Have you made any curlies with it yet? Have pics of that? Thanks for posting all the great info and pics!
Have you made any curlies with it yet? Have pics of that? Thanks for posting all the great info and pics!
Andrew, I just used hot rolled mild steel from a local Menards. I have been thinking of buying some 3/16" or 1/4" O1 for making blades. Emco looked like they have pretty good prices. I suspect McMaster-Carr is close in pricing, though I haven't looked to much.
I originally considered making a bevel up shoulder plane. The one thing I liked about a bevel down was that the wedge (or lever cap in this case) is farther forward away from the back. This let the back of the plane be shaped into the curve I wanted. The other thing with a bevel up design is that you have to make plenty of room to turn the blade on its side to be withdrawn from the rear. With the bevel down design, there is enough room to extract the blade through the mouth. I don't think there is anything about the general way the plane is put together that would prevent making it bevel up though. Lowering the ramp angle and moving the bridge such that it would work with a wedge from behind.
For myself, I just like fiddling around and trying to make tools just as something that is enjoyable in and of itself. If it ends up being something useful, than all the better, but if not, I still enjoyed working on an idea. I'm not sure I can compare what I made to something of the quality of the LV shoulder plane, but I say jump in and give it a try.
Hey Jeff,
I just want to reiterate and chime in with all the other folks and say that I really appreciate sharing of this process with us.
It's been both informative and inspirational. I definitely have one more project on my list now! uggh thanks
It's this kind of generosity that makes this cave by the creek one of my favorite places on the internet! Keep it up!
Cheers,
Niels
ps. the same gratitude goes out to ALL the other fellas out there who are willing to share their personal experiences, techniques, and pair of pennies from time to time!
"Aus so krummem Holze, als woraus der Mensch gemacht ist, kann nichts ganz Gerades gezimmert werden."
Few tips I would like to offer..
You can buy pre ground low carbon flat stock at MSC
http://www1.mscdirect.com/eCommerce/...rchandizedOk=Y
This might save a lot of lapping on hot rolled steel..
Scribing a Layout on inside and Center Punching and Pre drilling one side plate might help from drill waking off locations..
For those using a drill press you want to check that your table is extra square to the spindle as well..
I always pre drill rivet holes 1/32-1/16 under size then drill them on size for a tighter fit..
If you use a reamer for sizing the less you leave for reaming the tighter the hole
IE: Say you leave 1/16" to remove with reamer, hole may be .0005 over size.. If you leave 1/64 it may be .0003 under size
It kind of also workes with using another drill..
For rivet holes use a tapered reamer with a .015 deep chamfer to lock in heads of your rivet stock..
You can use a tool much like this
http://www.google.com/products/catal...ed=0CEYQ8wIwBA#
aka rarebear - Hand Planes 101 - RexMill - The Resource
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Finally got around to sharpening the blade a bit and giving it a try. I still need to make a decent iron, but now I also need to come up with project that needs a shoulder plane. Necessity is suposed to be the mother of invention, but sometimes it works the other way around. I need to come up with a project to justify the tool.
Hi Jeff,
Very nice plane and a great and inspiring tutorial.
Thank you,
Chuck
When all else fails increase hammer size!
"You can know what other people know. You can do what other people can do."-Dave Gingery
Wow - well done! I'm glad I stumbled upon this thread.
Jeff,
I greatly appreciate you posting this tutorial, this is so wonderful looking and so well executed. I can't wait to try something like this. I'm sure I am repeating others but you have helped give me confidence to attempt making some of my tools out of metal!
I'd like to ask any of you who have metalworking experience, and I will likely post a new thread in that forum as well, does anyone have a suggestion for a small mill/lathe to produce screws and various parts for planes?
I know that is very open ended but I was hoping someone could suggest a mill/lathe that is known to be reliable. I've seen the unimat sl-1000 and it looks nice if you can find parts etc
DON'T buy a Unimat!!!!!! An Atlas 10" is BAD enough,so you can spend MANY extra hours making parts that could be done a great deal faster on a better lathe. My first metal lathe was a 12" Atlas(Sears) lathe. My next lathe was a Jet 10" belt drive bench lathe. It was infinitely better than the Atlas. You could spend nearly as much on a Unimat as on a 10" Jet. There are many hobbiests out there with limited space,and a fear of any machine with a little weight to it. So,little,lightweight machines always bring more than they are worth,considering the work they are able to barely do.
I advise staying away from those 9" lathes that are also popular. You have to change the gear train often to cut different threads,though they SEEM to have quick change gear boxes. One I tried,that a friend owned,had a TERRIBLY coarse "fine" feed rate. Poorly engineered.