Yet another casting infill plane.....

[gasman]

I'm not sure if anyone is following this thread any more - my fault as I have been so slow with it all - but I am close to the end so will finish off this in the next week or so

My iron arrived back from Philly - beautifully hardened thanks so much Phil such a gentleman
With the iron placed in the adjuster and the blade at the mouth, I was then able to cut the adjuster to length

... and then cut a 40 TPI 1/4" thread in the end so the adjuster knob could be screwed on - I will loctite this later

I have put a polished face on the back of the iron and sharpened it to 25+1 degrees
So the only major job left to do is to make elongated grub screws to mount the lever cap and drill the holes to attach that to the body - and then fettle the whole thing so it actually cuts plus I will put my mark onto the lever cap

Cheers
Mark

 

[Racers]

Following closely, it’s looking quite splendid.

Pete

 

[Bm101]

=D> =D> =D>
Think you might be surprised at the number watching but not commenting Mark as Pete hints at. Keep up the excellent work fella, really looking forward to more updates when you get the time.

 

[Harbo]

Yes watching with interest

Rod

 

[D_W]

Very Nice!

 

[memzey]

Looks amazing!

 

[gasman]

Thanks gents for your kind comments
Best wishes
Mark

 

[gasman]

Mmmm I feel I owe everyone an apology. 3 years ago I started this infill mitre plane and I got close to finishing it - but then one thing led to another and I see it is over 18 months since I last updated.
When I last touched it, the lever cap needed fitting to the base, and the infills needed epoxying in place but most other things were finished. However, you might just recall that I had epoxied the steel base to the bronze casting as sweating it on had not worked......
Well pipper me if that didn't fail too - it got dropped onto the floor and the epoxy failed. So I had to start all over again. This time round, I decided to use the blind holes I had previously drilled into the 6mm gauge plate base, tap the holes and bolt it to the casting as well as using the epoxy. There was one hole at the front and one at the back. I had tapped them previously but the holes weren't deep enough and the threads had 'cut out' so I started again. I drilled both holes very carefully on the mill until only about 1mm of steel remained. In order to maximise the 'bite' of the bolt I used in only 4mm of 'depth' I used a 5/16" 40 tpi tap and die set - hence the rather home made look of the nut you can see as I had to make that from scratch.. When both holes etc were tapped it all felt much more secure so I epoxied it all up and the result was much better
I didn't take photos during the work as I didn't think to update this thread but here's the result:

Heres the rear screw with the epoxied-in rear infill

Then I had to mount the lever cap - so started by drilling these holes in the sides of the casting. I marked it out trying to think about how the lever cap would sit and trying to get the spacing such that the lever cap screw would be perpendicular, or nearly perpendicular, to the blade when tightened.

I made the two bolts which secure the lever cap - this is just 1/4" steel rod. The screwdriver slots are cut in the end with a hacksaw then carefully enlarged with needle files

Then I drilled and tapped corresponding holes on each side of the lever cap

I had to drill a hole in the bottom of the 'bun' front infill to give room for the new securing bolt and then decided I wanted it shiny so using Rustin's Plastic coating stuff which I think is amazing to make it very shiny

So that is as far as I have got - I am going to finish this thread if it kills me
Final update soon!
BW to all
Mark

 

[Mr_Pea]

Relax, I have threads on here far older than this (including some castings )

Well done, Great Job and I Love that front bun looks very Scottish to my eye.

Look forward to seeing shavings this year sometime.

 

[gasman]

Got this mitre plane finished over the weekend, gave it a polish, sharpened the iron and have taken the obligatory shaving photo - the plane has quite a narrow mouth and therefore will take a very fine shaving. A huge relief to get this done and dusted after 3 years! I plan to use this - a slight modification will be needed on the shooting board
Cheers Mark

 

[AndyT]

You've clearly not forgotten how to do it! That looks marvellous.

 

[Bm101]

I've been following this for ages Mark. Every time an update was published I'd get excited.
Congratulations!
Looks absolutely incredible and more importantly works as should. Great work managing all the problems.
Form and function. Glorious.
Well done!
=D>
Chris

 

[gasman]

Thanks Chris that's kind of you to say so. I have been 'rationalising' my hand tools - got rid of quite a few planes etc on eBay and I intend to use my home made planes a lot more. I am going to spend a few hours fettling them and getting them so they work better
Many thanks again
Mark