I would love to see some user made molding planes!

[Tony Shea]

This thread may not get much action as I'm not sure there are many out there making their own. I just posted a bit ago on another thread about wanting to see someone's snipe bills molding planes (rehabbed antiques) and got me thinking that I would love to see what other's here are making/using for molding planes. I guess that should include myself but I have yet to take a picture of what I've been working on (extremely slowly by the way, other projects have come up) but I just haven't taken a picture yet. This thread should get me the motivation to do so. I'll see what I can gather up real quick.

Rehabbed antique planes are all welcome as well, but I'd prefer if they are functional. There are subtle design differences that I find interesting on these planes and is the reason I'd love to see others.

[David Turner]

I have a half set of hollows and rounds under construction in quarter sawn beech but do not know how to add pictures?

David Turner
Plymouth, MI.

[steven c newman]

have one or two sitting around269180this one is a 3/8" cove cutter to do pencil grooves in a lap desk. There is also a "V" groover sitting around...

[David Weaver]

I've only made half a dozen hollows and rounds so far, but I'll add to them the next time I need something I don't have. I put a thread on here the last time I fired two out. My wood pile and my ambitions exceed my output.

[David Weaver]

I have made half a dozen H&Rs so far, really would have liked to have made 10 times that by now, but my ambitions are not as big as my wood pile and other obligations. (two are on the link half way down this page).

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?201137-Creeker-s-Weekend-Accomplishments

I haven't made them all pretty - two were from cherry, and four from beech (with those two in that picture being made from very inexpensive drawer beech, and I should've been less stingy so as to avoid the discoloration on them).

AT any rate, use Larry's video, follow it straight up and if you make something other than H&R, extrapolate from there. LN floats or make your own, let the rest of the market figure out if the rest of the floats coming out are acceptable, the LN design is the right size with the best style handle, the best steel for the job and the right amount of flex in the long floats to make them really useful.

Make the irons on your own from 1/8" O1 stock, you can taper them if you have a belt sander.

[Tony Shea]

Well here are the two that I'm working on. The round is basically done with the blade all heat treated and sharpened. But it still needs a bit more refining to match the shape of the sole a little more exact, not quite happy with it yet. The other plane, the hollow (I think I'm calling them the right profile), is still a ways out from being done. The sole is all shaped and true but I just need to open the mouth up a bit more to get the iron to pass through, shape the iron, heat treat the iron, and finish off the plane body. These were certainly fun to make and a great learning experience.


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David, I'd love to see your examples.

[Tony Shea]

Steven, that plane certainly is interesting if nothing else. I may have passed that one up had I seen it laying there for sale. Although the iron doesn't look too bad.

[steven c newman]

just a few more looks at these home made planes269210269211 nothing real fancy, or even up to Mr. weaver's standards, but they do work...

[Steve Voigt]

Nice planes David and Tony!
Tony, is that QS cherry?

[Chris Vandiver]

Really excellent looking work Tony! Very nice.

[Charles Murray Ohio]

Here are some woodies I made a few years back. The profiles are taken from Smiths Key and are bedded at 55 degrees for use in hardwoods such as Tiger Maple. 269213269214

[Chris Griggs]

I like this thread Tony, and very nice work on those! Charles, those are sweet!

[Cliff Ober]

Here's my first two (and only so far...), made a couple of years ago. They're made of walnut with verawood boxing (verawood is the stuff Rockler sells as lignum).
The blades are from L-N. I have blade blanks and QS beech for a half-set of H&R's if I can just find the time to get'em done.

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Cliff

[David Weaver]

Well here are the two that I'm working on. The round is basically done with the blade all heat treated and sharpened. But it still needs a bit more refining to match the shape of the sole a little more exact, not quite happy with it yet. The other plane, the hollow (I think I'm calling them the right profile), is still a ways out from being done. The sole is all shaped and true but I just need to open the mouth up a bit more to get the iron to pass through, shape the iron, heat treat the iron, and finish off the plane body. These were certainly fun to make and a great learning experience.


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David, I'd love to see your examples.

Very Nice, tony - good bold chamfers and everything's clean. Looks like cherry? Wait until you cut a profile with it, you won't believe how well they work (presume you went through larry's video?)

[David Weaver]

Here's my first two (and only so far...), made a couple of years ago. They're made of walnut with verawood boxing (verawood is the stuff Rockler sells as lignum).
The blades are from L-N. I have blade blanks and QS beech for a half-set of H&R's if I can just find the time to get'em done.

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Cliff

Nice Cliff!!!!

[David Weaver]

Here are some woodies I made a few years back. The profiles are taken from Smiths Key and are bedded at 55 degrees for use in hardwoods such as Tiger Maple. 269213269214

Nice Charles! I think yours are the first profiled planes I can remember seeing. The rest of us are making hollows and such. I attempted to start a beader last year, and have a bunch of persimmon, but got stalled trying to figure out how I'd cut the details in the bottom crisply and straight without power tools.

[Tony Shea]

Thanks for the kind words on the planes. Yes it is QS cherry, it's a piece I had kicking around the shop for a while and figured I'd use this before I invested in some QS beech. I must have posted my pictures and post the same time or a little after you David. I like your planes a lot.

And Cliff, those are great. Very different seeing some in walnut and your vera boxing is awesome. Very clean work and love the shape of the snipe bills planes.

Charles, full on profiled molders!!! That is certainly beyond my skill level, I struggled enough getting one shape out of my sole and iron. To make complex molders like those is truly exceptional. I would love to find a tutorial on it.

Everything I've learned was from Larry's incredible DVD on Making Traditional Side Escapement Planes. He really does a thorough job in the video, even a slow learner such as myself could follow along. It is probably one of the most thorough videos I've ever watched on any woodworking method. Larry should hold classes on how to make educational videos without skipping over all the important details that is so common with most video's I've bought on woodworking.

Anyways, great work so far and keep them coming.

[Jim Koepke]

I have a half set of hollows and rounds under construction in quarter sawn beech but do not know how to add pictures?

David Turner
Plymouth, MI.

Here is one method that works:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?167711

jtk

[Charles Murray Ohio]

Thanks for the nice comments, however I cannot take full credit for these planes. Without Larry Williams DVD's I would still be in the planning stages. I did however have a secret weapon, that is being friends with Don McConnell. So before starting, I asked Don a lot of Questions (Don is a living encyclopedia on hand tools). Don cleared up what I didn't fully understand. I believe what's best about making your own tools is in the process you end up understanding them better. Once you understand them they are much easier to use and give you better results.

[Cliff Ober]

Tony (and everyone!), thanks for the comments on the snipe's bills... I too was using Larry Williams' DVD for guidance, and I agree it's a wonderful resource. I'm in awe of Charles' complex planes - I thought I was pushing the envelope a bit by starting with the snipe's bills, but he has produced some superb planes. Wow.

I hope others will weigh in with their efforts too; there's lots to learn from those who have taken the plunge!

Cliff

[David Turner]

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Hopefully there are pictures of my h & R's included in this reply.

David Turner
Plymouth, MI.

[David Weaver]

Wow...doing those all at one time is a serious undertaking!

[Tony Shea]

That is very impressive David T. I sure wish I had the time to take on a set like that. I'd love to see some close up shots of one or two of them.

I was afraid this thread was dead already, it's hard to believe that a forum full of neander's are not taking the time to rehab or make their own molding planes. I'd even like to see some made by the modern plane makers if anyone around here has bought some (Old Street Tool, M.S. Bickford, Philly, etc.). They are a fairly specialized tool, in this generation anyway, but I find them very interesting.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

It's on my someday list . . . I just messed up some saw handles (again) the other day, so maybe I'll tackle messing up something new! I've been working 60 hour weeks lately, and haven't had the heart to actually build anything. I've been setting aside some money for a float or two - if everything goes well, maybe I'll resurrect this thread in 6 months with some picutres. Given the way things have been working, it'll probably be 2015.

[Steve Voigt]

It's on my someday list . . . if everything goes well, maybe I'll resurrect this thread in 6 months with some pictures. Given the way things have been working, it'll probably be 2015.

Same here. I even bought some nice vintage moulding plane irons, before realizing that i should be building left-handed planes, and so these irons won't work…but it's on the back burner. My focus is on building/acquiring joinery planes at the moment.
I think it's really cool though, how many people are making their own moulding planes. 10 years ago, practically no one was doing this, and now it's a thing…the hand tool universe continues to grow and rediscover the past.

[Adam Maxwell]

I made a few hollow and round pairs this year (2, 4, 10, 12) (and live-tweeted a couple of the builds). With the vintage 6, 8, and 14 pairs that I had, this gave me an even half-set 2-14. It seemed like the 4 and 10 pairs, in particular, were usually the just-right size for what I was building. Now I'll probably find out that it was really the 3 and 5 that I was missing!

Like most of you, I followed Larry Williams' DVD, but first made an outline of it on paper that I could use in the shop. One area where I deviated from his instructions was in making my own irons by dovetailing and silver soldering a mild steel tang to an O1 bit. I also made my own floats, again using mild steel from the hardware store; even unhardened, it's harder than beech.

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This is one of the small pairs, where the grip is wider than the body. The dimension sheet on my DVD didn't cover all of the details for these, but you can figure it out without too much trouble.

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Here's my maker's mark in the end of one; I made the stamp from mild steel with a Dremel. Not the best, but it's legible if you squint.

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This is most of my wooden molding and joinery planes; mainly vintage, of course. Most of these were purchased for specific projects, except the H&Rs I made, so they're in good working shape. A few were just curiosities or spares.

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I've got more photos of the process scattered around the internet, but as I understand it, I can't link to them here. It's pretty basic stuff, anyway.

[Tony Shea]

Very nice Adam. That's my goal after I finally finish my first pair is to tackle the smaller pairs in the 2 and 4 range.

[Chris Griggs]

Wow. Its cool how many of you have made such nice moulding planes. As if Dave constantly trying to convince me to build some wasn't enough this thread is going to push me over the edge. Looks like I'll need to start budgeting for some more floats, some 01 steel, some QS beech or cherry, and a propane torch. Blast you all! Great thread guys, beautiful examples of user made planes!

[Kees Heiden]

I can only offer a picture of a very early 19th century hollow, made by Higgs, compared to an 18th century Dutch molding plane. Haven't even sharpened the blades yet, but it is somewhere on my list of things to do this winter. The Higgs planes will need new irons because the old ones are hopelessly pitted.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll266/Kees2351/Higgs/DSC02203.jpg (http://s290.photobucket.com/user/Kees2351/media/Higgs/DSC02203.jpg.html)

[Adam Maxwell]

Looks like I'll need to start budgeting for some more floats, some 01 steel, some QS beech or cherry, and a propane torch.

Here's a few tips for doing this on the cheap.

I figure my floats cost about $5 in material (1/8" steel from the auto parts store) and $10 in files (a 3-square bastard and a taper saw file). Mark the teeth with layout dye, then hacksaw to depth. Use the bastard file to remove most of the waste, using the saw kerf as a guide.

The torch Larry Williams uses is really expensive. Wes Groot on the oldtools list convinced me to use a MAPP torch, which I think was $50 from the orange Borg (the bigger Bernzomatic with the adjustable flame). That was cheaper than a roofing torch and propane tank for me. YMMV.

The O1 is pretty hard to avoid. I screwed up on dimensions of the piece of plate that I ordered from McMaster, so couldn't cut an entire iron from it. My workaround of dovetailing in a mild steel tang was labor-intensive, but really didn't take that long:

http://storify.com/elements/4e7412fde59d791389ede63b (http://storify.com/elements/4e7412fde59d791389ede63b)

Since I don't have a tailed sander, I didn't end up with much of a taper, but it's not a big problem in actual use (so far). Filing a taper was more trouble than it's worth, at least for me. What's left is the QS stock, and that's the hardest part to get here in WA. Air-dried American beech was super to work, though! My practice plane was in ash, since it's what I had on hand.

[David Turner]

Just for the record, there are at least two philosophies regarding the construction of side escapement planes. They differ dramatically. I have built planes using both of the methods and can tell you they both work just fine. Larry Williams advocates the traditional methods of design and construction while Tod Herrli is much more modern in his approach. I would suggest that if you are going to build any quantity of side escapement planes that you invest in both of their DVD's and check out the opportunities for differences yourself.

Just my $.02

David Turner
Plymouth, MI.

[Cliff Ober]

That is very impressive David T. I sure wish I had the time to take on a set like that. I'd love to see some close up shots of one or two of them.

I was afraid this thread was dead already, it's hard to believe that a forum full of neander's are not taking the time to rehab or make their own molding planes. I'd even like to see some made by the modern plane makers if anyone around here has bought some (Old Street Tool, M.S. Bickford, Philly, etc.). They are a fairly specialized tool, in this generation anyway, but I find them very interesting.

Tony, here's a mini panel raiser from Philly:

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I bought it second hand. I believe it's an early effort; his current production appears a bit more refined judging from the web site. That aside, it works well.

Cliff

[Tony Shea]

That's very cool Cliff. I have been eye balling his mini panel raiser for some time now. Is that plane built with a depth stop built into the plane? IF so what thickness material is it designed for? Or do you work to a gauge line on your material?

[Cliff Ober]

That's very cool Cliff. I have been eye balling his mini panel raiser for some time now. Is that plane built with a depth stop built into the plane? IF so what thickness material is it designed for? Or do you work to a gauge line on your material?

That "ledge" just outboard of the blade forms the depth stop. I'd guess it's about a 16th or so... I can't check it right now as the plane is at our new home in Maine (while I'm still sweltering here in Houston :mad: ). I've used the plane with 3/8ths material for small panels and about a quarter for drawer bottoms, but I'm only going down as far as the bevel there (no central relief area).

Cliff

[David Turner]

Here are a 1/8", 1/4", and a 3/8" wide blade side escapement planes by Tod Herrli

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David Turner
Plymouth, MI.

[Cliff Ober]

Here are a 1/8", 1/4", and a 3/8" wide blade side escapement planes by Tod Herrli

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David Turner
Plymouth, MI.

David, are there any issues on those with the non-tapered blade slipping, or difficulties getting a tight wedge loose?

Cliff

[David Turner]

Cliff:

I have both tapered iron and straight iron side escapement planes and I can not tell much difference in the amount of effort to remove the wedge; of course this is one of the philosophy differences between L. Williams and T. Herrli. John Whelan in his book on plane construction says he can not tell any difference either. I have already posted a picture of my half set plus of H & R's that I have under construction elsewhere in this thread so here is a picture of the Ohio Tool Co. half set in the bottom of my tool box. There is also some other profiles in there also.

David Turner
Plymouth, MI.

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[Mike Allen1010]

Great thread! Super impressive and iinpirational work with some truely. Excellent planes- thanks for sharing . You guys are motivating me to get over my fear of flames and hot metal!
All the best. Mike