Hand made Infill plane (woodwork)

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A little sneak peek so far, there has been a lot of filing and I've not even got onto the steel work yet!

End dovetails
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Bridge cupid bow, only half done.

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Finally finished the bridge.

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I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I can start to assemble the body of the plane now.

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I've still got the sole of the plane to make yet and there is a lot of work involved with that, even more so than the body.
 
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I've started work on the sole and its tough going!

CpVh5zO.jpg

These are the initial cuts that start to form the mouth. There was a lot of filing involved after.

Here you can see the sole is made from two pieces of steel with the mouth cut into the left hand piece and the relief cut onto the right hand piece.
There is also a V joint which aligns both pieces together.
Doesn't look much but there was a lot of work involved.

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Looking good. Is that so you can adjust the front mouth? I can already tell this is going to be an amazing plane when it's done!

Your work is making me want to get into some metal work. I'm a joiner, but kinda wishing i'd gone into engineering when i left school now. I have been watching some videos recently on Youtube with cnc milling and lathes and it is fascinating.

I just ordered a couple of planes and vices a few days ago from ebay. Nothing like as good as yours, but wanted to get some made in England Record and Stanley smoothing/jack planes in good condition, as I currently just have a Chinese made Record and it's pretty naff.
 
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Cheers Mark

Is that so you can adjust the front mouth?

No, the plane will have a fixed sole so no adjustment. What set Mitre planes apart from other planes was the incredibly small mouth opening.
The mouth on a recent Stanley or Record plane might be 5-6mm wide if not more, the mouth on a mitre plane is only 1-2mm. Typically mitre planes where used to take very fine final shavings or plane end grain.

To get a mouth this tight by hand you can really only achieve it by making the sole in two pieces. Traditionally there was a tongue and groove joint to align the two pieces but I thought a V joint would be easier, I was wrong :)

Engineering is appealing to me too, I'm a furniture maker but like to try my hand at different things, I just enjoy making things I guess.

Can't go wrong with a well looked after "older" Stanley plane.
Like you say the new stuff is probably made in china and not any where near as good quality.

I'd take a good condition second hand plane over a brand new one any day, Unless it's a premium maker like Clifton, Veritas, Lie Nielsen etc.

After that you're moving into bespoke planes like Lazarus, Holtey, Sauer & Steiner, Oliver sparks, etc
But you need very deep pockets for one of those!
 
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Finally the sole dovetails are "nearly" done. I could at last do a test fit of the sole onto the body.
Getting the two pieces of the sole to align and make the dovetails a tight fit has been a pain staking task.
It was a case of fine adjustments to each dovetail with a file then test fitting after each try.
All I need to do now is fine adjust the depth of the dovetails to get the sole to seat flat, again lots of test fits until it's right.

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The split dovetail with the mouth opening had to be a perfect fit. Too tight and it will distort the body, too loose would cause gaps in the V joint and play in the mouth.

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Amazingly it's come out really well with a mouth opening of just under 1mm.
I may have to open this up a little yet but I'd like to keep it under 1.5mm if possible, the finer the mouth the finer a shaving it should produce but too small and the plane won't take a cut at all.

ymT5qx1.jpg

I've still to shape the sole and a few other things but after that is the dreadful task of peening it all together, Wish me luck.
 
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I know what you mean now about the small opening :eek:.


@famas I hope you don't mind me asking you a quick question as you seem to know your stuff. I just bought an old Record no4 plane on ebay and it's in really good condition, apart from the depth adjuster lever looks to be bent. You don't happen to know what material they're made from and if it would be possible to bend it back with vice grips?

aQUBrqo.jpg.png

It appears to be a 1940 ish Record plane and considering the age it looks in great condition.
 
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Are you referring to the bent "Y lever" arm on the left of the brass thumb screw?

Indeed I'd be cautious on bending it cold if its a 1940's plane.

If it's functional I'd be inclined to leave it.

If not I'd remove the pivot pin with a small punch to release the Y lever from the frog then heat it with a torch and apply very gentle pressure to try and bend it back.

If it does break you can buy a replacement but it will probably require some fettling to get it to fit nicely.

https://www.flinn-garlick-saws.co.uk/acatalog/Y-Lever-for-Stanley-Record-Bench-Planes-502.html

People often fit thicker blades to their planes and in doing so the Y lever is not long enough to reach through the blade and fit into the notch in the cap iron, so longer Y levers are available to get over this problem
 
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Thanks, yes the Y lever is the part. It does seem to work ok, but i'd be much happier if it was a better fit. Oh wow, I didn't know you could still buy them, thanks for that. I might try and bend it first using heat and if that fails I'll buy a replacement. I was going to take this as the perfect opportunity to get into some metal working and try and make one.
 
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You can often find them on ebay if your search for hand plane spares.

Brass seems to be a popular choice if you where to make a new one, would be a good project too.
 
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Absolutely stunning mate. I read the thread from start to finish last night, such impressive work. It might be about a plane but this project is anything but plain!
You know what I would love to have seen as an extra finishing touch... that logo you created put onto the carrying box, maybe in gold, silver or just embossed into the black. :)
 
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Thanks Merlin, funnily enough I did try to electro etch the logo into a piece of brass that I was then going to inlet into the side of the box but unfortunately it didn't work on brass, guessing brass isn't conductive enough?

I then asked my friend with the laser cutter to laser me a tag I could inlay in the same way but he never got round to it.
I'd like to get it done so might get onto him again, it would add a nice finishing touch to the box.
 
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I've taken some short video clips of the progress so far and started to put them into a video.

It's nothing fancy, just sped up clips and a few short descriptions of what I've been doing along the way.
Might be interesting to some of you.

 
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@ratface @famas Thanks a lot for the help guys. I stripped the paint off it with acetone then heated it on my hob for a few mins, then bent it with my vice grips and it bent back really easy. I am wondering if its actually cast steel, rather than cast iron? It's a bit too good a fit now, so i'll have to fine tune it with some files.

Also had a watch of your video and gave it a like. It really shows how much work went into it that you don't get from a picture.
 
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Glad you got it sorted Mark, it could be cast steel. Often seen them broken on newer planes as they are probably made from pot metal.

I'm working on video 2 at the moment so should be up soon.

I've just started making the wooden infills for the plane. I've gone with Millettia laurentii "wenge" as I had a spare piece from another job, its very hard and dense so should make perfect infills.
It's really hard on tools mind, blunts saws and chisels in no time.


U7mOgT0.jpg
 
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Finished the second video which I've just uploaded now.

The plane is coming along, both infills are made and I'm just working on the wedge now.

Got to wait a week for so for the tool steel to arrive then I can start making the blade.

 
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Got the wedge finished this evening just got to sand it up. Worked a cupids bow into the bottom of it too which complements the bow in the bridge nicely.
Wenge dust leaves a really nasty taste in my mouth so masks on when sanding, not as bad as Iroko though the dust of which feels like inhaling razor blades!


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