My first infill shoulder plane build

[John Padgett]

I will never complain again about the high prices of infill planes!! I have about 35 hours into this shoulder plane. It will have ebony infill.

Won't be a Holtey or Brese, but I think I will like it. I have a whole new respect for toolmakers.

Critics or advice is welcome as this is my first attempt.


http://www.johnpadgett.com/images/shoulderplane2.JPG

[David Weaver]

Hard to tell in that stage, we'll have to see how it turns out. Looks good so far, see a couple of hammer strikes you'll have to lap out :p hate that! At least it's brass, it'll lap easier.

Keep us posted. :)

[george wilson]

Is this a kit? Looks like it was cut out with a laser or something. Yes,do be careful of hitting the brass! You'll have to reduce the entire plate thickness to get rid of dings,and may mess up your dovetails with excessive metal removal.

[Andrew Gibson]

I have to say that this is one thing I don't have a desire to do at the moment. I have so many things I still want to learn in woodworking that metalwork will have to wait for the time being.

Looks like solid progress. Remember that the second one will take a fraction of the time the first one did.
I changed the brakes on my car a couple weeks ago. The first wheel took a solid hour, the second barely took 15 minutes.

[Johnny Kleso]

You can use pins vs hammer to peen tails..

I have even use a very small ball peen and hit it with a larger one..
This gives you more control..

[John Padgett]

Is this a kit? Looks like it was cut out with a laser or something. Yes,do be careful of hitting the brass! You'll have to reduce the entire plate thickness to get rid of dings,and may mess up your dovetails with excessive metal removal.

Yes, it is a kit. I got it from Legacy Planes when they were going out of business. My next one I am going to try to make from scratch.

[John Padgett]

You can use pins vs hammer to peen tails..

I have even use a very small ball peen and hit it with a larger one..
This gives you more control..


I should have used something as I missed and dented a couple places.

[Floyd Mah]

I made an infill shoulder plane several years ago. I hand cut the parts, used a series of drill holes to shape the steel sides and then a coping saw to cut the waste. I went through several blades. Is there a countersink to the holes for the cross pins so that they are held in when you peen the ends? If you do have countersinking, you need to remember to fill the void completely when you peen, else the edges of the hole will show up when you go to file the pin ends flat, especially if you drop below the surface of the sides.

You encounter the same risk of injury to the sides when you peen the cross pins. You can protect the metal by either using a piece of wood or metal with a hole slightly larger than the pin. I used a metal center punch to start the metal moving. It is harder to try to mushroom the end of the cross pin by striking the entire end of the pin. By focusing the force with the center punch, you can select the part of the metal that you want to deform. Once you start the mushroom, then you can strike the whole end. Any dimples that you make with the punch is obscured by the subsequent peening and filing.

Another tricky step is in filing the bed for the cutting iron. You have to avoid widening the mouth of the plane too much. I glued ceramic tile to a wooden screw vise and used that to keep the file from cutting too low. I still have that vise with tiles, just in case I tackle another plane like that. It's not clear from your photos what the width of the plane is. If the blade is too narrow, it increases the difficulty of filing the bed for the blade.

Anyway, good luck. Looks like you still have about another 60% of the work to go.

http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=94866#5 Here's the plane. Not beautiful, but functional.

[Terry Beadle]

That looks like a great start to me. It reminds me of the Shepard thumb plane kit I did as my first infill kit. It may look dented up but it will clean up quite quickly and look good when flushed out.

Keep at it. Don't worry about how much time you spend on it to make it yours. It's the process and not the product that is why it's worth while to pursue making your own. You'll enjoy it's use for years and years.

The lessons and experience will really improve your next attempt even if this one doesn't turn out perfect.

That brass will look great !

[Zander Kale]

I have the same kit, it is nice, too bad Legacy didn't survive. I've made a bunch of changes to mine: I mostly soldered instead of peining, I've put aluminum buttons between the sides as spacers, done some reshaping of the sides and put in a steel mouth block in for the blade to bed on. The cut marks on the side of the blade (laser or water jet cut) were a bit of a pain to remove.
Edit: A rounded over center punch is really nice for peining. Just don't get too close to the edges and it doesn't slip or break off the edge.
I kinda lost interest and haven't finished it, haven't needed it with the other two scratch build shoulder planes.

[Johnny Kleso]

John,
Karl Holtey has a thin piece of sheet metal he lays over the brass just incase :)