1st Try at Infill Finally Done!!!
ray k
>After much work, I've finally managed to get this plane off and flying. There are some things about this plane I'm not happy with, but I think overall I'm pretty happy with the way it came out--especially since I had no experience making any planes (even wooden ones until I decided to make this one).
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions on what wood for the infill, whether my version of an adjustable throat would work, and the kind words of encouragement.
So the vitals: Bought the rough casting, blade, cap iron, adjuster from St. James Bay Tool Co. The wooden handle & knob were made of laminated cocobolo and macassar ebony and epoxied onto the casting. Finished all the wood parts with a couple wipe on coats of olympic antique oil and buffed with a thin layer of renaissance wax. Shopmade adjustable throat insert is made of brass.
Hand sanding & polishing the bronze got to be too tiring. I took a break, looked at my LN planes and realized that I'm intending on making this baby work. And since my LN planes have ding marks on them, why kill myself trying to make this plane pretty.
I have to confess that for the first hour or so after this plane was completed, I kept handling the knob and handle. Call it pride or a lack of something better to do, but in either case, the feel of that silky finished wooden handle really makes me want to show it off to anyone who will listen.
I still can't believe I actually made this. I really thought that even considering making something like this (especially with all the metalworking involved) was crazy.
Here's one of the first few shavings this plane took off a piece of birdsye maple. My caliper measured 0.001". But I did notice that the shavings would range anywhere from 0.0005 to 0.007. I think I might have to try and tune this a little bit more later down the line. I think I O.D.'ed on making this plane for the time being. It's time to make some real furniture. Oh yeah, I still need to figure out some way to personalize this. Steel stamping set with letters and numbers?
