No 6 (copy of Norris) in Process

[D_W]

As the trolls say, working in the last 45 square feet of my shop. Well, and the other 800.

Starting to look like a plane, at least to some extent. I copied some of the lines on this handle from a custom gunmetal Norris 6 I found online. I found it after I roughed the handle, so it doesn’t look quite as good as the original. If you look closely, you can tell that the bottom of the handle needs to be let in toward the front of the plane a little bit, it’s a bit straight up and down and fat at the bottom rear.

The top near the tuck-in could be a little thinner, but I’m going to let that go. I have a huge nick in the side of the handle at the top (left side) and have no clue how it got there. I might make it disappear with a shellac burn-in repair. Not sure. I will correct the bottom back as the last thing I do after I have this thing up and running.
Somehow, I got the infill undersized by 4 thousandths at the back. The epoxy should erase that problem when I seat the infill.



And from the other side. Never mind the titebond bottle, I wouldn’t ever use it on something like this. The glue for this is liquid hide glue on the lamination and seating the infills is done with epoxy.



I am learning a lot, at least, and it should pay off for future planes.

 

[Bm101]

That's looking very tidy DW. Nice o see the progression.
Cheers
Chris

 

[G S Haydon]

Good progress. My hate for metal work would prevent me ever wanting to undertake the task. That and a lack of skill!

 

[MusicMan]

As a separate and aside, cocobolo is really filthy to work with. The oily dust is like fine dirt.

I do use a chop saw to cut the bed angle in cocobolo, to be scraped later the way Bill Carter advocates. On nicer-to-work wood, I'd do it all with hand tools, but cocobolo isn't that nice to plane across. Anyway, point of that being that if the dust isn't caught at the point of exit from the saw, it clouds the air like smoke. I'm not allergic to it, but I can tell a difference when breathing it.

Do take care with cocobolo. It's good that you are not allergic to it (most people are) but it can stimulate the allergy, and is also toxic. Totally gorgeous wood though. I have two basset horns made from it; not by me, but I know the maker, and he uses full respirator gear when turning or sanding cocobolo.

Great thread!

Keith

 

[D_W]

Finished.

Some things could be improved on, and there is a bit of metal finishing left (cleaning up filing areas that got rounded a little in sanding, finishing some areas that are a bit shy of finished in terms of being uniformly sanded, etc).







Next to my favorite plane.

Finished weight is 3 pounds and 15.5 ounces. The high angle plane I built years ago is the same size and 5 1/2. It is quite pleasant to use (the old one), but not as practical as this one should turn out to be.

The cap iron that came with the metal parts with this one will have to go-it's too thin and flimsy and it lends to making the plane a little less nice to adjust.

I finally figured out a way to get the bottom of these mild steel planes flatter than what I receive from lie nielsen, and without resorting to scraping - and that is to periodically remove the very center of the sole with a relatively coarse metal file so that the toe and heel never get just proud. There's no problem with that happening when it's a couple of thousandths, but as a matter of figuring out how to do it.

Brass for the cross pins because I can't find my steel.

Cocobolo and brass parts, i forgot, have a sort of look of a cheap kitchen knife (rivet handle knives in the US used to come with rosewood or some kind of brown wood and brass or steel rivets. This kind of looks like that.

In terms of the details, everthing is rounded over on the wooden parts. I don't like that, and the next plane will retain some lines. I picked a picture of a no 6 with a short bun and did close to it, only later realizing most don't have a bun this short. It's still nice to use.

as to the chips at the front of the handle, I never even saw those without camera flash, but the camera flash makes them show up loud and clear!

Should be a good practical plane to use. I fitted the iron to the bed only by sight, but biased the bed so that the iron is on metal only at the bottom and only touches the center at the top. In my experience, that works well as long as the lever cap isn't out of whack and pinching on one side or the other. This one feels like it has even grip. That's good luck.

I did a lot more draw filing on this one than I have in the past, and that saved a lot of time. I will do that from now on. I used to lap everything, but lapping three sides of steel is a waste of time - this one is close to square (luck), but even if it wasn't, it wouldn't matter as long as the bottom is flat.

Two woodies to make and then an A13 in double iron with either padauk or indian rosewood.

All future planes will have vintage parallel double irons. They just look so much better.

 

[D_W]

As a separate and aside, cocobolo is really filthy to work with. The oily dust is like fine dirt.

I do use a chop saw to cut the bed angle in cocobolo, to be scraped later the way Bill Carter advocates. On nicer-to-work wood, I'd do it all with hand tools, but cocobolo isn't that nice to plane across. Anyway, point of that being that if the dust isn't caught at the point of exit from the saw, it clouds the air like smoke. I'm not allergic to it, but I can tell a difference when breathing it.

Do take care with cocobolo. It's good that you are not allergic to it (most people are) but it can stimulate the allergy, and is also toxic. Totally gorgeous wood though. I have two basset horns made from it; not by me, but I know the maker, and he uses full respirator gear when turning or sanding cocobolo.

Great thread!

Keith

Not being a contrarian - I breathe a lot of it when I make a plane like this. I know that NPG cancer is tied to some woods, but I won't breathe enough of this to reach those levels as cocobolo is getting more expensive. In terms of sensitizing, I figure if you work with cocobolo, it seems like it's only a matter of time unless you isolate yourself from it. Plantation indian rosewood is nicer to use, cheaper and easier to find dry. If I find more of this for a good price, I'll buy it, but I seem to be able to find indian rosewood dry in blanks big enough for a plane like this without any trouble.

It is chippy, and I need a couple of more iterations to be able to work with it completely damage free. For its hardness, it rasps wonderfully if you keep the rasp away from opposite edges - brittle, I guess. Scraping the bed of a plane like this is joy - done in minutes, it's so agreeable to the blunted scraping chisel and comes off so neatly in complete unbroken shavings.

If I was going to rely on it for income like your friend, I'd have no choice but to do what he does or sensitivity would rear its ugly head. I knew a toy maker here long ago (now deceased) who made things solely out of pine and developed a sensitivity to it. He switched to walnut, which wasn't good for his bottom line, I'm sure.

 

[G S Haydon]

Nicely done indeed! Crickey that iron looks thick.

 

[D_W]

Nicely done indeed! Crickey that iron looks thick.

Thanks, Graham. As far as the making of these, I'm sure you could do it fine - I don't know anything about metal, either, but you can learn what not to do just by making mistakes. I think they (infills) might be a little more accessible than wooden planes in terms of making a good working one on the first or second try (cosmetics are much harder than good working).

Posting pictures on here and then seeing the cosmetics later helps a lot. I see things in the pictures here I didn't notice in person (the angle between the iron and the top of the handle is off, that part of the billet, I didn't cut quite right, and I can go back and correct that without much issue - plus, it will help give a little more relief for hammer strikes on the top of the iron.

The one thing they do take is good files, a good hacksaw, and time - a lot of time, and a couple of other specialized little things like a scraper chisel, etc.

(and expense, too - I think this one cost me about $200 to build, which isn't very cheap considering I've gotten some very nice vintage infills from your side of the ocean for about that or a little more. Even the norris no 2 that I tracked down in the US was $360, and this is not a better plane than the norris. It still probably makes more sense to buy than make - especially over there. Just like with the woodies).

(the iron is 3/16ths, btw. Very thick. I'd prefer a thicker cap iron and a 1/8th iron, but that's what came with the metal parts (all of those metal parts were only $100, so I can't complain much)

 

[G S Haydon]

Thanks for the feedback, you are becoming an accomplished plane maker, that much is certain.

 

[D_W]

A very kind comment, Graham. Maybe someday! I'd like to be able to build planes in retirement, but building a lot involves finding a market to get them to, as it's an expensive hobby.

 

[D_W]

One last post. I finished filing the bottom of this plane flat tonight, and then doing a consolidating lapping to make the bottom uniform looking (very pleased to have found a file that is good for filing the bottoms of steel planes, they are terrible to lap if any significant amount of work needs to be done).

After touching up the bevels and cleaning up the metalwork, I decided to gun blue the sides on this plane just as a ruse. It's more or less a tune up plane, so I don't expect it to stay perfect forever, and it's 4 sized and will make a nice plane for actual work. Cold blue is easy to remove, anyway, it doesn't etch that deep and will come off with fine sandpaper.

I expected the gun blue to look terrible, but I don't think it's really that bad. It might look a little nicer with a bit more shine to the sides and wood, which I may do this weekend.

 

[Corneel]

Yes that looks great, and I wouldn't shine it up!

 

[G S Haydon]

Much better, no need to shine it up.

 

[AndyT]

Much better. All it needs now is for the shiny brass to settle down a bit - ordinary usage should soon sort that out.

I especially like the transition between straight and curved on the front bun.

 

[D_W]

Much better. All it needs now is for the shiny brass to settle down a bit - ordinary usage should soon sort that out.

I especially like the transition between straight and curved on the front bun.

Yes, on the brass. I left that as is for now as a contrast, just to see what it's like. It's cast bronze, so I'm not sure what it would look like blued, I thought about bluing it and then polishing the center of the screw leaving it as the only shiny thing left, but didn't go that far yet. A mirror polish like it has is something that doesn't last long in a plane to be used.