Making a Wooden Plane
Forming the Plane Bed
In making the plane body, you only need to make few saw cuts, so make them carefully. Use a mitre box if you have it. I generally make the cut with a good handsaw, or freehand it on the bandsaw. You want to make a very close cut to the waste side of the line, but do not cross it.
After you've made the cut, chamfer the forward edge of the bed and clamp it in your bench vise. Set your hand plane for a very fine cut and carefully smooth and square the bed. Check that the bed is flat front to back, side to side, and diagonally. Check that it is perpindicular to the sides. When you're satisfied, lay the iron on the bed and make sure that there is no rocking, or gaps present. This fit can be adjusted once the plane is glued up, but it's much easier to start with everything cut and smoothed accurately. If you have trouble doing this with a hand plane, don't feel bad about resorting to a piece of sandpaper on a flat surface. I just did it with a very small plane that was fighting with me. A hand scraper is also another option, but you'll have to be meticulous to get a truly flat surface just using a scraper. If planing isn't working for you, careful work with a scraper may be the ticket.
We'll need to make a shallow mortise on the bed, in order to allow for the chip breaker attachment screw. For this plane, I cheated. I recently bought a drill press, and I might as well use it. I drilled a series of 3/4" holes, and the chiseled out the waste. While using it helps to justify the purchase, a chisel is probably as quick. All my other planes were merely chiseled out by hand, and I think this great method to use. I wouldn't bother to set up a router or dado blade for it. It seems like you would also have to fabricate some kind of jig to hold the wood safely, and it would defeat the point of keeping things simple.
Once you've made the mortise, compare the bed's position with where it was marked for. Adjust the mouth width, if necessary and saw the curved part with a coping saw (tedious in 2" of hardwood), or using multiple saw cuts with a handsaw.
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Steve Spodaryk
Medford, MA
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article
12.10.2008
- Making a Wooden Plane
Introduction
Tools
The Iron
The Chipbreaker
Wood
Marking Out the Blank 1
Marking Out the Blank 2
Forming the Plane Bed
Drilling the Pin Holes
Making the Pin
Test Fit
Glue Up
Post Glue Cleanup
Adjusting the Mouth
Making the Wedge
Test Run
Shaping the Plane Body
Troubleshooting
Advanced Topics
- Making a Wooden Plane
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