free plane handle templates

[Ken Werner]

Lee Valley has done a good thing once again. They have posted tote plans and templates as free pdf downloads:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=63262&cat=1,46168

Thanks go to Rob Lee.

[Garth Keel]

Why I buy from Lee Valley :)

[Michael Faurot]

Thank-you Rob Lee and Lee Valley. These will surely come in very handy.

[Greg Crawford]

+1 on Michael's post. BTW, my new LV planes, dovetail saw and other stuff should be here today!

Support the good companies!

[Pam Niedermayer]

Way cool, thanks for telling us about another great offer from Rob & LV.

Pam

[Scott Mark]

This is awesome! Thank you very much LV! Don't know when I'll get to making one but this is priceless!

Woo Hoo!

C. Scott Mark

[Randy Klein]

That's a great resource, thanks for the heads up. I'll have to go and buy something from LV to thank them.

[Bob Haverstock]

Ken,

Thanks for post the link. Last weekend I took a tired Stanley #6 in trade. The tote was broke, glued (out of alignment naturally),and the top of the tote was missing. Well, today I used one of the drawings and started a new tote out of walnut. I'm going to to turn a new knob also. When I was kid, my dad had a #6 and now I have too.

Bob

[Bill Houghton]

Ken,

Thanks for post the link. Last weekend I took a tired Stanley #6 in trade. The tote was broke, glued (out of alignment naturally),and the top of the tote was missing. Well, today I used one of the drawings and started a new tote out of walnut. I'm going to to turn a new knob also. When I was kid, my dad had a #6 and now I have too.

Bob

No. 6 planes are under-respected, although I'm always surprised how many fans they have when this question arises. They're smaller and lighter than a No. 7 or 8, but big enough for, depending on how you set them up, serious stock reduction like a jack, or jointing of smaller work. They're definitely a "Hulk likes this plane" tool, but that's kinda neat in itself.

[Bill Houghton]

I suspect the impetus for this project was to facilitate sales of their new adjustable double roundover router bit - which has to be somewhat of a loss leader at $65. But the templates aren't a sales pitch for the tool, typical of Lee Valley in my experience, but useful advice from experienced mechanics on how to make these handles. I was pleased to see that the final tote pictured for the Stanley plane is the proper full oval shape, though I'm not quite clear, if you did use the LV router bit for shaping the edges, how you would get to the full oval shape.

[Richard Dooling]

I made a replacement tote for an older 8C this weekend. I didn't use the template but did use some of the tips and this was very helpful.

I also agree on the #6 - a great fore plane and smaller jointer.

.

[Bob Haverstock]

Bill,

The photo is on the tote in process. I had to make a new screw to hold the blade and chip breaker together. As you can see, the blade is well used.

Bob