Last Project 2
Update Wednesday 16/7/08
This is the Burr Elm I am going to use to infill Charlie's plane.
I worked all day today on Charlie's plane and peened the body ready for the sole. I thought I would give him a cupid bow bridge. He likes cupid bow.
This picture shows the front of the plane resting on the point of my anvil, showing the dovetails.
I've made the sole and fitted it, done all the peening and filing, finished the body complete and coloured it with gun blue cream.
The 3 pieces of Burr Elm needed to infill Charlie's plane, this seems a lot of wood for such a small plane, but there are many imperfections in each piece.
I only managed to get one piece of wood out of each piece, when planing the wood it didn't really work like wood and I had to take a very small arris off the edges of the wedge to try and eliminate brakeage.
It has an extremely fine mouth.
The plane has been soaking over night in raw linseed.
16/7/08
I am making a plane like the one below, but with bronze sides, steel sole and cupid bow dovetail's.
The pattern is resting on the vice. First saw cut to get 2 sides out of the bronze.
Nibbling away with the hacksaw.
I have drilled 3 holes in each side, with a little bit of 3/16" rod holding them together while I saw out the dovetail's.
Knocking out the waste.
Now I am filing the sockets flat.
The 2 sides almost finished showing where the lever cap will fit.
My next job is to work on the sole.
This shows all the body parts.
I am now working on the sole, I have done the front mouth piece and I'm just about to work on the rear bed.
This picture shows numerous saw cuts which I then break off with a chisel, or in this instance, I'm using a hacksaw.
Ready for filing to a feather edge.
I have now cut the tongue and groove joint.
Trying the tongue and groove joint for fit.
I have placed the side edge on the sole, marked the dovetail's and cut the sockets out. I have a vertical line on the bronze side for the rear mouth, which I lined up on the sole where I wanted it, before I scribed the sides of the dovetail's onto the sole.
I have now done both sides of the sole, started to put the sides in place. I haven't knocked them fully home as it is difficult to part them once this is done. I now know they will fit as they are very tight in order to pull the mouth joint closed.
I've put a 45 degrees line on the soft jaws of the vice so that I can line up the sole and file the cupid bow dovetail's horizontally. In the past I have always done this by guess work, but I thought I would look professional on screen.
Needle files for the job.
The sole ready to file. I do the cupid bows by eye, without measuring.
I use a 1/8" round for both ends of the cupid bow and a little 3 cornered file for the middle.
I forgot to do the second dovetail filing, so I have done it now.
Once I've got 3 little saw cuts I round the edges with a flat 1/2 round file forming the cupid bow shape.
The arrow in the middle is where I sometimes round this corner as well, but not this time.
I have decided to cupid bow the dovetail's on the side as well, this is going to prove very difficult to peen, the sole is guage plate.
You can see the bottom and the side cupid bows ready for peening.
The bottom peened and filed.
I took me all day to do this.
The rear infill glued and screwed.
The front infill needs slight attention.
All the 3 screws in plane. The wood ready for shaping.
A nice piece of boxwood viewed from the back.
Viewed from the front. The bed angle is 22 degrees.
I have put the screws in for the last time and I'm filing them flat. I have glued the screws in and I'm tapping around the edge of the heads with a ballpein hammer to get a tight fit.
Same on the other side.
The plane is now finished.
Notice the corner detail copied from a Mathieson plane, I love this feature.
Using the plane on boxwood and beech.
