Making a Wooden Jointer

Re: Making a Wooden Jointer

paul womack

>I start with a smoother and work my way up?

I'd start by making a scrub. Lots of tolerance for "oops" and a cool tool when you're done, and good practice.

BugBear

I agree

Adam Cherubini

>I agree with Bugbear. A roughing plane, be it a European scrub plane or British style fore or jack plane, would be a good first choice.

A jointer's iron should be at least twice the width of the thickest stock you wish to edge join. (For match planing). In my shop, I see use for a 3" wide blade. My jointer may be a shade under that.

And if you are making a jointer, be sure to make it long enough to be worth your while. I'd start at 30" and work yourself up from there until the plane is too unwieldy (or starts looking like it belongs in a cooper's shop!) 36" is not too long. If you were going to check an 8' board with a straight edge, how long a straight edge would you choose? 1'? 2'?

Good luck and welcome to the slippery side,

Adam

Re: I agree

Matti Kuikka

>My first self made plane was a krenov-style scrub and what a joy it was to be able to produce a real working plane and a revelation to see what a scrub can do with ease and speed. After the pin failed I made a new laminated 4 piece plane which has served well and hasn't broken, but the pleasure of the first is still in my mind. In other words: wood is cheap and the same blade can be used in several bodies. I wish you luck and pleasure.

Matti Kuikka

Re: Making a Wooden Jointer

R.J.Whelan

>Mike ... take a peek at Clark and Williams website (www.planemaker.com) to see a traditional 30" jointer made from a single timber: click Sample Our Wares to see the jointer.

I, personally, don't like an extremely wide iron on a jointer because I use mine to flatten large panels frequently and a very wide iron significantly increase resistance; of course I'm old and tired - maybe not such a big concern for a young fella'.

I built a laminated jointer several years back and the one lesson learned that I'll pass along is to prep your material to rough dimensions and then let it aclimate to your shop for a bit before moving on to final dimensioning and assembly. I skipped this step and had to joint my plane a couple of times in the first six months and ended up having to patch the throat because it open up so much.

Good luck .... rj

Re: I agree

Glenn Madsen

>Matti,

Any pics of the scrub, or pointers to a web site?

I have a radius edged Hock blade & chipbreaker set that I bought on a whim, with some other stuff, and would like to use it. I'd rather not try to design from scratch, however, on my first scrub plane. I built a couple of 18" Krenov-style planes, with the 1.75" blade sets, but used the CR plans...

Thanks!

took long,sorry

Matti Kuikka

>Glenn,

I had to take the plane to work to be photographed.

The plane is intended to be pulled like japanese planes. It is laminated beech as you probably can see. The measure is in cm. You can e-mail me if you want better pictures or have further questions.

Matti

2nd 

Matti Kuikka

>

Nice plane !

Andreas Winkler

>Hello Matti,

very nice plane ! How does it perform ? Any problems with pulling a scrub plane ? Using a scrub needs certain amount of pressure on the plane. Is it possible to get these pressure while pulling the plane ?

Greetings from Germany, Andreas

Blades?

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Which blades did you use for main and sub?

Thanks,

Pam

answers

Matti Kuikka

>Thanks y'all,

The blade and chipbreaker are by Ron Hock via Dieter Schmidt and are sold together. I do 98% of my planing pulling so it feels natural with a scrub, too. The blade is narrow and sharp and the weight of my hands seems to be enough when the shawings are 1-2mm thick, and that seems to me be enough. It's possible that I at the same time also press the plane down a bit and I try to pull it rather fast so the cutting action is smoother.

Matti Kuikka