Next I will complete the through slot for the blade, create a wedge, and apply finish.
- Right side
- View from the back
- View from the front
Smoothing Hand Plane *added block plane posts
Moderators: al wolford, sbk, Bob, Kayvon
Re: Smoothing Hand Plane
Did a few chores, then got back to this. Flipped it over (using my own set up), cut the other side leaving about a .020” “spine”. Cut through that on my band saw. Removed the remnant of the spine with a spoke shave, flattened the bottom with the smoothing plane and filed and sanded a little for about 15 minutes of post processing. Feels great in my hand.
Next I will complete the through slot for the blade, create a wedge, and apply finish.
Next I will complete the through slot for the blade, create a wedge, and apply finish.
Re: Smoothing Hand Plane *added block plane posts
The wedge is done, blade installed. Four species of wood, Birch, Walnut, Teak, And Mahogany. A few shots of the finished product with 2 coats of a BLO finish.
Although I miss the old days when this board was more interactive, I continue to post here as I feel we all benefit from sharing our experiences with carving. Your questions or comments are always welcome. For more pics of this project visit my Facebook page. Thanks!
Although I miss the old days when this board was more interactive, I continue to post here as I feel we all benefit from sharing our experiences with carving. Your questions or comments are always welcome. For more pics of this project visit my Facebook page. Thanks!
Re: Smoothing Hand Plane *added block plane posts
Bill, yer spoiling us! Nice work, sir 
.
(And Happy New Year's to you)
.(And Happy New Year's to you)
=====================================================
ThomR.com Creative tools and photographic art
A proud member of the Pacific Northwest CNC Club (now on Facebook)
ThomR.com Creative tools and photographic art
A proud member of the Pacific Northwest CNC Club (now on Facebook)
Re: Smoothing Hand Plane *added block plane posts
Happy New Year to you also. Well I'm happy this post is getting a lot of looks anyway. These were fun to make and great to use.
Re: Smoothing Hand Plane *added block plane posts
So here is my new design for the block plane. I'll call it Type II. Stanly has more than 20 Types of their no. 4, so I'm just starting.
This is made from just 3 pieces of wood, the two halves and the cross piece. This eliminates the non- CNC machining from the inside. Now the inside is CNC'd and the two halves are machined before assembly. The pin holes are also used in the locating fixture, which I remembered to machine a zero point into before I removed it from the machine for use to make more. This came out well in quilted maple. I still have to make the wedge, which I will also CNC this time.
This is made from just 3 pieces of wood, the two halves and the cross piece. This eliminates the non- CNC machining from the inside. Now the inside is CNC'd and the two halves are machined before assembly. The pin holes are also used in the locating fixture, which I remembered to machine a zero point into before I removed it from the machine for use to make more. This came out well in quilted maple. I still have to make the wedge, which I will also CNC this time.
- The two halves of the new design.
- New on left, original on right.
- Quilted Maple shining through
Re: Smoothing Hand Plane *added block plane posts
New wedge design.
Re: Smoothing Hand Plane *added block plane posts
As always Bill - well thought out and crafted project. Appreciate you sharing this idea and tool creation!
Re: Smoothing Hand Plane *added block plane posts
Bill:
Those are some really cool tools. May I ask?....
I don't use planes, and I don't do anything approaching "fine" woodwork, so maybe this question has no actual bearing on the application. Nonetheless, I'm curious about two things:
I'm wondering about the flatness...no, the FLATNESS of the bottom of the plane. I'm not talking "the CNC cut it at the same coordinates" at each cut-depth level. These are sharks, and the z-axis carriage sags, which means there's almost zero chance that your spindle and bit are truly, <0.001" from perpendicular. Right? We all know this is true. Given that the Z-axis also measurably deflects away from the cutting surface, that likely means you didn't cut those bottoms in a single full-height cut, because (to my thinking) it very likely wouldn't come out flat. So, how do you ensure that the bottom is perfectly smooth, flat, planar, all that? I don't mean "to the eye", I mean mathematically flat. Like you could take an industrial surface flatness gauge to it, and it would be well within a reasonable amount, say 0.005" across and along the length. Does the application require that level of precision?
Do you do a finishing pass with the CNC along the whole width of the surface (in this last case, on each of the halves)?
Do you do a finishing pass with ... using a jig, AFTER the sides have been assembled?
Do you hand-finish the bottom surfaces?
Okay, the second one is probably WAY easier: is there a wood finish, like a stain or oil on the bottom? Is it ever considered a problem that finish material contaminating the surface of the workpiece? Like say oil on the surface preventing a water-based stain from evenly penetrating? I get the metal ones...you want it clean, you can boil the darn thing if you want. But, a wooden one....all that plant biological material swelling with moisture, having finish flaking off onto virgin wood...seems suspiciously contaminating to me
.
Sorry, those are both something I've always wondered about wooden planes.
Thanks in advance for any insight, and no worries if there is none...I do tend to overthink these kinds of things.
Regards,
Thom
Those are some really cool tools. May I ask?....
I don't use planes, and I don't do anything approaching "fine" woodwork, so maybe this question has no actual bearing on the application. Nonetheless, I'm curious about two things:
I'm wondering about the flatness...no, the FLATNESS of the bottom of the plane. I'm not talking "the CNC cut it at the same coordinates" at each cut-depth level. These are sharks, and the z-axis carriage sags, which means there's almost zero chance that your spindle and bit are truly, <0.001" from perpendicular. Right? We all know this is true. Given that the Z-axis also measurably deflects away from the cutting surface, that likely means you didn't cut those bottoms in a single full-height cut, because (to my thinking) it very likely wouldn't come out flat. So, how do you ensure that the bottom is perfectly smooth, flat, planar, all that? I don't mean "to the eye", I mean mathematically flat. Like you could take an industrial surface flatness gauge to it, and it would be well within a reasonable amount, say 0.005" across and along the length. Does the application require that level of precision?
Do you do a finishing pass with the CNC along the whole width of the surface (in this last case, on each of the halves)?
Do you do a finishing pass with ... using a jig, AFTER the sides have been assembled?
Do you hand-finish the bottom surfaces?
Okay, the second one is probably WAY easier: is there a wood finish, like a stain or oil on the bottom? Is it ever considered a problem that finish material contaminating the surface of the workpiece? Like say oil on the surface preventing a water-based stain from evenly penetrating? I get the metal ones...you want it clean, you can boil the darn thing if you want. But, a wooden one....all that plant biological material swelling with moisture, having finish flaking off onto virgin wood...seems suspiciously contaminating to me
.Sorry, those are both something I've always wondered about wooden planes.
Thanks in advance for any insight, and no worries if there is none...I do tend to overthink these kinds of things.
Regards,
Thom
=====================================================
ThomR.com Creative tools and photographic art
A proud member of the Pacific Northwest CNC Club (now on Facebook)
ThomR.com Creative tools and photographic art
A proud member of the Pacific Northwest CNC Club (now on Facebook)
Re: Smoothing Hand Plane *added block plane posts
Thanks Joe, always appreciate your comments.
Rando, I actually wrote a long and involved answer to your questions 2 days ago on my iPad and just when I was about ready to hit the submit button my iPad battery died. It was a great answer, perfectly crafted. It was like running a 3 hour carving project that came out perfectly, flipping it over to add a keyhole and plunging though the face. So it took me a few days to recover from that.
So I will try to answer it again today as I sit here and watch the accumulating snow here in New York.
Yes, the bottom of any plane needs to be very flat, better than the .005", probably closer to .001", especially in the area around the mouth where the blade comes through. And, No, you can't get that on a Shark, but I think I get very close. I use a 1/4' downcut bit and take only 0.050 in Z per pass. The two halves come together very well with the three locating pins, but still not flat enough. I have about 10 or 12 planes of both metal and wood. I flatten them all on a granite surface plate that is probably .0005" flat with a sheet of 220 sandpaper on it. For the maple block plane, this took about 5 minutes. I draw a squiggly pencil line over the complete bottom, then rub away until it is all gone. I keep one perfect straight edge that I purchased just to check things like this and it looks perfect to me, no light. I have not run and indicator on it yet, but I will try that.
Metal planes of the Bailey design have many adjustments to get the blade edge perfectly aligned with the plane bottom. With a wooden plane you use a small brass hammer. Tap the blade to advance it, tap the front of the plane to retract it, tap the sides to change the angle, finally tap the wedge after each adjustment to set it. It takes getting used to but it works well. The point is that the perpendicularity of the blade bed to the plane sole (bottom) is not that critical because of all this adjustability. Blade edges can be out of square also, so many of these variables can be overcome with adjustments. The shark does give a much better locating of the blade bed to the plane sole than other methods of wood plane manufacture.
To help mitigate the Shark issues besides the light passes mentioned above, I have calculated before that the entire bed is about 0.0285" out of flat due to axis deflections on my shark Pro Plus. (see page 2 here for that calculation http://www.cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.p ... 0&start=10) so I'm a corner cutter. I don't cut corners, but I keep these small parts located in the lower left corner which lessens the effect of the deflections. I also have a stiffer Z carriage since I rebuilt mine with the aluminum Hangover design discussed here http://www.cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4371.
Regarding the finish I haven't seen or felt that effect. Wooden hand planes are traditionally finished with Boiled Linseed Oil which I feel evaporates or absorbs into the wood quickly. I didn't use that on the maple blockplane as I used a wipe on Polyurethane on this one. Also its use is largely concentrated on working end grain, adding corner chamfers, or forming radius on corners, so the surface contact is minimal in these case.
Most woodworkers actually put a light coat of 3 in One oil on the surface of their metal planes to help lower friction. I've also seen paraffin wax used. You don't want to use either of those on you last pass before finishing for sure. I sharpen my plane blades then do a final honing with a 4000 grit waterstone. You can't get that type of surface finish on wood with sandpaper, its stunning the first time you experience it.
I'll add a pic of the plane bottom and see if I can find my indicators.
Rando, I actually wrote a long and involved answer to your questions 2 days ago on my iPad and just when I was about ready to hit the submit button my iPad battery died. It was a great answer, perfectly crafted. It was like running a 3 hour carving project that came out perfectly, flipping it over to add a keyhole and plunging though the face. So it took me a few days to recover from that.
So I will try to answer it again today as I sit here and watch the accumulating snow here in New York.
Yes, the bottom of any plane needs to be very flat, better than the .005", probably closer to .001", especially in the area around the mouth where the blade comes through. And, No, you can't get that on a Shark, but I think I get very close. I use a 1/4' downcut bit and take only 0.050 in Z per pass. The two halves come together very well with the three locating pins, but still not flat enough. I have about 10 or 12 planes of both metal and wood. I flatten them all on a granite surface plate that is probably .0005" flat with a sheet of 220 sandpaper on it. For the maple block plane, this took about 5 minutes. I draw a squiggly pencil line over the complete bottom, then rub away until it is all gone. I keep one perfect straight edge that I purchased just to check things like this and it looks perfect to me, no light. I have not run and indicator on it yet, but I will try that.
Metal planes of the Bailey design have many adjustments to get the blade edge perfectly aligned with the plane bottom. With a wooden plane you use a small brass hammer. Tap the blade to advance it, tap the front of the plane to retract it, tap the sides to change the angle, finally tap the wedge after each adjustment to set it. It takes getting used to but it works well. The point is that the perpendicularity of the blade bed to the plane sole (bottom) is not that critical because of all this adjustability. Blade edges can be out of square also, so many of these variables can be overcome with adjustments. The shark does give a much better locating of the blade bed to the plane sole than other methods of wood plane manufacture.
To help mitigate the Shark issues besides the light passes mentioned above, I have calculated before that the entire bed is about 0.0285" out of flat due to axis deflections on my shark Pro Plus. (see page 2 here for that calculation http://www.cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.p ... 0&start=10) so I'm a corner cutter. I don't cut corners, but I keep these small parts located in the lower left corner which lessens the effect of the deflections. I also have a stiffer Z carriage since I rebuilt mine with the aluminum Hangover design discussed here http://www.cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4371.
Regarding the finish I haven't seen or felt that effect. Wooden hand planes are traditionally finished with Boiled Linseed Oil which I feel evaporates or absorbs into the wood quickly. I didn't use that on the maple blockplane as I used a wipe on Polyurethane on this one. Also its use is largely concentrated on working end grain, adding corner chamfers, or forming radius on corners, so the surface contact is minimal in these case.
Most woodworkers actually put a light coat of 3 in One oil on the surface of their metal planes to help lower friction. I've also seen paraffin wax used. You don't want to use either of those on you last pass before finishing for sure. I sharpen my plane blades then do a final honing with a 4000 grit waterstone. You can't get that type of surface finish on wood with sandpaper, its stunning the first time you experience it.
I'll add a pic of the plane bottom and see if I can find my indicators.