Infill Shoulder Plane a la Jeff Whitrock

[Brian Thornock]

I saw Jeff's great thread on his infill shoulder plane and decided I had to make one. I pretty much did everything the same way he did. It turned out pretty well, but have started to make a new pair of them that have some notable differences, mainly:

- using precision ground steel, the lapping required with the BORG steel took my on the order of 6 or 7 hours. Totally worth a little extra money for the good stuff.
- No steel blade ramp, I didn't think it was all that necessary and is just another level of complication
- Different order of events, such as rough cutting the escapement before peining and fitting infill before peining

Anyways, here is what you really wanted:

260970 260971

[Tony Shea]

Very nice Brian. Good to see someone take inspiration from others on here. I may have to try this out on my own.

[Andrew Nemeth]

Well done Brian! Have you had a chance to make and shavings? How well does it behave? An infill shoulder plane is on my short list. I appreciate seeing what you would do differently than Jeff as I plan on using his thread as a departure point myself.

-Andrew

[Brent VanFossen]

Beautiful work! I don't see any shavings in the photos, though. Are you happy with the way it cuts?

[Brian Thornock]

I did take shavings a few times. I didn't spend a ton of time adjusting it, so the shavings were typically slightly thicker than what I wanted, but still just fine. It sits in the hand very well and works wonders chamfering. I used a blade from Lee Valley (for the wooden rabbet plane, I just had to trim the head some), but the tang is a little narrow for my liking. On the whole it is a great plane. I just peined together one of my "real" goes and it's coming along well, though there have been a few minor hiccups.

As a side note, if you do one of these, make sure your drill bits are really the size they say they are. I tried a dozen different drill 1/8 bits and all of them were 3 mm +/- .02 mm, which is a far cry from 3.18 mm when you are dealing with rivets that are 3.15 mm in diameter. Anyway, that accounted for at least an hour of frustration for me today.

[Matthew N. Masail]

looks great! looking forward to seeing the rest.

[george wilson]

How did you make the knurled cap screw,Brian? The plane looks very nice.

[Chris Griggs]

That's very cool. Looking forward to seeing future renditions.

[Metod Alif]

Brian,
Nice design and workmanship. Elegant to my eyes. I appreciate your thinking/designing with less complication - at no loss of functionality.
Do not stop with this one.
Best wishes,
Metod

[Brian Thornock]

George, the thumb screw was actually a clearance thumb screw from Bridge City. A fellow creeker sent it to me, for the which I am very grateful.

[george wilson]

I make thumb screws if any one needs some.

[Brian Thornock]

George, I may contact you for some upcoming ones. The ones I am currently working on I am going to try something off the shelf just to see, but the next couple after those I may need something a little flashier :) I will just have to see how it goes (and how agreeable the wife is to me making more, she thinks I'm addicted, but I can stop any time I want...)

[don wilwol]

nice work. I love the style.

[Jeff Wittrock]

Very nice plane Brian!
Those rounded contours really look like they will make for a comfortable plane.
There just isn't anything quite like making your own tools. I look forward to seeing more.

-Jeff

[Brian Thornock]

Thanks Jeff. Sorry about mis-spelling your name, I probably should have looked it up first, oops.:o

[Jeff Wittrock]

Ha, No problem Brian. Half the people who hear my name throw an "H" in there, and much more than half pronounce it wrong :).
When I was younger people just called me "Rock". I guess this was not only convenient but was also a reference to my less than towering intellect.