Making hand planes by machine

[AndyT]

Nearly three years ago, there was a discussion on here about how the continental style of wooden planes are made, and I said I remembered seeing a video of some east European factory with automatic router heads coming into blocks of wood, but couldn't find it. Mignal thought he'd seen it too.

However, I was recently catching up with Graham Haydon's YouTube videos and noticed a comment on his excellent recent video about tuning up a wooden smoother. In the comment, someone called "Woodworking Fangirl" mentioned a budget range of planes by Pinie. That name was the missing link. Here is the half-remembered video, showing how they make their range of mallets, mitre boxes and wooden planes. I reckon they could well be the un-named maker of the cheap-but-good plane that some folk bought from Aldi a while back, and maybe also some of the range Rutlands used to have under their own brand name.

Perhaps this is what Jimi has planned for his CNC mill?! :wink:

https://youtu.be/nd8obk5-L0g

Enjoy!

(Some questions take longer to answer than others - and this video still does not show how the cunning wavy join is done on the ECE and similar planes where two types of wood are sandwiched together )

 

[Racers]

I have a plane with a curvy join, the waves are just a shallow angle cross sections of the Vs.
They are cut at a slight angle to the sides so the Vs come out of the side and look like waves.

Pete

 

[Andy Kev.]

I reckon that that's probably the source of the two or three models of wooden hand plane which are to be found in the local DIY supermarket where I live in Germany. (They also stock a plane which must be a contender for the worst metal plane ever made. The body seems to consist of a sheet of metal bent into a U shape and the sole is painted! Could be a contender for a pass around, just to make people shudder.)

 

[G S Haydon]

Andy, I was interested by Pinie once I had that comment http://pinie.cz/en/wooden-planes and I found a place on amazon where you could buy them http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00J ... ge_o00_s00. I have the one in the link on order. What drew me in the most was how Pinie had gone for a mass produced wooden plane when we see mainly mass produced metal. Time will tell if it's any good.
Thanks for the kind words on the video!

Andy Kev, they could be poor but it seems like Pinie is a trade tool, I'm "hopeful" they'll be good. Their website is skewed to suit them but it seems they have a following http://pinie.cz/en/about-company. I did email them about getting a Try plane to test but got no response. I felt the amazon plane was low risk at about £30.00 delivered. Will keep you posted.

 

[Andy Kev.]

Graham,

the ones I've seen look "competent", if I can put it like that. If I remember aright the DIY place has a smoother and a shoulder plane. If you're interested, I'll confirm that.

The metal one, on the other hand, looks so outrageously naff that you could probably get an Arts Council grant for it.

 

[G S Haydon]

:lol: competent :lol: . Photo would be cool, sounds like I might be buying firewood

 

[RogerP]

The guy spraying had no mask on or a proper booth?

 

[undergroundhunter]

The guy spraying had no mask on or a proper booth?

It was powder coating not spraying, its just a dry powder that is electrically charged, would still have thought a mask would be needed though.

Matt

 

[MIGNAL]

Wooden Planes are pretty simple affairs. If it doesn't work very well out of the box there is a fair chance that it can be made to work. I like to set up Western Planes by treating the sole as if it was a Japanese Plane. I think it also lessens the problems associated with humidity swings.

 

[Andy Kev.]

:lol: competent :lol: . Photo would be cool, sounds like I might be buying firewood

I had to smile when I read that. I meant "competent" in a positive sense. Perhaps "workmanlike" would have been nearer the mark.

I should be able to get up that way tomorrow afternoon and if I can find my digital camera, I'll take a photograph.

 

[Andy Kev.]

I've got a couple of phots of the planes I mentioned earlier.

Can anyone tell me what I've got to do to upload them?

Ta.

 

[RogerP]

picture-posting-guide-t63716.html

 

[Andy Kev.]

Thanks Roger. Unfortunately, I'm having problems getting the filed size down (so far I've reduced from 2.1 mb down to 4.5 kb but still have a bit to do). I'll get back to it later.

 

[iNewbie]

Have you tried Shrink Pictures website?

 

[Andy Kev.]

OK, after much fiddling about in Photoshop, here's a pic of the smoother.

 

[Andy Kev.]

And here's the shoulder plane.

 

[Andy Kev.]

Finally, the weird metal-bodied plane.

I appreciate the phots are not up to much but I couldn't take the wooden planes out of the plastic wrapping.

What do you reckon to the metal thing, though? Ever seen anything like it?

 

[G S Haydon]

Thanks for taking the time Andy. I think the first wooden plane is a scrub. Pinie do a single iron and it's a scrubber. All the other bench planes they do have cap irons. The meal plane is a version of a diy plane https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHwFN61jvTk

 

[Andy Kev.]

Graham,

I had a look at that link. What struck me was that it involved a bloke who clearly knows a bit about hand tools and he was capable of getting a degree of use out of planes which were not made to high standards. With regards to the two wooden and one metal plane: they are probably the modern equivalent. However, the wooden ones look alright but only use would confirm if that is the case.

To go slighly off topic: the metal one seems to me to be unfortunate. I say this after wondering who it is targetted at and I came to the conclusion that potential purchasers are either professionals in a desperate hurry who find themselves caught out without a suitable plane or people who've never had a plane in their hands before. The pro will be able to get what he wants out of it and then will probably bin it. But what about the chap or young kid who wants to take up woodwork, has never heard of Clifton, Veritas etc. (and who would probably baulk in horror at the prices) and who wouldn't know where to start on the second hand market (if he knows there is one). So he buys the metal thing - which as far as I can see has a body made by bending sheet metal into a U cross-section. Being a modern consumer it would never enter his head that it won't work straight off the shelf and that maybe the cutter needs sharpening before use. He takes it home, puts it to a piece of wood, gets more tear out than you could shake a stick at, gives up in disgust and legs it to IKEA instead.

While I accept that anybody can offer anything they want for sale as long as it meets regulatory standards, offering the metal thing does seem to me to be a bit unethical.

 

[G S Haydon]

Hi Andy,

The reason I popped the link on there is that different things work for different folks. Although the metal plane in your photos would not help most of us for the occasional user at home or someone like Mathias they seem fine. If the only option in town was pro grade planes many people would be spending more than they needed. As long as the spectre of marketing is not misguiding people I don't see an issue with the cheap red plane. Thanks again for the photos!