Frederick Skelly
09-13-2015, 2:36 PM
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A few weeks ago, Mr. Koepke was discussing Chamfer Planes in one of his threads. I didn’t really need one – I cut small, chamfers (usually 1/8” or less) with my LA Block Plane and it works pretty well. But they aren’t always as crisp as they could be - sometimes they are just a touch rounded. So Jim’s thread intrigued me and I decided to try and make my own, using a variation on how I made a molding plane earlier in the year.
I had a scrap of Mahogany that was just over ¾” thick, about 4” high and about 10” long. Since I only do small chamfers I figured ¾” was wide enough for this plane. You see the results here. (Sorry the pics are not as sharp as I'd hoped.) I decided to use Maple for the wedge, just to provide some contrast. (Tell me whether you think that looks hokey – my design sense is definitely not on a par with some of yours’.) For the iron, I used a ¼” blank from LN and put on a 25* primary bevel to match my LA Block (again). After I harden & temper it, I’ll add a 2* secondary bevel.
One challenge was determining an appropriate order of fabricating operations, and building a crude prototype before the one you see here definitely taught me what NOT to do. As a result, the first thing I did was use the table saw (gasp!) to cut the 45* groove in the sole. Then cut the blank to length (5 ½”), its final height (1 ¾”) and I resawed 1/4” off the right side. (I wanted the escapement on the right.) I planed both sides of the resawed material to ensure a smooth glue-up in a later step.
Next, I cut a mortise in the ½” thick side of the resawn material, 9/32” deep – very slightly wider than my iron. I designed it to bed the iron at 12*, just like my LA Block. Yes, I cheat by cutting my mortise using this lamination approach. I realize that’s amateurish - forgive me guys. But doing so let the beginning planemaker (me) get started much quicker and with a few fewer tools (gasp again!). I know it may or may not hold up to seasonal wood movement. So, this is another “Fred experiment”. I’ll know whether it’s OK by about this time next year, after four changes of season. If it fails, I’ll make another. But it was still a lot of fun!
Anyway. After cutting the mortise, I went ahead and made the wedge, because I could see/confirm how it would fill the mortise. That turned out to be a good idea because it also let me see where to place the escapement. That was another challenge for this newbie planemaker. In my crude prototype, I cut a crude rectangular escapement that went all the way to the bottom of the sole; i.e., to the wide part of the “V”. That worked fine, but I hated the way it looked. So after some himmming and hawwwing, I realized that I could use a ½” hole as an escapement, centering it on where the iron will meet the material for an “average” campher. Then, I didn’t have to cut into the sole making it much more attractive – IF I could make it work. So I marked the ¼” side in the appropriate place, drilled the hole and then used a countersink bit to cut the angle you see. (My skills with a gouge would not have made a smooth-enough tapered hole.) I used a gouge to gently cut a small tapered area in the top of the mortise, near where the shavings would come off the iron. It’s hard to describe that and the pics don’t show it well, but I wanted to “encourage” the shavings to move in the direction of the escapement. When doing this, I had to be careful not to goof up the mortise, thereby causing the wedge to be unsupported near the cut.
After finishing all that, I glued-up the two resawn halves. After they dried, I again inserted the iron and wedge. I cut the wedge to length and again used a gouge to shape the tip of the wedge in a way that “encourages” shavings to exit, rather than clog the mouth. My test cuts showed that shavings really do tend to exit properly and if they occasionally don’t, the cleanout is easy enough. I am, however, certain that this escapement would not work well if I were making larger camphers than I do – there wouldn’t be enough exit volume, so you’d have to clean it out far too often.
Well, that’s where I am now. In hindsight, I wish I’d have used Jatoba – it’s harder and denser – but I enjoy working Mahogany so I used it here. I’m in the midst of putting on a shellac finish and I still have to harden, temper and sharpen the iron. But the plane works!
Let me know if you have any thoughts, see anything I could have done better, or have any questions.
Take care,
Fred
A few weeks ago, Mr. Koepke was discussing Chamfer Planes in one of his threads. I didn’t really need one – I cut small, chamfers (usually 1/8” or less) with my LA Block Plane and it works pretty well. But they aren’t always as crisp as they could be - sometimes they are just a touch rounded. So Jim’s thread intrigued me and I decided to try and make my own, using a variation on how I made a molding plane earlier in the year.
I had a scrap of Mahogany that was just over ¾” thick, about 4” high and about 10” long. Since I only do small chamfers I figured ¾” was wide enough for this plane. You see the results here. (Sorry the pics are not as sharp as I'd hoped.) I decided to use Maple for the wedge, just to provide some contrast. (Tell me whether you think that looks hokey – my design sense is definitely not on a par with some of yours’.) For the iron, I used a ¼” blank from LN and put on a 25* primary bevel to match my LA Block (again). After I harden & temper it, I’ll add a 2* secondary bevel.
One challenge was determining an appropriate order of fabricating operations, and building a crude prototype before the one you see here definitely taught me what NOT to do. As a result, the first thing I did was use the table saw (gasp!) to cut the 45* groove in the sole. Then cut the blank to length (5 ½”), its final height (1 ¾”) and I resawed 1/4” off the right side. (I wanted the escapement on the right.) I planed both sides of the resawed material to ensure a smooth glue-up in a later step.
Next, I cut a mortise in the ½” thick side of the resawn material, 9/32” deep – very slightly wider than my iron. I designed it to bed the iron at 12*, just like my LA Block. Yes, I cheat by cutting my mortise using this lamination approach. I realize that’s amateurish - forgive me guys. But doing so let the beginning planemaker (me) get started much quicker and with a few fewer tools (gasp again!). I know it may or may not hold up to seasonal wood movement. So, this is another “Fred experiment”. I’ll know whether it’s OK by about this time next year, after four changes of season. If it fails, I’ll make another. But it was still a lot of fun!
Anyway. After cutting the mortise, I went ahead and made the wedge, because I could see/confirm how it would fill the mortise. That turned out to be a good idea because it also let me see where to place the escapement. That was another challenge for this newbie planemaker. In my crude prototype, I cut a crude rectangular escapement that went all the way to the bottom of the sole; i.e., to the wide part of the “V”. That worked fine, but I hated the way it looked. So after some himmming and hawwwing, I realized that I could use a ½” hole as an escapement, centering it on where the iron will meet the material for an “average” campher. Then, I didn’t have to cut into the sole making it much more attractive – IF I could make it work. So I marked the ¼” side in the appropriate place, drilled the hole and then used a countersink bit to cut the angle you see. (My skills with a gouge would not have made a smooth-enough tapered hole.) I used a gouge to gently cut a small tapered area in the top of the mortise, near where the shavings would come off the iron. It’s hard to describe that and the pics don’t show it well, but I wanted to “encourage” the shavings to move in the direction of the escapement. When doing this, I had to be careful not to goof up the mortise, thereby causing the wedge to be unsupported near the cut.
After finishing all that, I glued-up the two resawn halves. After they dried, I again inserted the iron and wedge. I cut the wedge to length and again used a gouge to shape the tip of the wedge in a way that “encourages” shavings to exit, rather than clog the mouth. My test cuts showed that shavings really do tend to exit properly and if they occasionally don’t, the cleanout is easy enough. I am, however, certain that this escapement would not work well if I were making larger camphers than I do – there wouldn’t be enough exit volume, so you’d have to clean it out far too often.
Well, that’s where I am now. In hindsight, I wish I’d have used Jatoba – it’s harder and denser – but I enjoy working Mahogany so I used it here. I’m in the midst of putting on a shellac finish and I still have to harden, temper and sharpen the iron. But the plane works!
Let me know if you have any thoughts, see anything I could have done better, or have any questions.
Take care,
Fred