Leon Robbins compass plane

[Kelly Jons]

Hi guys, another plane question...

My wife just bought me a Leon Robbins (Crown) compass plane from Highland Hardware. It's a sweet little plane with a doubly-curved sole for sculpting wooden chair seats. As I look at it, I see that it is a glued up plane. You can clearly see where the two sides are glued onto the front and back blocks. But interestingly, there is no cross-pin like in a Krenov / Finck plane. Instead, there are the typical abutments like you'd see in a plane made the traditional way!

Any idea why it is made this way, and more importantly, how can I use this technique on my own glued-up planes? I really like the traditional look with the ease of the glued-up method. It looks like the abutments are just glued in as well, but I can't quite be sure just how it was done. Anyone build something like this?

And as always, if this has been discussed elsewhere, please direct me to the appropriate link.

Thanks! You guys are great.

Kelly

[Jim Koepke]

The picture at Highland does not show a view to see what it is you are describing.

It is imaginable that in making these planes, many fixtures have been made to aid in the making of parts, gluing up and other processes involved in their assembly.

jim

[Dave Matson]

Are these the planes you are talking about?

http://www.crownplane.com/catalog.html

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Kelly

I think I have what you want.

I recently posted a step-by-step pictorial of a jack plane I built using laminations that created a traditionally sculptured plane ...





Link: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...JackPlane.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Robert Rozaieski]

Derek's is a great tutorial on how to do this. Another option, presented just for options sake, is a two piece design. John Wheelan demonstrates this method in his book Making Traitional Wooden Planes. The drawback to the two piece method is that the bed is made up of two separate halves, making it tricky to get it coplaner and flat, but it allows you to use thinner, more readily available stock and still gives you a traditional looking plane.

[Kelly Jons]

Yes, Dave, the one I have is shown on the Crown catalog webpage... it's like the 3 photos beneath the travisher picture.

And thanks, Derek. I will have a look. Nice work!

Kelly

[David Gendron]

i have one like Bob is talking about, "traditional" plane made of two halfs! And it work great!

[Greg Earley]

Hi Kelly

I was a friend of Leon and have many of his planes. They are very beautiful and I reach for them often in my shop. I hope you will enjoy using it and plus the selection of woods he used are great eye candy.

Leon came up with this technique after experimenting with different ways of fabricating planes. With his shop and fixturing he could produce them easily and make a profit. This technique worked well for him. I asked him once about the glue joints coming apart and he said he never had a problem with any of the tools he made.

I've made a lot of planes for myself like in Derek tutorial and they have held up to 17 years of use. Derek tutorial is an excellent example to follow, study it and go for it. I used titebond to glue the plane together and no problems with the planes creeping or coming apart.

enjoy you plane
Greg Earley

[Sean Hughto]

Here's my prettiest Leon Robbins plane, a panel raiser: