Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Cutting slot in plane irons
Jim in Burlington Ontario
>Now that the weather is getting better I plan on making some plane irons from O1 tool steal. I need help figuring out how to cut the slot in the iron. Do you use a drill press drill and file it out? Or one of those cross vises to mill it out with some kind of mill. Any help appreciated thanks Jim
Re: Cutting slot in plane irons
Ernie Miller Topeka
>I allways figured that you drill the holes at each end and then use a hack saw to cut out the middle.
Re: Cutting slot in plane irons
Larry Felix in Birmingham, Alabama
>I used a cross vice and hogged out the slot with an ebay special (i.e. cheap) set of end mill cutters. Lay out the slot, drill a hole in one end of your marked slot on the O1 blank with a small drill (keep it lubricated and cool while drilling, DAMHIK), clamp it in the vise - make sure it tracks along one of your scribed layout line, enlarge it with a small milling cutter, switch to a larger one and take off as much with each pass as you dare. Milling with my cross vise is like a Jerry Lee Lewis song (Whole Lot of Shakin' Goin On) so I don't cut much off on any pass. If you have a really sturdy setup and a milling cutter of the correct width, you can make multiple single cuts along the slot. Going back and forth, make each cut deeper than the last, taking off as much as you dare with each cut until you cut through.
Milling machine
jim_reed@marietta
>Any way you can hog out the waste is OK, but I use a milling machine and carbide cutter. Takes about an hour. Good luck with yours.
Re: Cutting slot in plane irons
Todd Hughes
>I made a plane blade once that needed a slot and I just cut it out while hot with a hot chisel i made out of an old concrete drill bit.The little bit of clean up needed was easy to do with a file and i don't think the entire job took 10 min. or so and was very simple to do.....Todd
Re: Cutting slot in plane irons
Darrell in Oakville
>Howdy neighbour,
When I made the iron (two actually, on account of how we accidentally melted the first one in the forge because we was gabbing and not paying attention :-( for my SJBT smoother I just drilled a line of holes and opened it up with a file. Lubricate the bit, with some light oil.
The second iron I made caused some grief. I was filing the slot out when suddenly the file started skating. I discovered that the drill bit had chipped, and the chip had been embedded in the annealed steel of the iron. That little chip was very hard, and really scored my file (a brand new one, just unwrapped for the job).
If you want to try using a forge for heat treating let me know. I still have Dan's forge in my garage, and half a bucket of coal...
Darrell
Wood Hoarder, Blade Sharpener, and Occasional Tool User
Re: Cutting slot in plane irons
paul womack
>... from O1 tool steal
I take it that's a cheap material :-)
BugBear
Re: Cutting slot in plane irons
Jim in Burlington Ontario
>I'll talk to you at the next HFMS meeting and see how many I can get done. I am going to use 01 1/8" thick if you need a iron let me know I bought 3' of 2 1/2" wide but probably go back for 2" stock. But I plan on using a powered drill not that Post drill of yours. Jim
Freudian slip
Jim in Burlington Ontario
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