Wooden smoother

[Christian Thompson]

As part of my plan to make a 6 foot long cooper's jointer, I decided to make a smoother for practice. I didn't want to spend any money on the project since it was practice and I wasn't sure how it would turn out so I used a piece of firewood and the iron and chipbreaker from my Stanley #4. I followed along Bill Anderson's plane making video as I progressed through the steps.

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I think the wood is spalted soft maple. I like the way it looks, but it probably isn't ideal plan making wood. It works pretty well, though. I'm still working on learning how to adjust the iron, but when I get it right it shoots up long flat shavings. The picture below shows a shaving from a piece of hard maple. I normally get a curlier shaving with my #4. The bed angle is 50 degrees and maybe the higher angle is creating the flatter shavings?

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Given that the plane actually works I feel like I am ready to tackle the cooper's jointer. I have ordered some 12/4 hard maple (couldn't find any beech) and custom 3.25" wide Hock blade. It'll probably be a month or two until I get the iron so I'll have to find something else to work on in the meantime :-).

[Al Launier]

Nice work! Now you've started a new inventory of tools.

[Jim Koepke]

The wood on that looks great.

So far my closest attempt toward plane making is to make a new wedge for a molding plane from a recent purchase of molding planes.

The wedge was made from a piece of scrap apple. It turned out very well. Apple seems not to be the ideal wood for wedges. Maybe make the next out of some ash or other hardwood scrap from around the shop.

jtk

[Allan Speers]

Yeah, that spalting & grain is lovely. You have some NICE firewood !

If the thing works well, maybe you could add a lignum or Ebony sole?

[Christian Thompson]

Thanks guys.



The wedge was made from a piece of scrap apple. It turned out very well. Apple seems not to be the ideal wood for wedges. Maybe make the next out of some ash or other hardwood scrap from around the shop.
jtk

Just curious - is the wedge not working well, or is that just a general consensus that apple isn't good for wedges? I thought I'd seen a few places it is supposed to be pretty good for planes.


Yeah, that spalting & grain is lovely. You have some NICE firewood !

If the thing works well, maybe you could add a lignum or Ebony sole?

Lol. Just luck of the draw with the firewood I guess. I had bought a small load for a campfire a while back and this was the thickest piece.

Not a bad idea to add a sole. I'll probably just see how it goes, though, and think about adding one if it wears too much. Given the amount I'll use it, it will probably be fine for 30 years :-).

[Niels Cosman]

Nice! I am not usually a fan of spalted lumber but that looks gorgeous!
(The plane looks pretty good too! :))

[Jim Koepke]

Just curious - is the wedge not working well, or is that just a general consensus that apple isn't good for wedges? I thought I'd seen a few places it is supposed to be pretty good for planes.

The wedge is working fine. It just seems it might mushroom a bit at the top where it is tapped with my small plane mallet.

It was just made yesterday so it may be some time to tell.

jtk

[David Ragan]

Nothing wrong with that!

[Christian Thompson]

Thanks for the kind words guys.


The wedge is working fine. It just seems it might mushroom a bit at the top where it is tapped with my small plane mallet.

It was just made yesterday so it may be some time to tell.

jtk

Ahh... got it. I'm interested to see how my wedge and heel work out as well. So far so good, but I haven't hit them very much yet...

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks for the kind words guys.



Ahh... got it. I'm interested to see how my wedge and heel work out as well. So far so good, but I haven't hit them very much yet...

Did a little more work on the apple wedge today. The top of the wedge is definitely mushrooming from being tapped. The interesting part was when I went to remove the wedge it was able to be pulled out by hand instead of having to strike the back of the plane with a mallet. After trimming the tip and better shaping the blade it was able to take good and even full width shavings without jamming or choking.

At first I thought the shavings were deforming the tip of the wedge. It may have just been the way I left it last night.

jtk

[Barry Dima]

This is great. The curves of the plane work really nicely with the spalting. After a bit of use, is the Stanley blade still working well? No chatter? And, considering your results, I guess Bill Anderson's video is worthwhile?

Hope you'll share the cooper's jointer!

[Terry Beadle]

One thing you could do to avoid the mushrooming of the top of the wedge is to epoxy a small piece of brass on or in the top of the wedge.
That should add some beauty to the wedge/plane and will distribute the shock of the tapping. The epoxy should also hold the soft parts of the
wedge wood more together.

Just a suggestion.

[Christian Thompson]

Did a little more work on the apple wedge today. The top of the wedge is definitely mushrooming from being tapped. The interesting part was when I went to remove the wedge it was able to be pulled out by hand instead of having to strike the back of the plane with a mallet. After trimming the tip and better shaping the blade it was able to take good and even full width shavings without jamming or choking.

At first I thought the shavings were deforming the tip of the wedge. It may have just been the way I left it last night.

jtk

I wonder if being able to pull the wedge out without hitting the back of the plane means it isn't wedging tightly along the full length of the mortise? But I guess the important thing is that it is taking good shavings, which it sounds like it is.

I just looked up the janka hardness of apple and it sounds like it is pretty hard - 1730 according to this site: http://www.dwyerhardwoods.com/JankaHardness.htm (compared to 1300 for beech). Not sure what to make of that. That's actually harder than black locust. Does it seem that hard?

[Christian Thompson]

This is great. The curves of the plane work really nicely with the spalting. After a bit of use, is the Stanley blade still working well? No chatter? And, considering your results, I guess Bill Anderson's video is worthwhile?

Hope you'll share the cooper's jointer!

Thanks Barry! I haven't done much with it other than test it. But no chattering so far.

Bill Anderson's video was definitely worthwhile for me. He demonstrates the entire process and shows some helpful "debugging" techniques for getting stuff right. For example, he uses carbon paper to test the bed for flatness (sandwich the carbon paper between the bed and the iron and pull it out - high spots get blackened).

I'll definitely post some pictures of the jointer once I get started.