortise really nice and flat to get a good glue bond. Also, I recommend pinning those cheeks to the sides, because the wedge pressure will want to push the cheeks up and out of the plane.

The problems raised by Steve highlight exactly my reasons for preferring / suggesting method 2.

[Mike Henderson]

BTW, if you're concerned about glue creep on the cheeks, use a urea formaldehyde glue, or even the Gorilla poly glue.

You do need to get a good tight fit no matter what glue you go with. But if you go a good job of fitting, the glue joint will be stronger than the wood.

Mike

[don wilwol]

Definitely glue in cheeks

[Al Launier]

Good choice! Gluing the cheeks will make it look intentional & more impressive.

[Christian Thompson]

The problems raised by Steve highlight exactly my reasons for preferring / suggesting method 2.

A few years ago I made some planes with glued in cheeks. One thing to consider is that you will need to get the sides of the mortise really nice and flat to get a good glue bond. Also, I recommend pinning those cheeks to the sides, because the wedge pressure will want to push the cheeks up and out of the plane.

Now you guys are making me reconsider. The cheeks failing was my original concern. This is a big iron and jointing oak staves is not gentle. Maybe I'll switch to the dowel. I've got some time to ponder - it'll take me a few more days to finish the mortise. The irritating thing is that if I was going the glue / dowel route I could have just made this a laminated plane and saved myself a lot of trouble! Oh well. Learning opportunity I guess :-).