W.I.P. Plane Till

[woodhutt]

This is more of an experiment to see if I can upload photos.
It's a typical 'lock-down' project. One of those things I should have done ages ago but other things got in the way. Scratching around for something to use a batch of magnolia I've had for about 5 years (should be nice and stable now) I decided on a plane till. I've looked at a bunch of tills on YouTube and took what I thought were the best ideas. The bed of the till is approx 600 long and wide enough for 5 'docking' bays (although the shorter planes can be doubled-up). The till angle is quite steep - only about 10 degs off the vertical - but I intend to use heel and toe restraints to secure the planes. There will be a shelf underneath to house my #71 router plane and bits. By having a steep docking angle it means the till will protrude from the wall only about 150 - 200 and the biggest plane tote only about 100 beyond that.
For the dividers between docking bays, I came across a length of plastic tongue that was from a sheet of T&G marine ply I used for the shed floor. I intend to epoxy it into routed grooves in the till bed.
I'll update as I go but here's some photos of the magnolia being prepared.
Cheers,
Pete

 

[woodhutt]

I think I should have posted this under 'Projects'.
Perhaps one of the Mods could move this for me?
Cheers,
Pete

 

[Stanleymonkey]

Looking forward to seeing this progress

 

[woodhutt]

OK. Next step was to joint the two boards that form the base that the planes will sit on. After jointing and gluing, I added battens to the back as I need to cut grooves approx half the wood thickness to take the dividers, The battens are screwed on (taking care to locate the screws away from the groove locations) and the holes in the battens were elongated to allow allow for any wood movement.
Next step was to rout the grooves which was done with a 1/4" spiral down-cut bit in a hand router registered against a fence clamped to the wood.

Then I used a straight cutter in the router table to cut a rebate in the wood that (once cut in half lengthwise) will be attached to the top and bottom of the base. The lower one will be what the plane heels will rest against and will also cover the end-grain of the base timber, The top one is just for finish.

More to come. Pete

 

[AndyT]

Pretty fancy stuff for a workshop project, but I know what it's like. When you've been holding on to a special bit of timber waiting for the right project sometimes it's better to get started, but easier said than done.

 

[woodhutt]

It's not easy wood to work with unless you're cutting straight lines - that's why it's been lying around for years. I tried using it a year ago for a project that involved cutting curves but the dark heartwood just splinters and fractures. Same if you try to profile it. Shame because it looks so good.
Pete