Plane adjusting hammer

[Leigh Betsch]

I had a chunk of brass laying around so I thought I'd make a hammer for adjusting planes. Because the brass was left over from another project it has already been turned to 3/4" dia for the body. So my question is the handle has to fit in a 3/4" body, What diameter should I make the handle? 1/2 inch seems kinda small but 5/8 would only leave 1/16 per side brass stock left. I'm thinking the eye should be 1/2" wide by 3/4" long. How long should the handle be?
Any ideas?

[James Taglienti]

I would say 3/8 would be just fine to go into the head, provided you use some straight grained hickory or something. If you're turning it you can always make it wider where your palm goes. I have a warrington pattern hammer that only has a 3/8 thick handle and it's plenty strong for driving brads.
If it was my hammer I'd drill the head at 3/8 and then turn a handle. Then I'd plane the sides of the handle and fair the curves to make it oval. But thats just a little dream i've been cooking up lately...

[Rob Young]

How about doing it the other way round, the brass fits into the handle. Might look neat, especially if you can make the handle all organic-swoopy around the top where the brass fits in.

[harry strasil]

I just use a small wooden mallet to tap on the ends of the plane and the wedge and occasionally to tap on the blade end.

[Brian Kent]

In David Finck's book, "Making and Mastering Wood Planes", he gives instructions for making a plane adjusting hammer. He uses 5/8" thick brass rod with a 3/8" hole for the handle. Since yours is 3/4" thick, you could use from 3/8" to 1/2" for the handle hole.

The stock that he uses is 12" x 1" x 1-3/4", full size at the bottom and cut in a rough triangle shape. Then he shapes to fit the hand.

One key is that hole through the side. He makes a jig out of a piece of wood with a hole one direction the size of the brass rod and a hole the other direction the size of the handle hole. When you have checked that you got it right through the middle you can stick in the rod and drill through the guide.

Have fun.

[Mike Henderson]

Here's (http://www.mikes-woodwork.com/BrassHammer.htm)an article on making a small brass hammer.

Mike

[george wilson]

The handle needs to be oval where it goes through the head. Look at other hammers. Making it oval will leave enough meat in the handle to not be weak. 3/8" X 5/8" in the head's hole should be fine. It is best if the whole handle is oval. Gives a better directional feel in using the hammer.

[Brian Kent]

George, for those of us who don't do metal work, would you drill 2 holes, each 3/8" in diameter, with the centers 1/4" apart. then finish the oval with a file?

[Rick Erickson]

Here's (http://www.mikes-woodwork.com/BrassHammer.htm)an article on making a small brass hammer.
Mike

Very nice indeed Mike. Thanks for documenting your process.

[george wilson]

I believe Leigh has a milling machine. Before I had such machinery,I would drill a hole,and enlarge it with a coarse round file. Takes time. At least he's working in brass.

Drilling 2 holes that close together wouldn't work,unless possibly you drilled the first hole,then plugged it with a snug brass rod to keep the 2nd. hole from wandering. I think the brass rod would most likely start to rotate,and jam the drill anyway.

Probably best to just file the hole out. Be sure to make the hole flare at the face of the hammer,so you can jam in wedges to keep the handle from coming off.

[Leigh Betsch]

Thanks for the info. I forgot about the Dave Fink hammer, I have the book.
I do have some milling capabilities, both cnc (although small) and manual. I'm a lot better with a milling cutter than a file. The old timer moldmakers (not picking on you George) could do fantastic 3 dimensional stuff with hand tools but now most moldmaking is done with multi axis cnc machines that can pretty much do anything you can draw, on CAD of course. Unfortunately in the high end metal trades hand work is becoming a thing of the past. The new cnc milling machines can hard mill 3 dimensional shapes into 60Rc steel with diamond tooling so fast it will make your head spin, more accurate and with finishes that you'd never think possible.
Me I have a 1940's manual jig borer, and a 1928 over head chain drive 13" Southbend engine lathe; which is pretty close to Neanderthal machining these days. Oh and a bench top cnc mill just to stay a bit current. :)

How about handle length?

[Nelson Howe]

I,ve made three of these now. Different length handles. My shortest is maybe 8 inches, longest 14. Both are good. I like the short one with my smoother, and the long one with my jointer. But you can't go wrong, and it's easy to make new one. My holes are 3/8 round, and work fine. One lesson I learned, which differs from the tutorial, is not trim the wedged end of the handle flush with hammer head, or the head comes off when the handle shrinks. I also put a stickon clear bumper on one end to protect my plane bodies. Even a piece of wood glued to the brass dinged up my plane

[george wilson]

I didn't see that you were picking on me,since I have made more hammers by filing the holes than I have by milling them. I also have made many molds by hand with die sinker's chisels,rifflers,etc..

[harry strasil]

What the eye in a hammer head should look like.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/smithing/hammereye.jpg

[Kent A Bathurst]

Semi-related question: I'm curious - Is there something about the properties of brass v steel that makes brass a clear winner in "plane iron tapping" tasks? I don't mean swinging for the fences - I mean tapping. Brass is softer, of course, and it looks cooler, of course. Is there something beyond that?

thanks

kent

[harry strasil]

depends on the grade of Brass, I have some that you can forge steel with, and it will mushroom the heads of steel punches and chisels, It is used mainly in hammers for its NON sparking abilities in Hazardous atmospheres and for tapping bearing housings in place.

[harry strasil]

who started the "you have to have a brass headed hammer to adjust plane blades", anyway. They loose there wooden mallet? Tapping/striking on the back end of a wood plane body, moves the iron up for a finer cut, and tapping/striking on the front end of a wood plane body, moves the iron down for a ranker cut, and tapping on the sides of the iron moves the blade sideways to square the edge with the plane bottom. Tapping/striking on the front button loosens the wedge as will several decent blows on the back end of the plane body.

[Leigh Betsch]

Thanks for the drawing Harry. I was wondering if there should be a taper from boths sides.
The main reason I'm building out of brass is because I got it free, very easy to machine, it looks good, is pretty weighty, and I want to replace the brass hammer I made way back in trade school in the 70's, which I lost some time ago. Kinda just a fun project to do while the cnc is busy all by itself cutting brass drawer pulls for the wifes new dresser to match her night stand I made last year.

[harry strasil]

neat drawer pulls Leigh.

to me if you are gonna make a hammer that won't damage plane blades, mushrooming due to constant blows, the head should be made out of copper or babbit.

[Leigh Betsch]

Only thing better than copper or babbit is free brass.;) Now I gotta go to the shop and make a hammer handle.

[george wilson]

I don't strike a wooden plane with a metal hammer. Wooden mallets are for that. For very small blade adjustments,done by tapping the top or sides of a blade,I have found that a small brass hammer gives sharper,more easily controlled blade adjustments.

Having striking knobs on a plane helps save the body from any kind of tapping.

[Leigh Betsch]

I don't strike a wooden plane with a metal hammer. Wooden mallets are for that.


Jeeze now you tell me, I almost have the dang thing done!!;)
I guess I'll just have to use it for pound'n on the irons and make another for the wood. Maybe this one should be a wood head with a brass handle??

[James Taglienti]

I suppose the whole thing is that brass won't mushroom or mar the blade or plane as readily as steel or iron would. Though I use a little steel hammer sometimes and I havent seen any ill effect maybe in about 20 years I will have a bunch of mushroomed blades.

[Leigh Betsch]

Like most things a little common sense will probably go a long way. Steel on steel, don't pound so hard, brass on steel expect a little damage to the hammer. If I was using a hammer on polished steel I'd only use a rubber or plastic mallet.

I had a injection molding techition that thought brass wouldn't scratch hardened tool steel mold cavities. He practically destroyed the surface finish by scraping them with a brass pick. Took me over 50 hrs to polish them back to a #1 finish.

Seems like a wood face on a brass hammer ought to take care of most of the dammage to a wooden plane though.

[Dave Anderson NH]

I guess I'll finally throw in my $.02. My personal belief is that a plane adjusting hammer should have a head with both wood and metal and I've made all of the ones I sell that way. Use the wood on wood and metal on metal. I think it is also very important that neither the metal nor the wooden heads be flat across their faces. The heads should be very slightly domed (convex). If you take a look carefully at almost any hammer of any type made, this is the case. It prevents "smiles" on the wood of your plane.