First Infill Project

[Randy Klein]

This winter I want to try and tackle an infill plane. I want to poll the masses as to ideas on an "easy" one to try.

I have the Shop Notes shoulder plane article that shows how to build a shoulder plane. It seems like a good article and a rather straight forward process. Has anyone built it and can comment?

Is there any other sources for plans and procedures available? My metalworking experience is close to zero, but I'm willing to learn.

[Raney Nelson]

First one I did was a body based on the Holtey 11-s style. http://www.holteyplanes.com/
It's fairly small, as simple a structure as an infill gets, and the infill itself is pretty simple to fit. Plus it works like the dickens... if you bed at 60 degrees, with a 30 degree bevel the blade can be reversed and used as a scraper plane as well. Kinda gimmicky if you ask me, but hey... it's a neat idea.

'The metalworking involved is not nearly as daunting as I thought it might be. Just make sure you understand the dovetail cutting/filing process pretty well - you might want to do a small practice one first.

Ron Brese has also just started selling a kit plane in a similar form - he uses a rivet technique to join the sides and sole rathre than dovetails, but it looks to be an excellent kit and the price is very good. This would let you get to do the 'fun' parts without too much metalworking, if you prefer. www.breseplane.com (http://www.breseplanes.com)

edit to add sources for instructions: handplane central has a lot of decent articles, including a basic cutting dovetail tutorial and basic file kit (www.handplane.com (http://www.handplane.com)). There is a gentleman who wrote up a couple of infills he made. He did them with a CNC, but no matter - the process is the same with hacksaw and files. You just serve as the computer and the robot.

http://www.xmission.com/~jry/ww/tools/jy-panel/jy-panel.html (http://www.xmission.com/%7Ejry/ww/tools/jy-panel/jy-panel.html)
http://www.xmission.com/~jry/ww/tools/a13/a13.html (http://www.xmission.com/%7Ejry/ww/tools/a13/a13.html)

Also, Jim Kingschott has a book on making and modifying woodworking tools that has instructions. It's difficult to find, but is supposed to be relatively complete. I haven't managed to find a copy.

Have fun!

[Randy Klein]

I jumped over to the hotley site and that looks like a nice one to do as well. I do have a question though. What is meant by this statement, taken from his site:

"Unlike planes from the past a tubular spacer, through which the pin passes, is used between the cheeks. Therefore any shrinkage in the wood does not upset the metal body."

I'm having a hard time envisioning it.

[Ron Brese]

Randy,

The cross pin is used to maintain the dimension of the width of the body in the event that the wooden infill reduces in size due to shrinkage. It is actually a piece of tubing. The pin that actually holds the assembly together is passed thru the interior of this tubing and the outside of the pin is peined to hold everything fast.

In a small plane that utilizes a 1.5" wide iron it is debated as to whether enough movement would occur in well seasoned timber to justify adding this feature to the plane. As the width of the plane increases it is quite an essential part of the assembly.

Of course like most things, there is more than one way to accomplish this task, and you don't necessarily have to use metal tubing. A wooden cross dowel in the infill could easily suffice and would possibly be more easily accomplished by a first time plane builder.

Ron Brese

[Raney Nelson]

OK - here's my understanding: you have a metal channel enclosing the infill wood, and that channel i secured around the wood with a long riveted rod. The problem is that as the wood shrinks across the width of the plane, the sides can go with it, warping the plane a bit, or even unseating the rivets...

The solution is to put a sleeve over the rivet, so that if the infill shrinks, the sleeve still keeps the sidewall separation consistent distance. You may develop a gap between the infill and sidewall, but structurally the sidewall (and sole) should remain in good shape.

If you have a very stable piece of infill material, I don't think this is a required feature - for a smoother or panel, the sidewalls don't necessarily need to be perpendicular to the sole, and if there is a bit of warping over time you can lap it out. I don't think any of the Norris, Spiers, Mathiesons, etc used them. I think this is a relatively recent addition.


oops - Ron beat me to it, and with a better explanation to boot!

[Randy Klein]

That all makes sense now. Thanks for the the clarifications.

[Rod Wolfy]

Randy,

A couple of links for you:
http://legacyplanes.com/ A new site that I found via Christopher Schwarz blog.

http://www.stjamesbaytoolco.com/ A company that's been around for a few years. Fine Woodworking had an article in issue #181, where one of the editors built one of their planes. I currently have a #51 on order to build in the next couple of months.

Rod