baltic birch plywood laminated planes

[bridger]

I made a couple of planes from plywood. they were very fast and easy to build, and seem to work fine. the first one I made just to see if it would work at all, and it did. the second one I made to try out an oddball configuration. kind of rapid prototyping, if you will.

the first one, basically a jack plane:

the second one, a 60 degree bedded bevel down toothing plane with a chipbreaker:

 

[Racers]

Very nice, I do like birch ply.


Pete

 

[Sean Hellman]

Lovely plane, great idea using birch ply. I use to do sell at some new age shows and made boxes from birch ply which where shaped and carved. I had a few people coming up wanting to buy and asking about which wood it was with such lovely grain. When I said birch ply they put it down as if it was a lump of uranium. Its the glue you see, it leaks poisons and will damage your health and your families health as well.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Strange. An awful lot of children's and nursery furniture as well as toys, jigsaws etc. are made from...Birch ply.

 

[Racers]

Lovely plane, great idea using birch ply. I use to do sell at some new age shows and made boxes from birch ply which where shaped and carved. I had a few people coming up wanting to buy and asking about which wood it was with such lovely grain. When I said birch ply they put it down as if it was a lump of uranium. Its the glue you see, it leaks poisons and will damage your health and your families health as well.

Its best not to worry about a small amount of glue (and that glue is the low risk one (very low formaldehyde release) ) there are far far bigger risks out there.


Pete

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Splendid stuff! What an excellent example of 'using available resources'.

Given a sole of hard wood glued on, those planes will be the equal of (or, given the stability of ply, possibly even the better than) any laminated plane made from exotic hardwoods.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

A hardwood sole might be nice, but end grain birch ply is going to take an awful lot of wearing out.

 

[bridger]

A hardwood sole might be nice, but end grain birch ply is going to take an awful lot of wearing out.

I'm expecting it to wear into a corrugated sole

 

[MIGNAL]

There's a good chance it will, to a very limited extent.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

So it'll have only half the friction.

 

[jimi43]

The most refreshing thread I have read in a long while!

Bravo mate!

=D> =D> =D>

Jimi

 

[bridger]

The most refreshing thread I have read in a long while!

Bravo mate!

=D> =D> =D>

Jimi

thanks Jimi. these are nothing like the quality of your planes, but then they weren't really meant to be. they do represent a very fast and easy path to plane building for anyone starting from a minimum skillset and toolbox, as well as a fast and easy way to experiment with alternative plane geometries.

 

[jimi43]

The most refreshing thread I have read in a long while!

Bravo mate!

=D> =D> =D>

Jimi

thanks Jimi. these are nothing like the quality of your planes, but then they weren't really meant to be. they do represent a very fast and easy path to plane building for anyone starting from a minimum skillset and toolbox, as well as a fast and easy way to experiment with alternative plane geometries.

That's what it's all about my friend...doesn't matter how good a build or restoration job...if the plane doesn't perform the way it should....it's useless.

Everytime I get a plane to restore...the first stage is to get it to hold the iron...and then see what needs doing from that point onwards.

Your method of using cheap and available materials is an excellent way of testing different theories...prototyping and even as the first stage to an exotic build...a most useful idea.

Thanks for posting and demonstrating so clearly this technique.

Jimi

 

[Tierney]

Very impressed, might try that myself.

DT