Sinking mortises in moulding planes

[mark w]

If the breast has a bump as in the sketch, Would a thicker wedge solve this problem? The breast could then be shaped (made straight) to suite the thicker wedge.

 

[Jacob]

Most types of old woodies are cheap. I'd be inclined to slice one or two up lengthways, to get a closer look at how they were made. Then copy as far as possible.
There's several pages and masses of detail on plane making in Salaman, including tools. Just noticed the "plane maker's saw" and much to my surprise I have one in my collection of oddities! Didn't know what it was.

 

[worn thumbs]

I made a curved plane for rebates, a lot like the example in post #4,years ago.I used a pillar drill for the start of the slot and cleaned up the cut with a chisel or two.A long series drill bit was helpful and the chisel was as flat as we thought necessary in those days. ;-)

 

[steve355]

If the breast has a bump as in the sketch, Would a thicker wedge solve this problem? The breast could then be shaped (made straight) to suite the thicker wedge.

Here’s the problem…. My fault entirely of course. See feeler gauge behind the iron. The bed is at an angle sweeping back from the mortise. The only way to fix this is to sink the whole rear surface of the mortise, right down to the mouth, back by say 1/32”. Then the iron can be bedded. My previous floats weren’t long enough to do that. The new ones will be.

In Larry Williams’ video he shows the bed being cut 1/4 degree short of its final position. I now understand why - if you don’t do this you have nowhere to go when bedding the iron.

 

[joshvegas]

That's clever and such a time saver. I don't have access to anything like that, so it would be filing for me.

I know it's quite late @Adam W. But you could keep an eye out for a handshaper like an adept 1 or 2. Very very small can hog a goodly amount of metal and very cheap tooling. More fun than filing

 

[Ttrees]

@steve355 guess you've figured you need to add a little wedge for the fix.
Had that exact problem before

 

[steve355]

For anyone interested, I solved it. The bed wasn’t out of square at all. There was a tiny ding on the tang of the iron. Once I’d reground that, it was within normal bedding tolerances. Quite a bit of soot and scraping later, it was bedded nicely.

Quite a bit of fettling and messing about to go now I’m sure… but it cuts wood.

A frustrating process, but plenty learnt along the way. Yes, the mouth is far too wide, but that’s something to work on.

 

[Trafalgar]

Congrats! Making these is not easy I'm sure.

 

[rafezetter]

A planemaker’s float is a part saw / part rasp tool for making planes. So far I’ve made 10 of them by the looks of it. Also useful for cleaning up M&T and lots of other tasks.

View attachment 153520

Are they just a turnip cut file with a handle? I say "just", you know what I mean, they look good and I can see lots of uses for them.

 

[heimlaga]

I have made quite a few moulding planes for my own use and never used any floats. I did like the oldtimers did it around here. Drilled holes from both ends for guidance ans chiseled it out and pared smooth.

Next time I make wooden planes I will test whether the hollow chisel mortiser can be used. Mine has a tilting table up to 45 degrees.

 

[steve355]

There we go, a new #16 hollow and 3 new floats. The plane is not quite finished, needs the cove detail on top of the shoulder but that requires a plane I haven’t made yet so it will have to wait.

Well, not perfect but better than the last one. 2 down, 34 to go.