...has yet to be started; instead, here's something more modest, the next instalment in my Teach Yourself Turning in the 19th Century course!
As anyone who reads the hand tool section will know, I have a nice wide selection of old planes. But I don't just want to put them on a shelf to look at - I want them all to be in working order and from time to time I do use most of them. The trouble is, sometimes a plane can get a bit worn out over a century or two. That is the problem with this otherwise handy moving fillister plane by the famous early-ish maker Gabriel. The fence on the sole is secured by two screws and over time the slots have got so worn that it's not really possible to tighten the fence any more:
The trouble is, these are not ordinary woodscrews. They are 1 7/8" long with a 1/2" diameter head and very nearly parallel.
But with my lathe, I can make a new one!
I took some measurements and put a piece of suitable mild steel rod into the three jaw chuck. This is how it looked turning the thin part to the right diameter:
I'm using one of the old solid cutting tools here, though I have bought a new dead centre which is the sort with the side cut away. This makes it much easier to get the tool in at the end of the work even when it gets quite thin.
This view shows a facing cut at the underside of the screw head:
You can see from the tiny swarf that this was all done with very light cuts. If I try to take off too much the work will bend or get forced back deeper into the chuck. For now, I'm still getting used to the lathe and learning to work within its capabilities, so light cuts it is; though they were better after I ground the tool again.
With the blank ready, I set up the change wheels to make a screw with 9 threads per inch, which is what I reckon the old one was.
I then held a felt pen beside the cutting tool and drew a helical line on the metal to make sure I had got it right. I'm glad I did that, as I had actually got it wrong and nearly had a much finer thread! With the correct gears in place I started to make cuts. Here you can just see the first fine scratch:
I tried the technique I had read about in the recommended books (thanks again BB and CC!) where you swing the slide round so you can deepen and broaden the cut on one side only. This was really useful, though I was a bit slow to realise that the work was being pushed back into the chuck at first. Fortunately, going this slowly, I could recover the error and sort out something getting a bit close to the shape I wanted.
After quite a lot more passes, I got it to this state:
and decided that was as far as I could get with the cutting tool. I 'refined' the shape a bit more with an assortment of needle files, trying to get something a bit more woodscrew-like, but with the thread a little bit fatter so it won't be loose.
I cut off the screw with a hacksaw, reversed it in the chuck and faced off the other side of the screw head:
Then it was over to the bench to cut a slot and clean up.
Here's the replacement alongside the original:
and here it is in place:
I'm pleased to say that it's a nice snug fit into the the plane and clamps the fence just right!
It's remarkable in a way that the old beech wood is strong enough to stand repeated tightenings over the lifetime of the tool, without needing any sort of fiddly reinforcement. This one is now fit for a few more years of use.
Making this sort of thing is obviously not an 'economic' proposition - but I had a nice half day playing in the workshop and made something I could not have bought. I got a bit more familiar with techniques and appreciated the way that the fine control you get when there is no electric motor in the way lets you sneak up on a result little by little. That's the way I like to do woodworking so I don't want metalwork to be any different.
As anyone who reads the hand tool section will know, I have a nice wide selection of old planes. But I don't just want to put them on a shelf to look at - I want them all to be in working order and from time to time I do use most of them. The trouble is, sometimes a plane can get a bit worn out over a century or two. That is the problem with this otherwise handy moving fillister plane by the famous early-ish maker Gabriel. The fence on the sole is secured by two screws and over time the slots have got so worn that it's not really possible to tighten the fence any more:
The trouble is, these are not ordinary woodscrews. They are 1 7/8" long with a 1/2" diameter head and very nearly parallel.
But with my lathe, I can make a new one!
I took some measurements and put a piece of suitable mild steel rod into the three jaw chuck. This is how it looked turning the thin part to the right diameter:
I'm using one of the old solid cutting tools here, though I have bought a new dead centre which is the sort with the side cut away. This makes it much easier to get the tool in at the end of the work even when it gets quite thin.
This view shows a facing cut at the underside of the screw head:
You can see from the tiny swarf that this was all done with very light cuts. If I try to take off too much the work will bend or get forced back deeper into the chuck. For now, I'm still getting used to the lathe and learning to work within its capabilities, so light cuts it is; though they were better after I ground the tool again.
With the blank ready, I set up the change wheels to make a screw with 9 threads per inch, which is what I reckon the old one was.
I then held a felt pen beside the cutting tool and drew a helical line on the metal to make sure I had got it right. I'm glad I did that, as I had actually got it wrong and nearly had a much finer thread! With the correct gears in place I started to make cuts. Here you can just see the first fine scratch:
I tried the technique I had read about in the recommended books (thanks again BB and CC!) where you swing the slide round so you can deepen and broaden the cut on one side only. This was really useful, though I was a bit slow to realise that the work was being pushed back into the chuck at first. Fortunately, going this slowly, I could recover the error and sort out something getting a bit close to the shape I wanted.
After quite a lot more passes, I got it to this state:
and decided that was as far as I could get with the cutting tool. I 'refined' the shape a bit more with an assortment of needle files, trying to get something a bit more woodscrew-like, but with the thread a little bit fatter so it won't be loose.
I cut off the screw with a hacksaw, reversed it in the chuck and faced off the other side of the screw head:
Then it was over to the bench to cut a slot and clean up.
Here's the replacement alongside the original:
and here it is in place:
I'm pleased to say that it's a nice snug fit into the the plane and clamps the fence just right!
It's remarkable in a way that the old beech wood is strong enough to stand repeated tightenings over the lifetime of the tool, without needing any sort of fiddly reinforcement. This one is now fit for a few more years of use.
Making this sort of thing is obviously not an 'economic' proposition - but I had a nice half day playing in the workshop and made something I could not have bought. I got a bit more familiar with techniques and appreciated the way that the fine control you get when there is no electric motor in the way lets you sneak up on a result little by little. That's the way I like to do woodworking so I don't want metalwork to be any different.
