Dovetailed shoulder plane build - updated

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Aled Dafis

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Hi there.

If you cast your minds back to the secret santa thread a couple of months ago, you might remember that I made our resident professional planemaker (Philly), a shoulder plane, and many of you fine chaps said nice things about it, and showed interest in finding out how I'd gone about putting it together.


Here's Philly's plane.

IMG_4835.jpg


To be honest, the plane in question was made in a bit of a rush, so I didn't get around to taking any WIP pics, but I was quite pleased with the outcome, and came pretty close to sending Philly just a box of shavings. In the end I gave in, and sent the plane, but promising myself that I'd make another - this time to keep!!

So here goes.

I started the project by drawing the plane on ProDesktop - a cheap and nasty 3D CAD package that's found in most schools (yes, for my sins I am a teacher). I then went about exporting 2D drawings from the 3D model, and importing them into 2D Design - this time, a cheap and fairly useful CAD package found in all schools. The reason I imported the drawings into 2D design, is that this programme can be used to control a 2D / 3D milling machine, which I used to cut my blanks from 4mm Brass sheet.

Here's a pic of the milling machine. It's designed primarily for machining soft materials such as wood and plastics, but given enough care it will cut brass. However, it's painfully slow, taking only 0.1mm per pass. The whole milling procedure for this tiny plane took over an hour and a half.

AledDafis003.jpg


The brass sheet was held in place using double sided tape, and to prove that it was plenty strong enough, have a look at what happened to the brass when I tried to peel it off the MDF sacrificial bed. :shock: :shock: The brass is around 10mm wide by 4mm thich at the point it bent!!

2009073.jpg


Here's what it looked like once I took it off the milling machine.

AledDafis002.jpg


The corners of the dovetails needed a bit of filing to remove the small radius at their roots, and of course to provide the necessary clearance for the "double dovetail". The steel sole was machined on a traditional milling machine, it's a bit of a hassle to set the rotating vise to the correct angle for milling the pins - and even more of a hassle to re-set it to bang on square, so I just milled the pins square and then filed the angle by hand, which took no more than 45mins tops. They're not perfect, but the peining would soon sort out any issues. There are very few problems in the metalworking world, that a Ball Pein hammer wont fix.

camerajulia283.jpg


I wish I had better pics of the peining stage, but all the pics I took using the school's camera turned out very blurred indeed.

As with my previous plane build I started to become excited at this stage, and forgot to take any pics of cleaning up the dovetails, and cutting the mouth. It was howeve a fairly straightforward process of filing away the excess metal and then bringing everything nice and flush on the linisher - the benefit of making such a small plane is that it fits easily on the bed of the linisher, a blessing that I'll not have on my next plane.

I'll take some pics tomorrow of how I went about cutting the mouth, and of the finished plane - I thought that I had some, but I seem to have misplaced them, or even worse have deleted them from the camera. Which begs the question, what else have I also deleted? :x

Cheers

Aled
 
[-X Now that's cheating :lol:

Most of us can't appropriate resources belonging to the tax payer for our hobby

Look at the one Racers made which was done with hand tools & graft.
 
What sort of Drum Patterns does that thing throw out?? :lol:

What fun, wish I had a CNC Mill to play with :( ;)
 
lurker":3kflnb2i said:
[-X Now that's cheating :lol:

Most of us can't appropriate resources belonging to the tax payer for our hobby

Look at the one Racers made which was done with hand tools & graft.

Yes I admit that it's cheating :roll: , but if it's good enough for Konrad Sauer, it's good enough for me - in fact Konrad has his blanks water jet cut, but it's the same principle.

If it's any consolation, Philly's plane was indeed made with hand tools & graft. :wink:

Wizer":3kflnb2i said:
What sort of Drum Patterns does that thing throw out??

What fun, wish I had a CNC Mill to play with .

Drum Patterns?? I'm confused, please enlighten me.

Yes the CNC Mill is good fun, but I haven't had time to play with it's 3D capabilities yet. The headmaster mentioned last week that he'd heard of a grant for a CNC lathe, so I hope he gets it - that'l be my adjusters sorted :wink:

Cheers

Aled
 
Hi, Aled

Nice plane.

Don't tell Lurker but I did use a band saw and drill press when I made mine :wink:


Pete
 
Here's the continuation. In true magazine contrbutor fashion, I set up a couple of pics to show how I went about cutting and filing the mouth opening.

The plane is clamped in the vice with the final bed position, just fractionally below the top of the vice jaw, as that can then be used as a guide for your hacksaw. This way, it's impossible for you to cut too much of the bed away and for the job to end up as scrap.

IMG_5250.jpg


The plane is then re-positioned so that the bed is dead flush with the top of the vice jaw (or in this case, the front of the mouth - escapement??) so it can be filed accurately.

IMG_5254.jpg


I also found a pic of Philly's plane just as I was about to pein the dovetails. The size of the hammer seems a little overkill, but it worked a treat.

Edit: 2 small points. Sorry about the quality of the pic, and it must have been taken midway during peining session, as the front shows evidence of hammer blows, where the back doesn't. It's really a good idea to protect the plane with 2 thicknesses of masking tape to avoid damaging the body with errant hammer blows during peining. :x :x

camerajulia284.jpg


This is how Mk2 turned out in the end.

IMG_5244.jpg


And now for the shaving shots, I know how you like these. And yes, these shavings were taken against the grain.

IMG_5246.jpg


IMG_5248.jpg


Here is the plane next to it's (much) bigger cousin, the Veritas Large Shoulder Plane.

IMG_5255.jpg


And here's my little assembly of planes, the shoulder is on the second shelf up, between the (useless) Krenov type smoother and the Holteyesque smoother.

IMG_5262.jpg


Cheers

Aled
 
Aled - lovely little plane you should go into production and sell them at school fairs for PTA funds? :)

That looks like an expensive piece of brass - I bought some 3mm 300 x 300 compo recently for £33? Do you get yours wholesale?

Rod
 
Harbo":ge8ou5hy said:
Aled - lovely little plane you should go into production and sell them at school fairs for PTA funds? :)

That looks like an expensive piece of brass - I bought some 3mm 300 x 300 compo recently for £33? Do you get yours wholesale?

Rod

Nice idea, but I don't think that the parents at our school would appreciate the amount of work in a plane like this. I'd probably be lucky to make 25quid. :roll:

As regards the price of brass, it depends what you see as expensive. I bought a 300mm x 200mm x 4mm sheet, which gave me enough material for 3 of these planes, and it cost me pretty much exactly what you paid for yours. When you consider that the only other comparable plane on the market is made by Konrad Sauer, and he charges around $600 for his, it doesn't seem that expensive.

Please note that I'm not trying to compare my work to Konrad's, his work is awesome, and I have a long way to go before I reach that standard. In fact, I believe that his planes offer pretty good value for money, considering the sheer quality of his work. Just ask Waka.

I just took delivery this morning of some more brass to start making something similar to this.

DSC_5025_800x463-1.jpg


DSC_5072.jpg


Check it out here http://oudluthier.blogspot.com/

The total material cost for that plane will be under 50 pounds, and if I can get it looking and performing anywhere near that of Jameel's plane, I will be one happy bunny!!

Cheers

Aled
 
Ive had a bit of a google, but I just cant find the answer to this question -

For infill planes without the Norris style adjuster, how do you retract the blade?

Tapping the blade advances it, Ive seen Phillys video on adjusting a woody, where he taps the back of the plane to retact it.

But on a metal plane, tapping the back over many years of use would eventually deform the plane - or, by tapping the infill you could bruise that exotic wood!

So how are you supposed to retact the blade?
 
Hi, Mikey R

Some planes have "snecked" irons that hade a lump on the end you can tap, or you can just slacken the screw pull back the blade and start again.

Pete
 
wizer":24yi2ygw said:
Dafis Toolworks

Has a nice ring to it ;)

I'd love to do it, but I don't think my work is up to it. That, and the fact that I don't have the balls to give up my day job and give it a go.

Cheers

Aled
 
Waka":17bz4wd6 said:
Aled

I'm very impressed with your plane making, you could also run it as a side line and see how it takes off?

Thanks Waka, and others for your kind comments.

I've been thinking long and hard over the past few days about making one or two more planes in my spare time. Do you think there's a market out there?

What about me supplying kits so that you guys can have a go.

Cheers

Aled
 
Aled Dafis":8swvos79 said:
What about me supplying kits so that you guys can have a go.

Cheers

Aled

If you supplied a kit for the smoother you showed, I would be interested.

Nice work BTW.

Cheers

Karl
 
karl":26ron6n7 said:
Aled Dafis":26ron6n7 said:
What about me supplying kits so that you guys can have a go.

Cheers

Aled

If you supplied a kit for the smoother you showed, I would be interested.

Nice work BTW.

Cheers

Karl

Thanks for showing interest Karl, but I hasten to add that the smoothing plane I showed is not my design, and also not made by me. The plane I showed was made by Jameel Abrahams, from a kit by Ron Brese in the US. I wouldn't want people to think that I'm showing other people's work off as my own - think Pinky.

I do however plan to make a plane along the same lines as this soon for myself, and in the longer term, i could be tempted to offer the metalwork as a kit. That is, if mine turns out OK in the first place.

At the moment I'm just playing things through my mind, and just interested to see whether there's a potential market out there or not.

Cheers

Aled
 
Hi Aled

I knew it wasn't yours. You don't strike me as being a "Pinky". :lol:

It'll be interesting to see how you progress with the smoother.

Cheers

Karl
 
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