Veritas Small Plow Plane for End Grain?

[George Israel]

Can I use the Veritas Small Plow to cut some grooves in end grain?

Thanks,

George

[Jim Koepke]

Can I use the Veritas Small Plow to cut some grooves in end grain?

Thanks,

George

Most likely it can be done. It may be easier to do it with a saw and chisels. If for some reason the plane seems a better way, it may be a good idea to have a back up board at the end of the cut. Another way would be to lay out the cut with a knife and to cut out the end of the grooves with a chisel to prevent the splintering typical of what happens when planing end grain.

With molding cuts, it is usually best to cut across grain first so if there is some splintering, it can be cleaned up when the molding is cut into the long grain.

To give much more than these generalities, it would be necessary to know what your plans or application is trying to achieve.

jim

[Derek Cohen]

I have never had a reason to plow end grain. I imagine it would work but I'm not sure how strong it would be. Use a sharp blade and take shallow cuts. And cut from the ends inward to avoid breakout.

What are you building?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Matt Wilson]

I did this fairly recently with a 45. I was making a box lid that had a "floating" panel. It should be an different than using a LV since I wasn't using the spurs.
A few key things
1. sharp blade
2. shallow cuts
3. if your are groving all four side, do the log grain edges first. If not, do like Derek suggests and work inward.

I was actually really surprised at how good a job the 45 did on it. When I started I was fully expecting to have to stop and do it with a saw and chisel.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb279/mwilson_24/P3040064-1.jpg

[William Drylie]

I did the same as Matt. Floating panel for a box. Wood was Birch. I also was using a 45. I've also made the same cut using a 50. Don't see why it couldn't be done with the Veritas. One thing I did do was lay out the groove with a gauge, plow the long grain first, then use a mortice chisel to chamfer the end of the end grain cut. I even took this chamfer below final depth as the groove does not show in this case. This prevented break out when I plowed the end grain. Don't know if you could do this in your case.

Bill

[Derek Cohen]

I would not construct the top this way personally.

Here is a (tool) box to which I am also about to add a floating panel. The sides of this box are only 1/4" thick, so they cannot be grooved.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Drills/AWR%20Brace/Bracecompetition-box1.jpg

I plan to add grooved slips along the inside, and the raised panel lid will rest inside the slips.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Matt Wilson]

I plan to add grooved slips along the inside, and the raised panel lid will rest inside the slips.


I'm having a hard time picturing what you mean. Please take a snapshot or two when you do it for slow-heads like me ;)

[Richard Magbanua]

I never heard of "slips" before either until last month when Chris Schwarz wrote about them in his blog...

http://blog.woodworking-magazine.com/blog/CommentView,guid,3c57ea2a-3c06-432b-82e4-5ad2dff6533a.aspx

... since then, I've come across the topic of slips 3 or 4 times. Not sure if I just notice it now or if it's because of the power of the "Schwarz". Either way, I like the idea of using slips.