Mk2 Small Bullnose Plane

[Crooked Tree]

Some may recall my 1st attempt at making a plane a while back: the mk1 small bullnose plane. This was originally intended to be one of three, but these things take time and only one was made. Well, I have recently finished the 2nd one. AS before, construction is dovetailed brass with infill in wood. Here it is:

First cut the dovetails with a hacksaw and files

Press together in a vice around a former. This is an improvement over my previous method (read it somewhere). Veneer/tape were put at the top (none dovetail edge of the sides) to force the edges out; they tend to spring inwards during peining and this makes squaring the sides to the sole easier.

I had allowed too much extra material at the ends of the dovetails, so filed these down prior to peining

Then file flat (roughly - finer finishing comes last)

The sides were flattened in the same way. Here a design change was made. The original plan had been to modify the mk1 design to have a plate ata the front of the body to which the nose would attach with a single central screw (M6 stainless csk) rather than the 4 small ones into the sides used on the mk1. This would be much more convenient. Dovetails were cut in the front to attach this plate. However, I realised that there would be too little metal left around the hole for the screw which would attach the nose - it would probably fail. The design was therefore changed to attach the plate to the body using 4 screws. These were cut M3 from 3mm brass rod using a die, and the sides drilled at 2.5mm, tapped M3 and csk. The plate was clamped on and screwed in place with the brass screws, with a touch of superglue on the threads. Th tops were sawn off, peined and filed.

Almost finished. Infill (cocobolo) pressed into place using arrangements of clamps. Infill was thicknessed a little oversize and the excess was "planed" off by the sides as it was pressed into place. This makes for a tight fit. The infill was then riveted in place with 6mm brass rod.

Finally finished. Dodgy riveting filed flat (with the help of a very large new turnip cut file) and then surfaces taken through 2nd cut, needle file (I do not have a smooth cut file as yet) then wet-and-dry paper on glass. Chamfers added by hand.

Wedge from bocote. Blade cut from a 2nd hand Stanley 2". Wooden parts finished with french polish. Nose drilled 6mm and csk for the fixing screw, with a 3mm locating pin added by the "screw in and rivet the top" method.

Overall, pleased with this one. Better design and finish than the mk1, although a couple of very slight voids did appear during finishing that were not apparent when filing flat. Probably need to leave less sticking out on the dovetails prior to peining.

More efficiently done that the last one, and all by hand with the exception of using a bench grinder on the blade. The final one (mine!) will be to this design but I have used a Dremmel-like tool with cutting discs to cut the blade, which is a lot easier!

 

[jimi43]

Very nice CT....that should be a handy little plane...might make one meself when I get a chance.

Having made the "Aled" Shoulder plane I know only too well how difficult that peining can be to get right and rivetting. You have made a superb job!

Can you post a link to your Mk1 so that I can read that one too mate?

Jim

 

[Crooked Tree]

Here you go Jim (if this works) and thanks for the kind comments:

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/wip-small-bullnose-plane-t37974.html

 

[jimi43]

Here you go Jim (if this works) and thanks for the kind comments:

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/wip-small-bullnose-plane-t37974.html

Thanks mate...that was fun!

When I was making the "Aled" shoulder plane we discussed the possibility of using brass for the sole and the general view was that it was a tad too soft and would mark and wear quite easily. The infill shoulder I have just finished is solid brass and I can foresee that being a problem down the road.

The "Aled" shoulder was steel soled....

....a pein in the ar*e but in the end I like the contrast of the dovetailing with steel against brass...

Perhaps in Mk3 you might consider that as you have certainly developed this very well. What do you think?

Jim

 

[Crooked Tree]

Steel will obviously wear better, and I too like the look of the contrast. Will there be any issue with the brass tails wearing faster than the steel? I guess not because as soon as they are imperceptibly below the steel, the steel will be taking the wear instead.

My hope is that the brass sole will not wear too much because these planes will not see that much heavy use in the lifetimes of the owners. I did in fact make a dovetail template using a steel blade and brass stock, as an experiment, really. It was noticeable that the steel did not crumble when peined, as per the text book.

The 3rd one may still be brass, because I have already cut the pins in the sole. Food for thought, though. I may use steel if I make a larger plane one day (these are ~3" long, with the mk2 standardised at 3/4" wide), particularly because it is cheaper for large quantities!

Brass on brass does have one advantage... the imperfections from cutting/filing disappear upon peining!

 

[NickUrquhart]

Using brass for the sole on a shoulder plane is probably one of the only times where you can get away with it because rebates tend to get filled. The first batch of long thin 18th C. mitre planes i had cast in America, were Bronze and also several in Brass. I didn't realise that the lead in these metals will mark the heck out of your nice light piece of fiddleback Maple. I guess that's why companies like Preston and Norris quickly switched to sweated on steel plate for the working surfaces. I think the A4 aluminium smoother also smudges like a charcoal crayon, especially on lighter woods.

One funny thing which might interest you, is that when you use brass and steel together, you can get a very quick rate of corrosion of one of the metals.(something called Galvanic corrosion, in which the sides and sole of the plane become like the poles of a battery and your sweat acts as a crude electrolyte). I remember i had just finished a dovetail mitre some years back, in the middle of summer, sweating like a pig and had just gotten the surfaces perfect. Put it down to go and grab a cupper and when i returned about an hour later, the steel cross pins and part of the sole were badly pitted. Baffled me for ages, thought I'd bought some weird monkey metal instead of 01.
Anyway, great work, it looks a solid little plane, i'm sure it'll be around long after we've all gone. Are you going to stamp it with a maker's mark?
all the best, Nick.

 

[Crooked Tree]

I had never thought about a maker's mark. Perhaps I shall have to make up a punch or something. At the moment I would just have to "make my mark" in the old sense - i.e. an "X"!