Infill plane Kit

[Mike Allen1010]

I finally finished a St. James Bay Tool Company Norris type infill plane kit I've been working on and off for the past six months. It is a Norris type cast bronze body with 50° frog and screw adjuster.

I have a number of LV bevel up, LN and rehabilitated Stanley smoothers and always wanted to try an infill plane but couldn't afford to buy one so I opted for this kit.

I thought most of the work would be in building the wooden infill however the casting was really rough (the mouth was roughly milled in but just barely penetrated the sole).All the metal parts including the body, Iron, lever screw and chip breaker required pretty extensive filing to make the parts fit. The instructions weren’t very helpful, but the owner at St. James Bay tool Company was always available by phone and very helpful.

I'm really not much of a metalworker and did all the adjustments with files, granite lapping plate sandpaper and water stones and it took me at least a week of full-time work to get all the metalworking done. I'm sure others here with better metalworking skills could've done it more quickly.

The infill is a turning block I picked up at Rockler that was labeled Brazilian Rosewood that I cut and shaped with hand tools. I attached the infill to the casting with epoxy. The blade is 3/16” thick (I'm not sure what kind of steel) but it didn't take as keen an edge as the Hock A2 blades I generally use.

The mouth ended up a little wider than what I was shooting for, but I have to confess towards the end of the build I was pretty tired of filing and eager to put everything together so I could try it out.

The lateral adjustment mechanism took quite a bit of fiddling (I had to file down the sides of the round capture fitting and the insides of the bronze frog casting to create enough space for meaningful movement), but I was able to get the blade parallel to the sole and take some fine shavings.

The pictures below are of the first shavings from a maple board. With the mass of the bronze casting and the fixed frog, the plane feels very solid even across even some reversing grain and knots.

This plan is fun to use but given the time/cost, if I had to choose only one I would probably opt for a Veritas bevel up, high angle smooth plane - which is pretty much my “go to” tool for smoothing difficult grain. I have a Hock blade on order from The Best Things and I'll see if that makes a difference.

I enjoy building and using my own tools and all in all, I'm glad I built this kit, but I probably wouldn't do it again -- even though the second time around probably would be a lot easier/faster.

I'm interested to know if others have tried any other infill planes or plane kits and what their experience has been?

I've never used another infill, but I've seen videos and photos of some of the beautiful infill planes available today from the high-end makers (that are waaaay out of my price range) and they seem to work incredibly well. I guess I'm wondering if the results/user experience is worth continuing to explore this kind of plane?

Thanks, Mike
221954221959221958221955221956221957

[Chris Griggs]

Well Mike, I have no advice for you since I've never held, used, or made an infill plane. Sure looks nice though. I've thought about getting one of those kits before, seems like a ton of work though. Congrats on a job well done! That seems like quite an accomplishment.

[David Weaver]

You get the gold star for toughing it through the casting kit without machine tools. That's a pretty tough order for a first plane.

As far as whether or not they're worth it, you bet they are.

I have a st james bay A6 (or some flat sider) dovetail kit that's ready to be peined together. AT some point I'll get off my duff and do it, and use one of the trick lever cap screws I got from george. Looking at all of the kits (and I've done a big shepherd panel), I've enjoyed the builds from scratch more, even though the planes are more "plain" looking. They are better performers, too.

Maybe if you want to try something that's got fewer variables, have a look at Brese's small smoother, and build the entire thing from scratch with dovetails - all steel. The only thing you need to buy is the screw, and if you're looking just for functional, that can be had from mcmaster, but I can hook you up with a bronze screw from John Kleso, courtesy of Raney Nelson. That will make you a very nice single iron plane that is very useful, and it'll probably take all of about 25 hours to make a good one. It's a plane you'll use and enjoy the rest of your life.

But so too that kit may be.

When you get into curly cherry - strong curly cherry, or some of the really hard hardwoods, an infill will eat anything else - especially in a heavy cut.

[Jim Koepke]

Looks impressive.

Not sure if I will ever build one of those. It could be addictive.

jtk

[Jim Belair]

Thanks for posting Mike. Looks like you did a great job in spite of the frustrations.

I've considered one of their kits but would go for the "machined" vs. "rough casting" version for an extra $100.

Jim B

[David Weaver]

Don't discount the kits that are dovetailed. If you have any hard surface to pein something on (like the back of a vise that's got a flat anvil area, or a piece of railroad track), they are probably easier (and maybe a lot easier) to do.

[Terry Beadle]

I built a St. James bay smoother. 222033

It took a lot longer to make than I thought it would. The metal work went fairly quickly but the shaping of the infill Cocobolo was very time consuming. Of course, if I ever do another, the methods and tools I finally used would make the infill work easier to do. The Cocobolo is a very beautiful wood but hard headed to work with. If I were to make another, I'd probably buy the straight sided plane rather than the coffin sided.

In the photo above, not shown is a small brass screw foot piece. I now use it but then I was thinking it was a problem. I found there was a bit of a learning curve ( for me any way ) on how to adjust the plane. I thought that the screw adjuster would make it easier to adjust but in this case it is not. If I had to do it again, I would not spend the time on the adjustor and just use my small wooden hammer to tweak the settings. Once set, it does take very fine shavings. To use the screw adjustor, you have too loosen the screw ( no surprise there ) and then adjust the screw in or out while holding the blade firmly in place as you can, then tighten the screw slowly and gently. I'm thinking of trying some paste wax on the blade ramp so that I can leave a bit more tention on the screw and still be able to move the blade.

I've used the plane on several projects and especially on some very hard Brazilian cherry and it's really been a blessing. There was some African Mahogany with it's stripes of grain changes that also did well with this hefty little smoother.

So from a fellow St. James Bay swimmer...Congrats ! Good Job and I really like what you did with the front bunn.

Enjoy the shavings !