It's a JK, Derek of Oz smoother.....WIP

[woodbloke]

The Record No4 refurb has been put onto the back burner whilst I await a few bits to finish it off. All parts are now in the airing cupboard to keep them warm and stop the rusticles from attacking the metalwork.......

........meanwhile, I've started a Knenovian type of smoother with which will have a Derek of Oz style cap iron. This little plane will have a single iron set at 55deg. I think the advantage of this sort of lever cap iron over the traditional JK type wedge is that allot of pressure can be applied near the edge, whereas a wedge applies a general pressure over the whole blade surface.....dunno, not sure. Anyway, this is as far as I've got to date. The first pic shows the starting material, a lump of Cuban Mahogany from an old Victorian table leg:

The next shot shows the basic block of the plane, with a 10mm rosewood sole. Also shown is the cap iron, roughly hand cut :shock: from some 8mm thick brass, and the lump of material that it came from:

This pic shows the sole. JK in one of his books recommends that a separate
insert to make fitting the mouth easier....he's certainly right there.

The last pic shows the most cunning part of this little project. I'm going to use a couple of 4mm machine bolts (these are 5mm, too big) tapped into the sides of the cap and the bolt heads will be an exact fit into holes drilled in the sides of the plane, so that the whole cap will be able to pivot easily.

Will post some more pics as the plane develops - Rob

 

[Philly]

Very interesting, Rob!
Look forward to seeing it complete,
Philly

 

[Paul Chapman]

Very interesting, Rob, and looking good.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[dchenard]

Looking good indeed, what did you use for the sole material? Looks like purpleheart from here.

Keep the pics coming! =D>

DC

 

[woodbloke]

Done a bit more this afternoon. The sole is a piece of 10mm thick rosewood, very hard and brittle so should wear well. The pic shows the insert for the mouth which was quite thought provoking to do and fit. In his book, JK doesn't say how the insert is fixed in (glued I assume). I decided to fix mine in by a couple of deeply counterbored brass screws. This means that it's easy to keep on taking it out and re-locating in exactly the same position each time as the leading edge is shot in, a small bevel has been worked on the edges of the insert. The cutter just touches the edge at the mo' so a few more shavings 8-[ when done ought to give a very fine mouth. I've also done a bit on the cap, now shaped and roughly sanded in to 80g. Eventually it will be mirror polished to 1000g and then buffed on the leather strop wheel on the Tormek..hole drilled for an M8 thread so the next job is to do the Derek of Oz bolt - Rob

 

[Paul Chapman]

8) 8) 8)

 

[Frank D.]

Cuban mahogany for a plane eh? :tongue9: Makes ebony seem skimpish! Nice job so far, looking forward to the finished plane.

 

[Evergreen]

Rob

Clever stuff! Photography is pretty good too.

Regards.