Hand made Infill plane (woodwork)

[famas]

In your first post you said you'd never done any metal work!?
You must be a natural then, it's looking fantastic, I can't wait to see what the final result is!

Thank you, nor can I!

Indeed this is my first metal work project of this level.

I've done some basic metal work over the years. Not that I'd even call it real metal work, resizing bolts, filing escutcheons etc. Very basic stuff.
I've also only used the engineering lathe a few times prior to this, again for basic machining of aluminium tube.

I've done nothing on the same level and detail as this plane, I never in a million years expected it to come out as well as it is, not for a first attempt.

A lot of the hand skills are transferable from wood to metal so that's helped.
I am taking my time with it though and trying not to rush at any stage, while there are tedious parts I'm really enjoying it, makes a nice change from wood.

The late evening's aren't going down to well with the Mrs though!

 

[famas]

With the lever cap made I can drill the holes for the pivot rod.

I marked out and drilled an 8mm hole through the body of the plane.



I test fitted the steel rod and could see that the front part of the infill needs reducing so as not to obstruct the throat of the plane.



Next I counter sunk the 8mm hole on the right hand side of the plane and enlarged the left hand hole to 10mm



I then marked out and reduced the front infill using a block plane, approaching from both sides to avoid break out.
Maple is a beautiful wood to work.



With that done I could drill the three remaining holes needed to secure the front infill in place and the rear infill plus tote.
I marked out the holes and drilled them on the pillar drill.



I'll use 4mm brass rod for the front infill and rear of the tote then 6mm brass rod for the front of the tote.



Here is the front infill and rod test fitted.



And the two rear rods test fitted.



I drilled the two rear holes with the maple infill fitted but with out the tote in place. Once the holes where drilled I then inserted the tote and marked the holes, I then offset the holes very slightly so when the rods are finally fitted they draw the tote downwards tightly onto the sole of the plane. It's the same principle as wooden draw boring.
Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of this.

Next I marked out the taper on the edges of the plane body. I used a vernier gauge and blue marker to help show the lines.



The taper is 2mm onto the edge and 5mm onto the face. Here are the curves marked out.



I initially filed with a course file to remove the majority of the waste, being very careful not to file past my lines.
The curves where particularly tricky to file.



I then went back over the taper draw filing with a finer file.



I used a combination of needle files for the curves.



After both sides where done I gave them a light sanding



Another long stage, this part took a good few evenings to complete.
The initial waste removal is fairly straight forward but fine finishing takes a lot of time and patience. Cutting down to the scribe line and getting sharp corner transitions was very difficult.
I'm pretty happy with the finished taper, it really finishes off the sides nicely.

 

[skaif]

This is genuinely stunning! Keep it going can't wait until its finished!

 

[koolpc]

Waw! You are highly skilled.

Superb craftmanship.

 

[Tone1979]

wow! that's amazing!

 

[famas]

Thanks for the comments chaps, hopefully update more later this evening.

 

[famas]

It's been quite the journey so far, from a few sketches on a piece of paper.



To what's in front of me now. Hard to believe there is over 3 months work in this little lot.



The finish line is in sight now.

With all the parts ready I can start to assemble the plane, no going back after this stage!

I start with the front maple infill.
I mixed up some Araldite in the plane body then inserted the infill



I add a little more Araldite to the pin and secured it in place.
Next I did the same for the rear infill and tote.



I hammered in the rear 4mm and 6mm rods to secure the tote in place.



Wonder wipes did an excellent job of cleaning up any surplus glue that squeezed out.



Once the Araldite had cured I cut off the surplus brass rod and filed it flush with the body of the plane.
I then inserted the brass lever cap pivot pin. The hole for the head of the pin is 10mm and I made the head of the brass pin 10.3mm so it was a very tight fit.




To secure the pivot pin further I used a pencil torch to heat the head of the pin



Then flowed soft solder into the counter sink.



I did this on both sides of the plane and on the 6mm pin securing the tote.

Once the solder had cooled I filed away the surplus flush with the plane body.



I then spent the next 3 years flattening the sole of the plane, did I say years? I meant days but it felt like years!
I fixed sand paper to the bed of our planer and worked the plane back and forth until it was flat.
The only part of the project I've not enjoyed, it was bloody hard work!



As if that wasn't enough, after that I flattened the blade and ground the final bevel.
I then sanded the blade with fine paper to remove any deep scratches left over from the hardening process.
The blade seemed to grind well so hopefully it will hold its edge.



Finally I sharpened and honed the blade, I use Autosol and a leather strop to get it razor sharp.



And that was me done, my arms, back and legs where shot, I needed a sit down.

 

[NoobCannon]

Looks great. I know nothing about planes and anything i try to make from wood spontaniously combusts. But can see the work you've put into it and it looks fantastic.

Will be something to be proud of when its finished

 

[Tone1979]

I have only just started using a plane when doing work around the house (tiding up doors and the like) Such a great tool. Looked up some Japanese variants and the work they do is staggering.

Really well done, I wish I had the skill to do something like this.

 

[famas]

Thanks for the kind comments guys

Now the majority of the work is done on the body of the plane I can start to final finish each part.

I started with the lever cap.
I used wet and dry paper starting at 800 grit and sanding up through the grades to 2000 grit.



Once I was happy with the sanding I used Autosol metal polish and a buffing wheel to polish the lever cap to a shine.



Tedious work is sanding, Always moving the paper in the same direction to avoid cross scoring, gets tricky when there are curves.
Finishing each part of the plane is going to be a long process, there where a good few hours in the lever cap alone.

With the lever cap done the plane is finally ready to take its first shaving.

I fitted the blade and screwed down the lever cap, adjusted the depth of cut and pushed through a piece of Tulip wood.
A shaving was instantly produced but I could see as the plane travelled along the shaving was not clearing the mouth.

A little adjustment was needed with a file, fortunately I could just get a file in between the pivot pin.

The smallest amount needed to be removed and a few passes with the file was sufficient.



I loaded in the blade and had another try.



A beautifully fine shaving was produced and ejected from the mouth perfectly.
The finish left on the wood was immaculate and required no further sanding.



Tulip wood planes nicely, I'm yet to try the plane on some harder wild grain timber but for an initial run I'm very happy.

I noticed that when tightening down the lever cap there was a little lateral movement in it which I wasn't happy with.
To combat this I decided to add two Allen bolts on the side of the cap.

I marked out and drilled the larger hole for the head of the bolt then drilled the smaller hole for the thread.



Next I tapped the hole



And inserted the bolt. I used a little ptfe tape to help hold the bolt in position.



Then wound it in so the head of the bolt was just protruding out of the hole.



I repeated the process for the other side.



The heads of the bolts fit firmly against the insides of the body when the lever cap is inserted which has eliminated the lateral movement as I had hoped.

Next up is sanding, lots and lots of sanding...

 

[touch]

Wow, that shaving!
I bet it's a great feeling (or just relief?) when a shaving like that comes out and you know you've made something which actually works as well as look good.

 

[famas]

Massive relief for sure.

I was fairly confident that it would at least work but I was unsure of just how well it would work.

Single iron planes can be a bit finicky to set up well and they mostly rely on a very tight mouth opening to control tear out when the blade is cutting.
If the mouth is too large they just tear the grain up and constantly jam.

The mouth on my plane isn't as tight as it could be as I cut it from one whole piece of steel meaning the mouth opening had to be at least the thickness of a file.

To achieve a very tight mouth the sole needs to be cut in two pieces allowing the bedding angle to be filed on one piece and the other to be fixed tightly to it.

English mitre planes are a good example of this as they have a low bedding angle of around 18 degrees and a fine mouth opening, some as little as half a millimeter.

Having a wider mouth on a double iron plane isn't so much of an issue because the cap iron (chip breaker) controls tear out.

The reason my plane seems to be working well is because I extended the lever cap close to the tip of the blade and it's acting like a chip breaker too.
I've never seen a lever cap act as a chip breaker on another plane before and maybe there's a good reason why not, but so far so good.

I also said I would have liked to make the lever cap out of brass but thinking about it now it would have been better in a harder metal like tool steel or even stainless steel.
I dread to think how much work it would have been to make it out of stainless steel though!

 

[Mark A]

Wow, that was a great read and really awesome work! Is the blade holding an edge after your heat treatment? If not there is a guy on here that makes knives and has a proper kiln and could do it for you, his name is perywinkle.

 

[famas]

Thanks for the comment Mark.

The blade seems to be holding its edge well. I've not used the plane for a long period yet so further tests will tell.

I'm still tempted to get hold of a piece of 6mm tool steel and make another blade. My current 4mm blade is twice the thickness of a commercial plane blade but a 6mm blade would be even nicer.

 

[famas]

With the plane now working I can start to final finish the body.

I sand the maple infills, tote, front knob and edges of the brass sides up to 500 grit. Another slow and painstaking process.



I then use fine line and masking tape to cover any part I don't want to be lacquered.



I give the plane 3 coats of polyurethane lacquer, not a traditional finish but I like its feel and durability.



After the 3rd coat I cut down with 1000 grit wet and dry paper to smooth out any roughness and key the lacquer



I then apply another 3 coats. The lacquer really brings out the natural beauty of the wood.



I'm going for a satin finish so once the lacquer had dried over night I cut back with 2000 grit wet and dry paper then use 0000 wire wool and soft paste wax to finish.



With the wooden parts finished I started on the brass sides.

I want a brushed look to the brass, I sand them with wet and dry paper up to 800 grit.
I use the bed of the planer again for it's flatness.
When trying to achieve a brushed look its critical to sand in perfectly straight lines. Any deviation results in squiggly lines which you then have to sand out.



The sanding leaves the brass looking quite dull so I used Brasso to add a little shine back to it.



Just about right.



With that the body of the plane is almost done. I've still to fix the front knob in place but I've decided to add an extra collar of brass under the aluminium just to give it a little more contrast from the wood.

Next I return to the blade.

From the beginning of the project I wanted to add a makers mark to the plane which is normally placed onto the blade.
I researched a few methods of doing this and after weighing up the pros and cons decided electroetching might work out the best.

Again this is something completely new to me and I was uncertain if it was even going to work how I wanted it to, or if I could even achieve it.

I started by designing a mark in Photoshop. My initials and my daughters name.



I'm fortunate to have a friend with his own laser cutter. Its not powerful enough to etch steel but can cut a perfect stencil.

I'm using black vinyl wrap for the stencil and after a few tries and creating a small fire inside his machine we get the settings dialed in for a perfect cut. (He wasn't happy about the fire!)



Unsure of how many attempts it would take me I asked him to cut me a few to practise with.



I cut one of the stencils out and stuck it to an off cut of steel.
Using an old 12 volt battery charger I connect the positive wire to the steel and the negative to a cotton bud that had been dipped in a salt water solution.

I then moved the cotton bud around the stencil holding it in place for 5-10 seconds before moving on to a new part. Changing the cotton bud regularly as it starts to blacken and burn.
after 15 minutes or so I removed the stencil.



I ran my finger over the mark and disappointingly it had not etched at all but only left a burn mark through the stencil that was now rubbing away with my finger.
I'd done something wrong and my first guess was connecting the positive and negative incorrectly.

So after changing them over and another 15 minutes later I removed the stencil and to my surprise it had worked, and work far better than I was anticipating!



It was time to try it on the real thing.

Good placement of the stencil was important. After a few attempts I was happy with it.



I stuck the stencil to some masking tape and carefully removed the backing.



The masking tape helps to place the stencil and once stuck down is removed. I then masked out around the stencil to prevent any salt water etching where I didn't want it to.



I spent a longer time etching the blade as I knew the steel was harder than my test piece and I wanted a deep etch. It took around 35-40 minutes



Removing the stencil the etch is looking good so far, there is a little water bleed through in parts.



With the stencil removed you can see the etch is darkened by the burnt salt water and cotton bud.
I used fine wet and dry paper to clean it up and remove the water marks.



I then used a tooth brush and some Autosol to clean the burn marks out of the etch. Once I was happy I gave the blade a quick polish too.



I'm absolutely delighted with the results, I never expected it to come out so well.



While I'm sure the mark isn't to every ones taste it means something to me and I'm really happy with it.



It's also another process I've learnt through the making of this plane which I'd never know about in my day to day work.

The plane really is starting to take shape now, there isn't long to go.

 

[Mark A]

That looks great! I tried etching a logo on a knife I made but it barely left a mark on the steel. I'm guessing the 7.5v RC car battery charger I was using wasn't man enough.

 

[touch]

Your etching looks very professional. I think I would have been tempted to leave the burn marks in the etch channels, I quite liked the contrast.

Looking forward to some pics of it fully assembled soon!

 

[famas]

Cheers guys

I tried etching a logo on a knife I made but it barely left a mark on the steel. I'm guessing the 7.5v RC car battery charger I was using wasn't man enough.

7.2 should be enough to etch, it will just be slower. I think the amperage makes a difference too, think my charger was 2A.
If it didn't work at all it could be the positive and negative where the wrong way round like I had them initially.
I read vinegar can make a deeper etch instead of salt water too.

Your etching looks very professional. I think I would have been tempted to leave the burn marks in the etch channels

Thank you, I was pleasantly surprised too

I did initially like the contrast too. The burn marks would eventually wear away but you can spray paint over the etch then sand away the surplus paint which leaves the etch coloured, this would be a more durable way of doing it.

I'm happy with how it looks at the moment. When the blade is fitted to the plane it's a nice feature but doesn't immediately jump out at you, which I like.

 

[skaif]

Stunning, absolutely stunning! It amazes me how you can go into something with little experience and nothing but a can do attitude and come up with this!

The etching is a really nice touch, this is one of those things that you can hand down to generations.

Absolutely love this project!

 

[famas]

Thanks for the kind comments skaif.

It is starting to become more of an ornament than a working hand tool.