Hand made Infill plane (woodwork)

[famas]

Hi all, I know a lot of you are interested in build projects so I thought I'd start a thread on something I've been wanting to make for a long time.

It's nice to document the progress and have an on-line diary of how things are going. Any support will drive me onto the finish too.

I use hand planes every day and I've always lusted after a high quality bespoke plane, like a Lazarus, Holtey, Bill Carter etc but the price of these planes can go into the thousands and my pockets just aren't deep enough.

So making one is the next best thing. The only trouble is I've never done a day of metal work in my life.
Woodwork yes but metal work is a whole other ball game.
So how well this project will turn out is any ones guess.

I've done a fair few hours research into making infill planes and am confident in the process...mostly.
I've taken a lot of inspiration from Carter's and Lazurus planes, both makers are at the pinnacle of their career and the planes they produce are amazing.

So i think the best thing to do is get stuck in!

First things first I ordered some 4mm CZ108 brass 300mm long by 100mm wide.



I then cut it in half on the band saw.



I made a paper template of the sides of the plane working out the dovetail spacing.



And again cut them roughly on the band saw.



That little lot was enough for one evening.

As I'll only be working on the plane in the evenings its going to be a lengthy project but I'll keep this thread updated as and when more is done.

 

[famas]

Cheers guys.

The iron is way off yet but I'm probably looking at getting some 01 tool steel. Seems readily available and fairly easy to work.
Should also add I'm trying to keep costs to a minimum just in case it all goes Pete Tong.

 

[famas]

After cutting the dovetails roughly on the band saw I spent the next 3 hours filing them.
This was tedious work as the tails had to be square bottomed and as straight as possible, getting into the corners was difficult.
Any miss shaped tails would result in gaps later on.

I later found out that grinding the teeth off one side of a triangular file greatly helps in getting sharp clean corners. It did indeed make the job a lot easier and the results where far better than using a half round file.



After 3 hours they are still not quite finished but the majority is done.

After that I marked out and started cutting the sole of the plane from a piece of 6mm mild steel.



I've since learnt that 01 tool steel is a far better choice for the sole as it is accurately machined and harder.

The mild steel was freely available at the time so I went with it. It should be a little easier to cut and file over tool steel.

Time does fly when you're having fun and my allocated time was up for the day.

 

[famas]

It's going to fly about as well as a chicken

 

[famas]

thanks for the link Touch, have seen a fair few of clickspring's vids, it's where I found out about grinding the file.
He's a great source of information for fine metalwork. His work is going to put mine to shame

I had planned to flatten the sole towards the end of the build. We have a large over hand planer that has a solid cast bed that's nice and flat. I'm planning to use that as the base for the abrasive.

 

[famas]

I finished cutting out the sole and rounded the ends with a file.



Next was to mark out the pins onto the sole. I used blue marker and a scribe to make the lines easier to see.
I also screwed the brass sides to a block of wood to keep them from moving when marking the pins.



Then I carefully cut to my scribe lines using a hacksaw and 24tpi blade. The mild steel wasn't too bad to cut. Not easy but easier than some Wenge wood I was cutting a week before.



After that I took the sole over to the pillar drill and drilled a series of holes along the waste line. Had to be careful not to drill past the waste line as this would have resulted in cutting all of them to the lowest point which would have been a lot of work.
Thankfully it all went well.



And that was time again for another day.

 

[famas]

Sorry, should have made it clearer in the first post as to what I'm trying to make.

This is an English Norris infill plane made in the early 1900



Some of them date back to before then.

Briefly
Norris infill planes where the Rolls Royce of planes and Norris was one of the first to introduce lateral blade adjustment. Before this adjustment to the blade was done by hitting the blade with a hammer to either increase or decrease the depth of cut, or by hitting the side of the blade to adjust it laterally.

Early Norris planes are collector items now, Rare planes command a high price tag with Norris mitre planes going into the tens of thousands.

Makers like Carter and Holtey follow the traditional Norris style while Lazarus planes are more modern in design. Lazarus has also made his own unique blade adjustment mechanism.

I'm hoping my plane will be a nice mixture of tradition with a twist of modern design too.

Lazarus planes are beautiful and made to perfection. His planes are what inspired me to start making one.

 

[famas]

With the holes drilled along the waste line I then used a junior hacksaw to cut out the remaining waste



Then was the slow task of carefully filing to the scribe lines. I picked up a tip of rubbing chalk onto the file to stop it from clogging, this neat trick really helps.



I'm finding much like wood it takes a lot of patience to hand work steel, just one stroke to many with the file can easily put you under the scribe line.
It took another two and a half to three hours to file all of the dovetails.

With all of the dovetails filed I could try a first test fit.



I'm pleased with how they have gone together so far but there is a little more refinement to do.
Swapping over to needle files to get the corners nice and sharp should do the trick.



Now for a weekend break, my arms ache.

 

[famas]

With the dovetails nearly finished I started work on the mouth of the plane.
Because I'm planning to make a single blade plane (no chip breaker) the mouth opening is critical, too small and the shaving with jam causing the plane not to work.
To large will increase the risk of chatter and the inability to create fine shavings.
I'm be cautious and cutting the mouth small as I'm not quite sure yet how the blade will seat. This wont be apparent until the body is made and the wooden infill is fitted.

I marked out the mouth and centre punched a series of holes.



took it over to the pillar drill and drilled out the holes.



With a hand drill I elongated one of the holes enough to fit a hacksaw blade in.



I cut away as much of the waste as possible to my scribe lines.

Then came the task of filing the mouth, as you can guess this took a while!

I know I'm going to bed the blade at 55 degrees so had to file a bevel on the mouth to match it.



With the mouth opening only being 4mm wide it was difficult to fit a file in straight let alone angled over at 55 degrees.
Luckily I managed to find a very thin file which I started with then once the majority of the bevel was done I could get a larger file in.

Needle files came in handy to finish the corners and I was always being cautious not to open the mouth any bigger than the scribe lines.



Thankfully after a good few hours it was done....for now.
I know I will have to adjuster it later down the line but that's enough for one evening.

 

[famas]

Thanks for the comments guys

Compass planes are pretty tricky to get right.
My boss has a very old wooden compass plane with an adjustable sole, it's incredible to think it was all made by hand with no machines.

Let's say I've cut a fair few dovetsils in wood, the technique is transferable to metal but it does seem more time consuming.

 

[famas]

With the majority of the mouth done I turned my attention back to the dovetails.

I spent a while making sure the corners where clean and sharp and that the bottoms where filed to my scribe lines. Getting them as accurate as possible will help later when I come to peen them shut.

Then I had a big decision to make.

Early English mitre planes had a decorative feature called a Cupids bow. Often shown on the wooden wedge or on the infill and sometimes carried over above the dovetails on rare planes.

Bill Carter likes to add them to his planes and if done well look beautiful.

To say a novice trying them is ambitious is an understatement. Even a competent metal worker can find them challenging.
Cutting them accurately is one thing but the hard part is peening the metal into the cuts. Something I've never done before and have zero experience in...... but as the saying goes nothing ventured nothing gained.

I had a practice on some scrap metal to start with. The first attempt on the left didn't go well but the second attempt on the right worked out better.



You can see why it's called a Cupids bow now.

With a few more practice tries done I went for it and started to cut one on the brass.



I used a triangular file for the centre point and a round files for the curves. I first cut the point in the middle of the dovetail. Then i start to create the curves equally on each side.



Once I'm happy with the placement and depth of the point and curves I round over the flats to finish the bow.



After a little more refinement with needle files to the bow and dovetail its finished.

Then rinse and repeat for the rest of the dovetails on both sides and sole of the plane.



I understand why this is a challenging task now. It takes huge amounts of patience and concentration to get them looking accurate and uniform.



This took over 2 evenings to finish and I'm only half way through.

 

[famas]

This was exactly my concern too.

I've cut the bows into the steel on the sole also. My plan is to peen the brass into the steel bows on the sole but leave the brass bows on the sides of the plane exposed (unfilled).
Some of the older planes are like this and it's also something Carter does.

Like you say the steel is harder to peen than brass, hopefully.

I'm quickly learning nothing about this project is easy

 

[famas]

Now the Cupid bows are cut I can start to shape the plane sides.

I used double sided tape to fix the two halves together then stuck my paper template onto that.

I then cut the shape out on the band saw



I then went over the shape with files to clean it up. I won't bother getting it exactly right at this point as I'll be sanding it later once the wooden infill is made and fitted.



Finally the plane is taking on some sort of shape!



That's all for this evening as time got away from me.

Next up is the part I'm most dreading, peening.

 

[famas]

Now that the plane sides have been cut to shape I can permanently fix them to the sole.

This is done by peening the metal surfaces together to create a tight fit that will not come apart.

I started by machining a piece of wood to the exact internal dimension of the sole. I made sure it was straight and square as this will help to hold the sides of the plane square when i peen them.
I fixed the piece of wood inside of the plane body and secured it in place with G cramps and screws.



It's make or break time, this is either going to go well or totally ruin all of the work so far leaving me with no choice but to scrap what I've done and start again.

I needed to peen the side dovetails first as this will drive the sole of the plane tight onto the sides.

I secured the plane into my bench vice and fixed a G-cramp around the dovetail I was working on. This was to help keep the metal from spreading outwards.
I then used a combination of metal punches to try and drive the metal into the cupid bows.

I found that working from the outer edge towards the centre helped to get the brass where it needed to go.



Filling the bow part was hard enough but trying to drive the brass all the way to the point of the cupid bow was incredibly difficult.

I found the hammering force needed was far greater than I had imagined and I was getting a lot of bounce from my bench vice making it even harder work.
I tried hammering on top of an anvil but found the plane would bounce even worse. At least with it held in a vice it left both hands free to work.

Here you can see that the bows are filled but I still need to drive the brass in to the point.



I also found that while brass is quite soft it's also brittle. On a few occasions small pieces would crack and break off as can be seen on the right of the first dovetail.



I knew this stage was going to be tough but it was much more difficult than I had anticipated. The bounce from my vice was hindering progress and my poor technique certainly wasn't helping either.
But I persevered, wedging a large bit of wood under my vice as a leg helped to take some of the bounce away and with each dovetail my technique was improving until they where all done.



All I had to do now was peen the steel dovetails on the side of the plane.

I thought I'd have no chance of getting it done, brass is softer than steel and that's been a nightmare but to my surprise the steel seemed easier to peen than the brass.
I used the same technique of clamping the plane in the vice and working from the outside in to drive the dovetail up tight.

With all of the peening done it was time to file away the surplus metal and flatten the sides to reveal the results.
I used a mixture of files to remove the bulk of the waste then fixed 60 grit sand paper to the bed of our over hand planer.
It has a solid cast iron bed which is very sturdy and nice and flat.

thankfully the side dovetails where looking good



And after a lot of filing and sanding the sole dovetails could be seen.







In total with filing and sanding this stage alone took around 5 hours and while they are not perfect I'm pretty happy with the results for my first attempt.
There are some gaps that I'm not happy with but the majority of them came up well.

The project still has a long way to go but I've learnt so much already from it. It's been hard work but rewarding too. I was most apprehensive of this stage and I'm glad its done, I don't think my arms could have taken much more hammering

 

[famas]

Thanks for the comments guys I really appreciate it.

I think the brittleness of the brass is probably due to work hardening. It gets harder and more brittle the more you hammer on it and move it around. Could try annealing it with a torch but i'm not sure how that would work with the 2 different metals. Different expansion/contraction rates between them might cause some more gaps? Looks like it's turned out really well for you anyway.

I didn't know that about brass. It makes sense now, it seemed to get harder the more I went on.
I'm considering trying to fill the gaps with silver solder. Again not done any brazing before so I'm not sure yet.
My main concern with adding heat is it might warp the sole which would potentially ruin the plane.

Have you gotta do the same thing with the steel (force into the “bow and point”)

I'm leaving the cupid bows on the side of the plane unfilled. I had always intended to do it like this and didn't leave enough steel to peen any way.

That's really impressive work mate, I'd buy you a beer for the satisfaction I've got watching it happen!

Thank you still have a long way to go yet.

 

[famas]

Thanks for all of the positive comments chaps they are really helping me to push on and get this project finished.

 

[famas]

Finally with the sides and sole secured I can move onto the wooden in fill.

Traditionally Box wood, Rose wood and Ebony where the most popular choice for metal infill planes.
Unfortunately these woods are hard to come by now and if you do find a piece there is a high price tag to go along with it.
Wooden moulding planes where normally made from Oak and some from Beech or Ash.
Many different woods have been used for plane making but these where the most popular.

The main criteria for the infill is that its strong, Tight grained straight timber that's been seasoned well.

We have a nice variety of woods at work but one of my favourites is Hard Maple.
Beautifully white in colour with dark cathedrals. Its very tight grained and strong, just right for an infill.
I was even luckier that we had a piece with some "birds eye" in which is stunning when polished.

Only down side is it wasn't thick enough so I had to glue two bits together.



Here you can see some of the "birds eye" figuring in the grain.



Once the glue had set I planed the Maple so it was a tight fit into the plane body.

Then cut away the excess on the band saw. Hard Maple living up to its name is tough to cut even with a band saw. Though the blade was a bit dull after cutting all the brass.



With the waste taken away I made a simple jig to hold the plane and infill so I could machine it.



On the over head router I used a twin flute bearing cutting to trim the Maple down flush with the brass sides.
I had to take a cut from each side as the cutter wasn't long enough to do it in one pass.



Maple machines beautifully and I was left with a clean, crisp cut.

I was unsure how I wanted to finish the ends of the plane but in the end settled with a round which I again cut on the band saw.



After some more filing and sanding the profile is complete. Hurrah!

 

[famas]

Next up is the Tote.

Lazarus planes incorporate metal into the tote, something I've not seen before. I like them so much I wanted to add something similar to my plane.

After much deliberation I settled on a design I liked then made a paper/MDF template.
I wanted some thing that looked traditional but with a modern twist.



From there I used the template to cut out two pieces in Cherry wood (another favourite of mine) and one in Maple.



Then I used the template to mark out the rest of tote onto a piece of 12mm aluminium.
I used the pillar drill to make a series of holes around the lines.



With all the holes drilled all I had to do was cut it out.



Which I did with a hacksaw.



It took a little while, I had to use a junior hacksaw to get round the tighter curves.



From there I fixed the two Cherry wood pieces to the aluminium with double sided tape. Because the aluminium is soft I could use a oscillating bobbin sander to clean up the outside of the tote in one go. This saved a lot of work sanding a filing by hand.



I want the tote to be a stand out feature of the plane so wanted something bold looking.
I also wanted to shape the tote to fit my hand perfectly and include a palm rest, this is something you don't often see on production planes as they have to cater for many different hand shapes and sizes.

I used a mixture of rasps and files to start shaping the tote.



Adding in the palm rest first. I was constantly checking the tote in my hand to make sure it was a comfortable fit and adjusting where needed.



The right hand side was getting there, just needs to be sanded through the grits.



I also added a thumb indentation on the left side.



The rear view shows the contours of the tote well. I'm pleased with how it turn out, it fits my hand perfect and is very comfortable.



I've still got to cut and fit the maple piece and sand it all the way up to finish but first I have to fit the aluminium to the infill.


I'm out of time for today though.

 

[famas]

Thanks for the comment.

The extra piece of maple is for the top of the tote. The aluminium wasn't big enough to fill the centre of the tote so I'll use the piece of maple to make up the difference.
I had planned to do it like this anyway as I wanted the top of the tote to be all wood but I wasn't sure how much aluminium I wanted on show so just cute a whole piece of maple out.

 

[famas]

Next I could fit the aluminium part of the tote to the maple infill.

I marked it out and drilled a series of holes in the maple.



I then used a gents saw to cut out the remaining waste.



And finally chisels to get a tight fit



The aluminium is sitting proud of the maple at the moment but this will get filed flush once the tote is fitted to the infill.



Next I used epoxy to glue the cherry sides and maple top to the aluminium.



Once the epoxy had cured I sanded the tote up to an initial 240 grit.



With that the tote is pretty much complete and ready to be fitted to the infill but there is a lot more to do before that.





I'm pretty happy with how the tote turned out. I like the balance of metal and wood, it's comfortable and its a large feature of the plane almost to the point of being over powering but that's what I was aiming for.

Next up is the front knob.