Rabbet plane for cove molding

[Mark Rainey]

Making cove molding by hand. I have to hog off a lot of wood - cherry long grain with some irregular grain. Before I get to the round plane I am running a rabbet over well over one wide & one inch deep. My blue Record 778 is weak for the task. It looks like LN 10 1/4 is made for this. Thoughts?

[lowell holmes]

Lie Nielsen planes are quality planes. IMO, you can't go wrong with them.

[Frederick Skelly]

I haven't used the LN 10 1/4. Seems like a lot of money though. Here's an additional idea you might consider: LV Skew Rabbet. I've been happy with mine.

Hope it helps.
Fred

Edit: If you're not a purist, you could also use a table saw to get ride of SOME of the waste.

[Jim Koepke]

Edit: If you're not a purist, you could also use a table saw to get ride of SOME of the waste.

My guess would be Mark doesn't have access to a table saw. A piece of scrap that big would be worth saving.

My question on this is how much use would you have for a large rabbet plane after this job?

My #10-1/2 (#4 size rabbet plane) doesn't get used a lot, but my luck was good the day it crossed my path (err wallet) at $25. Besides, it comes in handy at times.

jtk

[Mark Rainey]

Thanks Lowell & Fred. I have always wanted the LV skew. It is the same weight as the Record 778 but the iron is 1/8 inch versus 3/32 in the Record. And usually LV is a solid tool. I am getting a used Ulmia Rabbet plane soon. I will give that a try - it has a chip breaker. The LN 10 1/4 looks solid with a nice heft - 5 lbs, chip breaker and around 2 inches of blade. I have to admit with bullwork hogging off wood for cove molding a table saw buy might be next.

[Mark Rainey]

My guess would be Mark doesn't have access to a table saw. A piece of scrap that big would be worth saving.

My question on this is how much use would you have for a large rabbet plane after this job?

My #10-1/2 (#4 size rabbet plane) doesn't get used a lot, but my luck was good the day it crossed my path (err wallet) at $25. Besides, it comes in handy at times.

jtk

True Jim, I do not have a table saw and I usually my Record 778 takes care of my rabbets

[Warren Mickley]

We usually use a plough to excavate waste on this scale. You can come in from two sides with narrow grooves. I think a plough is more versatile for other work also.

I would stay away from figured wood for mouldings.

[Mark Rainey]

We usually use a plough to excavate waste on this scale. You can come in from two sides with narrow grooves. I think a plough is more versatile for other work also.

I would stay away from figured wood for mouldings.

I agree it is best to have straight grain for moldings. Unfortunately when picking out 8/4 cherry at the mill it is hard to see grain patterns fully. And cherry is known for unpredictable grain changes - we will see how it proceeds. Warren, your plow plane approach is intriguing. I am going to try that. Thanks!

[Warren Mickley]

We also often make large coves on the face of a board rather than the corner. In these cases we plow a number of grooves down the face of a board then use a wide round plane to refine the moulding.
moulding_cove.jpg

[Mark Rainey]

Thanks Warren!

[Mike Holbrook]

I have been working with a Veritas Skew Rabbet plane to make 8 raised pannels. My recent post on blow out on end grain corners gets into the issues I had tryng to do a large job with the Skew Rabbet. If I had it to do again I would go with the Veritas Jack Rabbet. Derek Cohen has a great article on the Jack Rabbet on his site/Blog. He concludes that it may be the most versatile plane of all instead of just a tool for making the occasional rabbet or raising pannels. I am a major Veritas plane fan but, there are a number of considerations in regard to the degree of difficulty in setting the Skew Rabbet up and keeping it “tuned”, that in my experience were more challenge than I might have liked. IMHO (in my humble opinion) the Skew Rabbet is not a great tool for large jobs.

The Jack Rabbet, can be used from either side. It has two pre cut wheels. The pre cut wheels appear to be much easier to adjust on the Jack Rabbet. It has all/simpler adjustment features, like the rest of the BU plane line. And it is already a Jack, the most versatile plane type. I would love to have that 6 lbs of plane for heavy work. I have been using my Veritas Custom Jack and it has almost no chatter issues vs the Skew Rabbet.

The Skew Rabbet lacks: a side to side blade adjustment, adjustable mouth, the in & out adjustment is difficult to use, the pre cut wheel is very difficult to set, the blade is very hard to get in & out and hard to adjust, often causing chatter........It might be a great plane for small jobs but, if the job is large requiring: multiple blade sharpenings, fence adjustment, blade adjustment, pre cut wheel adjustment it becomes a PITA, YMMV. I love my little Skew Block plane too but, the fence does not like to stay put....

[Mark Rainey]

Mike, thanks for the advice. I was thinking the same thing. My Record 778 is just too small for hogging off the amount of wood I have to remove & and the skew rabbet is a similar size and mass. I just got a nice Ulmia Rabbet plane from Dave Parkis in the mail yesterday, tuned it up, and it works very nice but still it is too small for the task at hand. I have 3 of these cove moldings to do & I do not want to spend hours. The Veritas jack looks impressive - my only concern is the bevel up iron with no chip breaker. Will the Lie Nielsen 10 1/4 be better for long grain cherry with patches of irregular grain?

[Mark Rainey]

Warren, I liked your idea of coming in from two sides with narrow grooves so I pulled out my Ulmia wood plow plane and began to cut a groove with my 1/8 inch iron. Unfortunately my narrow blade started to bind in the groove as it got deeper. I was surprised by this. Is this frequent when trying to cut deep, narrow grooves? Maybe I will have better luck with a wider iron. Any thoughts on a saw such as a stair makers hand saw or one of those Japanese saws that can start in the middle of a board?

[Dave Parkis]

Mark, have you considered a moving fillister for this task? I don't know how wide you need to rabbet,but a moving fillister should be able to do a rabbet quite a bit wider than the Ulmia rabbet plane you for from me. Just a thought.

[Mark Rainey]

Mark, have you considered a moving fillister for this task? I don't know how wide you need to rabbet,but a moving fillister should be able to do a rabbet quite a bit wider than the Ulmia rabbet plane you for from me. Just a thought.

A possibility but usually the irons are a bit over an inch. The Veritas jack rabbet & LN 10 1/4 are around 2 inches.