Plane Fettling Jig

[woodbloke]

I saw this at the APTC show last year and thought it was I good idea so I decided to make one. Its a jig for holding abrasive material steady so that you can progrsesivly flatten the sole of your planes. I've glued wet and dry paper to float glass before which I didn't find very satisfactory, but this works very well.
The base is a piece of 18mm stuff onto which is placed a piece of 6mm glass. Some 6mm stuff is pinned and glued down each of the long sides and some 3mm hardboard is fixed at either end. Two more pieces of 6mm material are fixed with screws and penny washers so that they overlap the glass and are able to grip the abrasive, which is held very securely when the screws and penny washers are tightened.
I've shown in the pic a short length of abrasive and the glass can clearly be seen. My Calvert-Stevens is shown in situ, this has has a lot of work done on it already but its going to be finished off on this jig - Rob

 

[Paul Chapman]

That looks like a great jig, Rob 8)

I remember when Record introduced the Calvert-Stevens plane. I wanted to buy one but couldn't afford it at the time, so I never did. However, whenever I read anything about them it's usually a story about having to flatten the sole. Were they really as bad in this respect as they seem?

Paul

 

[woodbloke]

They had deservedly a dreadful reputation- not the best offering that Record have ever produced. I once saw one where the metal behind the mouth was proud by about .5mm - thats a lot of metal! I modified the lever cap iron by removing the lever, brazing on a piece of bronze and tapping a 10mm hole into which a brass bolt is screwed - you can see it in the pic. The sole and internal fitting parts have been fettled as well, though the biggest improvement was to bin the original blade and cap iron and replace them with a LN blade. The plane is now superb and capable of removing gossamer thin shavings - Rob

 

[Paul Chapman]

Blimey, I'm glad I couldn't afford one at the time :shock: Still, yours sounds pretty good now :wink:

Paul