Wooden plane question

[Mike Henderson]

Has anyone made a wooden plane from good plywood, maybe like Baltic birch? Seems it would be a stable wood for a plane. The sole could be laminated with another wood, like lignum vita, to keep the plywood glue lines from being the wearing surface. And the wedge could be any wood you like.

And if you didn't like the plywood look on the sides, you could laminate some cosmetic wood on the sides.

Any thoughts on this?

Mike

[mike holden]

Mike,
In theory it would work fine.
But it seems to be a solution in search of a problem.
Given the longevity of wooden planes, wood stability does not seem to be a problem as long as the wood is chosen carefully and built with the proper grain orientation.
What is the concern that plywood is the answer to?
Mike

[Mike Henderson]

Mike,
In theory it would work fine.
But it seems to be a solution in search of a problem.
Given the longevity of wooden planes, wood stability does not seem to be a problem as long as the wood is chosen carefully and built with the proper grain orientation.
What is the concern that plywood is the answer to?
Mike
Good point. I was thinking about the wood movement over time and the sole going out of flat, especially as the humidity changes. Plywood is very stable compared to even the best selected solid wood.

Would our ancestors have used plywood if it had been available? Should we use it now that it's available?

I guess that's the questions I'm asking your opinions on.

Mike

[Jose Kilpatrick]

My first thought....
If you do make this plane out of plywood, and it turns out to be a reallly great tool, and its something you would like to pass down a generation or two, and something you would like to think is still being used 100 years from today, then I would ask myself if I would want it to be made from plywood, or from something more cherishable.

[Ken Werner]

Mike, I think about some of the rifles I've seen with plywood stocks. They're supposed to be strong and stable, but I think they're ugly. If it were me, I'd go for the esthetics of a solid wooden plane over the potential advantages of plywood. On the other hand, I like the way you think. It's a cool idea.

All the best,
Ken

[Ray Gardiner]

Hi Mike,

You might like to read this article, it goes into some depth covering all of the issues you might encounter.

http://www.planemaker.com/articles_beech.html


Regards
Ray

[Wilbur Pan]

I can think of one big disadvantage of plywood being used to make a wooden plane. At some point in making a wooden plane, you'll have to fit the cavity to the blade. Using a chisel to pare away at a cavity in the middle of a bunch of glued up plywood would get old pretty fast, I would think. And with my luck, any plywood plane I made would get just to the point where the blade fit the best just as I pared away one of the plys and had the glue surface exposed.

[Joel Goodman]

I believe the rifle stocks referred to are laminated wood in epoxy -- sort of like the boatbuilding as pioneered by the Gougeon brothers (who started West System Epoxy) as opposed to commercial plywood.

[Ken Werner]

Joel, I think you are correct. I was referring to plywood, more as a laminated wood product in appearance than as commercial plywood. But I still think the stuff is ugly when used in an application that has traditionally been a single piece of wood.

[Steve knight]

stability is not a big issue as others say if you are careful with wood. Plus if you don't move the plane out of your shop much.
I know when I started making planes I had all these problems I wanted to solve. but after thousands of planes later those things did not seem that big of a deal. I could improve the issues but they could never really be solved because they are just part of the tool.
gluing a sole on is where instability can happen.
use some good dried purpleheart and that sucker will be pretty stable.

[mike holden]

If you really want to do a downtown job in plywood, consider getting some of the mahogany plywood that patternmakers use. This is solid mahogany plies, not just veneer over whitewood. I can be had in two forms, one with each plies grain going in the same direction, the other with the plies crossed.
When we used to "cube" up a car i.e. take all the components of the body and put them together, it would empty the shop as we all stood and admired the vehicle in the gorgeous mahogany stripes - then we would be shooed away, and the whole thing painted flat black for the stylist's review :(
Always said that if they could make a real car that looked like that I would buy it.
In any case, mahogany ply would solve both the warpage and looks issues.
Mike