6 oz fast attack block plane

[Leigh Betsch]

I built this 6 ounce low angle (12 degree) fast attack block plane to go with my 10 lb battleship smoother. The body is held to the sole with a sliding dovetail. The blade has depth and lateral adjustment. The mouth has a sliding toe for mouth adjustment. Now I just need to make a couple of nice knobs to replace the screws.

[Bill Houghton]

That is a RADICAL plane!

[Alex Shanku]

Thats amazing!! :eek:

This is going to be a great thread!

[James G. Jones]

Wow Leigh, that looks really, really cool. Can you post some shots in action? I love the design. How did you come up with it?

James

[Alan DuBoff]

Very nice little plane.

Any more info on how you built it? What type of materials?

Did you mill the dovetails?

Looks handy!

[Leigh Betsch]

thanks guys. I'm heading to Itay for a few weeks, don't know how good my internet connection will be. I'll post some answers latter.

[Zahid Naqvi]

talk about thinking outside of the box. This is very innovative, I'd be curious to know how it works.

[Leigh Betsch]

I wanted a small plane just for quick edge chamfers and stuff so I just made one. The sole and mouth piece are mild steel, the body and toe are aluminum. I would have liked to used brass but I didn't have any brass stock that was big enough so I used what I had. I made the blade a while back, A2 Rc 60/62. I used a 45 dovetail cutter to mill the dovetails. The screws wedge the body against the dovetails to tighten everything down. By using the dovetails I didn't have to drill and tap through the sole, so I don't have any through holes in the sole to catch and hang up on the board edges. I tapped two 4x40 set screws into the sole sides to adjust the lateral position of the blade and use a 8x32 set screw to adjust the blade depth. Fine tuning the depth of cut is very easy. I didn't take any pics of me making it cause, well this is a wood working forum not a metal working forum.
It works great, I'll post a working pick when I get back home. I have a jack plane and a shoulder plane in mind for the next couple of metal projects, after the holidays. Anyone know what a good plane angle would be for a jack plane, bevel up or bevel down?