Originally Posted by
David Weaver
Mike, here's what I had to start (raney nelson sent me a brass blank (actually he sent me a whole bunch of stuff) - a chunk of raw square brass that was tapped, so I didn't need a tap - you'll need a tap to thread a blank if you don't have that).
raney nelson told me what size and type of plane to start with, and the rest of it is peppered with my thoughts on doing it easily, and some of raneys.
I would make a plane with a 1 1/2 inch iron to start, because you can get precision ground stock 2 inches wide and have enough to do it. You can vary from this, but this makes it easy and the first plane is quick, then when you're comfortable with it you can build bigger planes that take a lot longer.
Check with the iron makers or make your own, but match the iron thickness with the sole so that you don't need an insert or bedding block when you fit it.
* A 3/16th bottom and 3/16th iron is nice and makes a very nice performer.
* match that with 1/8th thick sides
* some 1/4th brass or mild steel rod for pins.
* a knurled screw - either a homely one like the one in a picture that I put elsewhere, which can be gotten for about $8 from mcmaster carr, or a nice made brass one (I might have something you could have that would work).
A brass blank to cut down, 2" wide and half an inch thick (that costs money, no way around it, but you'll have enough for a couple of planes, even if you find it in 6" length)
There is a tutorial on dovetails at handplane.com, but i don't know that there's top to bottom tutorials on making planes by hand, and even if there are, you'll need to feel your way through it a little.
I personally using hand tools like O1 better than mild steel, and O1 is available precision ground in tons of sizes and cheaper than brass. It is easy to comb cut O1 - very easy.
Tools that I used that I had to buy:
* A good hacksaw that has a solid back and a strong tensioner (I got a lenox, any brand that meets that is fine). I had hacksaws, but not good ones
* I ground the very edges off of a taper saw file to get a good file to go into the corners of the pins and tails.
* I also ground the side teeth off of an 8" mill bastard file to make a safe edge file for the mouth and filing between the pins down to the baselines
* A $5 good quality carbide scribe (the sharper the better)
* a round file small diameter for cutting a groove in the top of the lever cap (instead of retaining it by screws - makes it a lot easier to tune the lever cap to the iron when you're fitting everything)
* I also got a cheap optical center punch. It's not necessary, but it really makes it easy to nail your punch marks when you need them.
* a decent ball pein hammer with some weight - O1 is a bit tougher to pein than mild steel and brass are
* I couple of cheap chinesse drill bits to waste / break on the plane mouth, getting it opened up enough to get a file in is all you need to do.
I wasted a few chinese made drill bits to cut the hole for the mouth, broke a couple off. Cheaper than getting the right tool, and once enough of the mouth is opened up, you can go to the files to open things the rest of the way.
See derek cohen's tutorial on the brese kit. You are looking to make a plane exactly like that except you're making everything, and doing dovetails. No curves, and the infills are flush fit unless you want to overstuff them. It's a plane you can build in probably 15 hours or a little more, so it's quick, and when you're done it's very useful.
For layout with the pins and tails, you just locate the mouth and then go from there with what makes sense. Only deviation I'd do from Derek's plane is go with 55 degrees, it's plenty steep for what we have over here, and if the mouth is tight (shooting for 4 thousandths or so is nice) it will be almost impossible to get tearout with it.
If you go after all of this, let me know, and we'll talk about the bed and what the iron should touch on the steel sole, and where it should touch on the wood and how the lever cap should fit so that you get a plane that is both very solid, and that adjusts predictably (i.e, you don't want to tap it in the middle of the back and then only have the left side of the move, which will happen if there is more tension on the left side than the right).
Oh, and if you don't have a belt sander, some coarse files to shape the lever cap.
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