AARRRGGGH! Screwed up on a plane build

[Christian Thompson]

So I've had this massive 6' long piece of hard maple sitting in my shop for a few months waiting for my hock blade to arrive. I'm building a 6' cooper's plane with a 3.25" iron. I finally got the iron the other day and finished up the prep work on the maple.

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This morning I laid out the mortise, and excitedly starting boring and chopping out the waste. Unfortunately I skipped an important step in the layout and chopped the full width of the iron. I didn't leave anything for cheeks! Damn!

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(ignore all the layout lines, I started scrambling after realizing my mistake to find a way to work around it)

The good news is that I only got down about an inch (the blank is 3" thick). So now I am trying to figure out what to do:



Finish the mortise and glue in some cheeks
Finish the mortise and use a dowel to hold the wedge.
Move back 7 inches and start a new mortise. Then I'll need to shorten the plane by 7" and patch up the first hole I created.
Sell all my tools and have a nice bonfire :)


Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Christian

[Zach Dillinger]

Finish the mortise and glue in some cheeks
Finish the mortise and use a dowel to hold the wedge.
Move back 7 inches and start a new mortise. Then I'll need to shorten the plane by 7" and patch up the first hole I created.
Sell all my tools and have a nice bonfire :)


Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Christian

If it was me, I'd either take the second or third option, probably the second.

[Mike Henderson]

I'd glue on the cheeks. I've done that on a couple of planes I made and they look good and work great. If you choose wood that is well matched to the rest of the plane it'll be hard to see that they're glued on.

Mike

[If you glue them on and don't like them, you can always chisel them off and fall back to option 2.]

[Jim Koepke]

I'd glue on the cheeks. I've done that on a couple of planes I made and they look good and work great.

+1 on what Mike says. Besides, as a cooper's plane it won't be seen since the plane is turned over in use.

jtk

[Jim Belair]

Can't recall where I've seen them but someone sells brass cheeks for user built planes.

[Matthew N. Masail]

HNT Gordon sells brass cheeks. you could also make a brass lever cap like in infill planes.

[Joe Bailey]

Your option No 1 (glue in cheeks) is the number one option, in my opinion.

[Frederick Skelly]

Your option No 1 (glue in cheeks) is the number one option, in my opinion.

Mine too. Just like Mike said, you can always fall back to option 2.

[Christian Thompson]

Thanks for all the responses guys. I think I am going to go with option 1 and glue in the cheeks. And in the future I'll try to remember that whole "measure twice cut once" thing!

[Steve Voigt]

A few years ago I made some planes with glued in cheeks. One thing to consider is that you will need to get the sides of the mortise really nice and flat to get a good glue bond. Also, I recommend pinning those cheeks to the sides, because the wedge pressure will want to push the cheeks up and out of the plane.

[Zach Dillinger]

A few years ago I made some planes with glued in cheeks. One thing to consider is that you will need to get the sides of the mortise really nice and flat to get a good glue bond. Also, I recommend pinning those cheeks to the sides, because the wedge pressure will want to push the cheeks up and out of the plane.

The problems raised by Steve highlight exactly my reasons for preferring / suggesting method 2.

[Mike Henderson]

BTW, if you're concerned about glue creep on the cheeks, use a urea formaldehyde glue, or even the Gorilla poly glue.

You do need to get a good tight fit no matter what glue you go with. But if you go a good job of fitting, the glue joint will be stronger than the wood.

Mike

[don wilwol]

Definitely glue in cheeks

[Al Launier]

Good choice! Gluing the cheeks will make it look intentional & more impressive.

[Christian Thompson]

The problems raised by Steve highlight exactly my reasons for preferring / suggesting method 2.


A few years ago I made some planes with glued in cheeks. One thing to consider is that you will need to get the sides of the mortise really nice and flat to get a good glue bond. Also, I recommend pinning those cheeks to the sides, because the wedge pressure will want to push the cheeks up and out of the plane.

Now you guys are making me reconsider. The cheeks failing was my original concern. This is a big iron and jointing oak staves is not gentle. Maybe I'll switch to the dowel. I've got some time to ponder - it'll take me a few more days to finish the mortise. The irritating thing is that if I was going the glue / dowel route I could have just made this a laminated plane and saved myself a lot of trouble! Oh well. Learning opportunity I guess :-).

[Allan Speers]

HNT Gordon sells brass cheeks. you could also make a brass lever cap like in infill planes.


A brass levercap would be my choice, too, if only I knew how to make them! - Or at least where to buy them pre-made. I think Johnny Kleso (rarebear) used to sell them, but he retired many years ago.


Heck, a brass levercap + a Norris adjuster. Then you're really cooking. - And Norris adjusters ARE available online. Which begs an important question:

Do we have any members here could could, and would, makes some nice brass levercaps to sell, complete with knurled adjusters and the brass pin that goes across the mouth? I'd definitely buy a few.

[Stewie Simpson]

http://www.rts.ch/archives/tv/culture/suisse-au-fil-du-temps/3464421-les-outils-de-bois.html

[george wilson]

Just drill all the way through the escapement and install a cross pin. Makes a Roman style plane. I'd think that sooner or later,(mostly sooner),glued in cheeks would come loose. At the very least,they make it obvious that you fouled up. The Roman cross pin will look like you meant to make it that way,and the plane will look fine.

P.S.,IF it would fit the width of the escapement,doesn't Jamestown Tools sell cast brass levers?

pps: Now,I can't seem to find them.

[Ryan Baker]

How far down have you already chopped? It's hard to tell from the picture, but it doesn't look like you have gone all that deep down yet. If it isn't that deep yet, there may still be enough material there to make the cheeks even if they don't come all the way to the top. (This is a big plane, there may be enough depth to still get adequate cheeks.) Or you could still glue on some extra material for the top part and salvage what's farther down.

I'm not a big fan of the cross-pin design for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that they tend to just jamb up with shavings.

[Stewie Simpson]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=327721&d=1450886252

You still have plenty of scope to form your wedge abutments further back.

[Allan Speers]

Christian, here's another way to go, although it would be one heckuva' challenge:

Find yourself a 6' length of lignum vitae. Then make your current top the bottom. Mill off an inch, dovetail on the L.V., then start your escapement over on the other side.

If you're actually going to USE this beast, and not just display it, then 6' of lignum will likely slide a whole lot easier than 6' of Maple. Plus, dovetailed wood-on-wood bottoms look so cool. - So even if this is only to be a showpiece, it would be worth considering.

[Allan Speers]

It reminds me of a "true" story I once read: ("true" in the Coen Brothers sense of the word. :))


Some guy rented a large box truck to haul lumber home from the mill. On the way home he passed under an overhead train tressle, and not being an experienced trucker, slammed the top of the truck into the overpass, getting hopelessly stuck.

Traffic backed up for miles, and soon the site was overrun with police, civil engineers, train officials, firemen, etc etc etc. No one could decide the best & safest way to get the truck unstuck. They couldn't just pull it out with a tow truck, as it might damage the train system.

One engineer wanted to cut-away the top of the truck with a torch, but oil was dripping from the tracks, so that was risky, plus the lumber inside was of extremely high quality & might burn. Another engineer wanted to jig 2 cranes, to pull up both sides of the tressel evenly. A fireman suggested flowing a foam solution over the truck for lubrication, then pulling gently. Someone else suggested digging out from underneath the truck. Traffic kept piling up....


Then a little 5 year old girl came walking up with her mother. She turned to her mother and said,
"Momma, why don't they just let the air out of the tires?"

[Stewie Simpson]

Christian, here's another way to go, although it would be one heckuva' challenge:

Find yourself a 6' length of lignum vitae. Then make your current top the bottom. Mill off an inch, dovetail on the L.V., then start your escapement over on the other side.

If you're actually going to USE this beast, and not just display it, then 6' of lignum will likely slide a whole lot easier than 6' of Maple. Plus, dovetailed wood-on-wood bottoms look so cool. - So even if this is only to be a showpiece, it would be worth considering.

http://www.exoticwood.biz/lignumvitae.htm

[george wilson]

It would be nice if the above link mostly did not only sell pen blanks !!!

[Christian Thompson]

How far down have you already chopped? It's hard to tell from the picture, but it doesn't look like you have gone all that deep down yet. If it isn't that deep yet, there may still be enough material there to make the cheeks even if they don't come all the way to the top. (This is a big plane, there may be enough depth to still get adequate cheeks.) Or you could still glue on some extra material for the top part and salvage what's farther down.

I'm not a big fan of the cross-pin design for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that they tend to just jamb up with shavings.

I considered this as well. I've only gone down about an inch but I only have a little less than 3 inches of thickness and the cap iron starts curving a half inch from the tip. So that doesn't leave a whole lot for the abutments. As far as the cross pin jamming up, I think this plane being used upside down takes care of that problem - stuff just falls out before it has a chance to get wedged in. I took a coopering class recently where we used laminated planes with cross pins and they worked well.




You still have plenty of scope to form your wedge abutments further back.

I spent a bunch of time looking at this and can't figure out how I could salvage it. I guess you are saying I would just leave a really big space in front of the abutments where I've already cut out? Now that I think about it this might work. I could just step down the throat front. Might look a little odd, but would allow me to go with my original plan.


Christian, here's another way to go, although it would be one heckuva' challenge:

...
Then a little 5 year old girl came walking up with her mother. She turned to her mother and said,
"Momma, why don't they just let the air out of the tires?"

So - what's the "air out of the tires" solution? :)

[Christian Thompson]

Christian, here's another way to go, although it would be one heckuva' challenge:

Find yourself a 6' length of lignum vitae. Then make your current top the bottom. Mill off an inch, dovetail on the L.V., then start your escapement over on the other side.

If you're actually going to USE this beast, and not just display it, then 6' of lignum will likely slide a whole lot easier than 6' of Maple. Plus, dovetailed wood-on-wood bottoms look so cool. - So even if this is only to be a showpiece, it would be worth considering.

This would be really cool, but definitely more time and effort than I was looking to put in :-). I was aiming for a solid user and am hoping to get it done pretty soon so I can start using it.

[Darrell LaRue]

It reminds me of a "true" story I once read: ("true" in the Coen Brothers sense of the word. :))
Some guy rented a large box truck to haul lumber home from the mill. On the way home he passed under an overhead train tressle, and not being an experienced trucker, slammed the top of the truck into the overpass, getting hopelessly stuck.


I saw a similar incident, when I was about 8 or 9 years old. Little town of Smiths Falls, near Old Sly's Lock, there was a rail overpass. We were playing in the field next to the locks and a truck load of logs came along. It was a big truck, and the wood was piled high. We stopped and watched it go by, and as it headed for the overpass my friend asked if it was gonna fit. Nope. There was a huge BANG, the chains snapped, logs spilled off the truck, and the rail bridge jumped. Gravel from the bridge rained down. The truck was not stuck, but the rail bridge was unusable until they made some repairs to it. Quite exciting to watch all the activity on what was otherwise just another day.

As for the plane, you could just make shorter abutments. There is probably enough there to hold the iron. And if it turns out that the short abutments don't work, pare them off and install a cross-pin later on.

Darrell

[Stewie Simpson]

It would be nice if the above link mostly did not only sell pen blanks !!!

Hi George, There is a good reason the supplier can only offer pen blank size true lignum vitae.

Genuine lignum vitae is now nearly impossible to get, but we keep finding small amounts that were imported before the current import ban, or under a strictly controlled permit process.

[george wilson]

I know true lignum is nearly impossible to get. Back in the 70's or 80's at a woodworking show I saw a piece of lignum that was just about 1 board foot. The price was $150.00. Probably double or triple that cost today. You won't be finding a six foot piece,unless it is an old piece forgotten in some one's wood pile.

I had a few pieces in the shop,but they got left there when I retired.

Stewie,there is no reason to SHOUT your opinion. We all can read. What is the use of posting a link to a place that only sells mostly pen blanks,and a few pieces maybe 2"x2" x12" for $150.00,and of only a few species ?

[Allan Speers]

Wow, the price for lignum has really skyrocketed!


So maybe use some other species for a new sole. (Yeah I know, he doesn't want to put that much work into it, but it's still a thought.)

Heck, just use another piece of Maple.

Or maybe 1/2" of UHMW plastic. (I know, but it sure would slide nice.)

[Stewie Simpson]

We have far better choices in Australia than beech.

[george wilson]

We also have better choices in America. Hard maple,for example. I think they only used beech because it was abundant. But,not a particularly attractive wood for making furniture,so they don't cut it much for that these days.

[Patrick Chase]

Wow, the price for lignum has really skyrocketed!


So maybe use some other species for a new sole. (Yeah I know, he doesn't want to put that much work into it, but it's still a thought.)

Heck, just use another piece of Maple.

Or maybe 1/2" of UHMW plastic. (I know, but it sure would slide nice.)

A "reverse hybrid" plane! Wow would that annoy a lot of traditionalists, though.

[Christian Thompson]

Wow, the price for lignum has really skyrocketed!


So maybe use some other species for a new sole. (Yeah I know, he doesn't want to put that much work into it, but it's still a thought.)

Heck, just use another piece of Maple.

Or maybe 1/2" of UHMW plastic. (I know, but it sure would slide nice.)


A "reverse hybrid" plane! Wow would that annoy a lot of traditionalists, though.

Definitely not doing plastic :-).

In the end I decided to move the bed back a few inches and start over. The throat front is going to run into the shallow mortise I already started. I'll see what I can figure out to make it not look too weird. Maybe I'll stick some darker wood in there and call it ornamentation.