Infill Smoothing plane

[Matt Evans]

I built my first infill plane recently. Based on its performance and how much enjoyment I got making it, I have a feeling I'll be making a bunch more.

This was a bit of a learn as you go project, and I did learn quite a bit from the process. I've made planes before, but never dovetailed steel, and had to learn a bit about how the metal moves and how much when you pein it all together.

7 3/4" long, 2 1/8 wide, 3" tall
Blade width 1 3/4, blade is 1/4" thick, 6" long O1 Tool steel.
Mouth is .014" one side, .007" the other side. Still debating as to whether to even it up.
Sides and sole are 1018 steel, 3/16" thick, Dovetail construction
Infill is a nice lightly figured bit of walnut scrap I had in the off cut bin.
Weight: 3 pounds 13.2Oz

I've had the material for several years, just hadn't gotten around to building that first plane yet. Glad I finally did!

Results I have gotten have been beyond anything I was expecting. Endgrain, reversing grain, reversed grain, burl, handles it all very well, better than any plane I've had the pleasure of using in my shop.

[Jim Matthews]

It's beautiful.

Kudos

[Ron Selzer]

Very nice
Ron

[Howard Pollack]

Very impressive. I imagine, but don't know, that the metal work is quite difficult. -Howard

[Mark Rainey]

that is a fine plane

[Matt Evans]

Thanks.

Metal work isn't harder, just more time consuming sometimes.

In many respects woodworking is much harder. I hear machinists bash woodworking occasionally, since tolerances are different with wood and metal, and they are under the impression that you can fix any mistake, error etc with wood.

The reality is that while you can't put wood back, you can put metal back to some degree. Need a steel plate longer? Weld another piece to it. Need a bend? Bending most metal is easy. Metal is uniform, plastic and stable.

Most machinists never think about it, but the dynamic nature of wood means that you have to think about joint and material movement in a much different way than metals.

[Bob Jones 5443]

Where did you find that 1/4" thick plane iron?

[Matt Evans]

Where did you find that 1/4" thick plane iron?

I made the iron. Ordered the materials from speedy metals a few years back.