Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
ST James Bay Castings
Dan Clermont inBurnaby
>How are these casting to work with and have many of you bought a casting and decided it was too much work. It sounds easy and cheap enough if I decided it wasn't going to work for me or the mouth was too wide it was only $50 plus blade and infill. I do have access to a milling machine to open the mouth up so that won't be a problem.
Thinking about it,
Dan Clermont in Burnaby
Re: ST James Bay Castings
Cameron
>$50 is excellent value for a good quality handplane. There's a bit of work involved but a lot of it is already done for you when you buy a casting.
The work is not that difficult. Just take it nice and slowly and try not to get impatient or frustrated. Also adhere to the old adage of "measure twice, cut once." In fact sometimes it's good to measure half a dozen times just to make sure!
Re: ST James Bay Castings
Barry Va Beach
>Dan, I have done two projects, the parallel sided smoother and the panel plane ( which is the size of a jack plane). I did the panel plane several years ago and worked from rough castings and had no access to a milling machine. It wasn't that hard to cut the mouth and file the ramp though it took forever to flatten the sole and I just flattened the sides, I didn't bother to make them square. It took over 6 months to complete it and it came out okay. Last year I did the smoother using machined castings and that took maybe a week or two to have it making shavings. The longest part of that project was shaping the handle. I made 15 or so prototype handles out of mdf and pine before I did the final one out of cocobolo. After a few weeks, I decided I didn't like the handle and made another one. I would definitely get the adjuster. I built the panel plane without one, but after using the smoother with an adjuster, went back and added one to the panel plane. If you have access to a milling machine I would say go for it. If you have any questions along the way just send me an email and I would be happy to help.
Re: ST James Bay Castings
Dan Clermont in Burnaby
>Wow 6 months! How much metal did you have to remove and did you draw file first?
Got any pics of the completed projects?
Thanks
Dan C
Re: ST James Bay Castings
Barry Va Beach
>Dan, it wasn't six months solid, I took a few weekends off from time to time, but yes I used a file to flatten the bottom and that took forever. It also took quite some time to fit the rear infill because it is not overstuffed ( as the smoother is) so any gap will show. I'll take a few pictures and try to post this eve.