Fun with planes
Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA
>I'm halfway through (yes!!) shaping the railings for the porch steps, and wanted to show off. The picture below is of, to the left, a section of the upper railing, trimmed off in the course of assembling the dogleg transition from the porch post to the steps (comes out about 2-3/4" level, then slopes down at the angle of the steps).
To the right is the sequence I followed in shaping:
1. Hog out the wood for the hollow section with the scrub plane.
2. Shape the hollow section with a round (by amazing coincidence, the one hollow and round base set I have for my No. 45 is the right diameter to match the existing railing pattern).
3. Plane the 1/16" "step" at the top with a No. 78 rabbet.
4. Shape the round section and the flat transition between round and hollow first by a little bit of hogging with the scrub again (about two strokes) and then finishing with a block plane.
I'm getting the routine down -- doing the final runs of railing, between middle post and lower post, should be a lot quicker than the first attempts.
Observations:
1. Boy, am I glad I got a scrub plane a few years back! It is such a timesaver.
2. Round bases on No. 45 planes are not the easiest of tools: a) they seem to want to clog (I actually, at one point, took the iron out and sprayed silicone lube on the throat, which seemed to help), b) as with all molding planes, I guess, an absolutely perfect match of shape of iron to shape of sole is imperative, c) they slide off the surface being planed with remarkable facility until they get a groove going (using the usual approach with the 45, starting at the far end and doing short strokes, moving back until you've established your groove, helps).
3. Once you get the system down, this kind of shaping goes quickly. I'm going to time myself for the final runs of railing.