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Plane contest help needed

Posts

Plane contest help needed

#1

Plane contest help needed

Frank D. in Montreal

>Hi everyone,

I haven't posted in a while but I read you regularly. I have a question about planing contests. I'm trying organizing one with a few other guys for another site I moderate on, and we need some ideas. We held one last year at Montreal's only woodworking show and it sparked tremendous interest in the use of hand tools and in our site. We even have a few sponsors for this year's version, and what looks like a busload of contestants (last year we had 2 :) ).

What I need to know is what kind of feats are usually done in planing contests? Last year we just want for the thinnest shaving, but we had trouble measuring shavings that were around 2 ten-thousand's thick. Any advice on measuring shavings would be appreciated (most dial calipers only measure thousandths).

I've seen pictures of Japanese planing contests where they apparently try to take long shavings. Does anyone know more? does thickness count?

What about stock preparation? Could we have an S4S contest strating with a rough board, and if so can anyone think about the modalities of such a contest (time limit, board size, wood samples...).

Any other ideas, other than a plane throwing event, would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Frank D.

Re: Plane contest help needed

#2

Re: Plane contest help needed

Joel

>dian and digiatal calipers are only accurate to about +/- .0015. (I know they read to 0.0005 on a digital but it's meaningless). If you want to measure a single shaving properly get a micrometer that is accurate to tenths. If you stack up a bunch of shavings you can take a thicker measurement and then divide. BUT if there are any pores in the wood the grain will compress and will read thinner. Of course of you use a good caliper or micrometer they will exert constant pressure so the readsings should cancel out amongst entries.

Re: Plane contest help needed

#3

Re: Plane contest help needed

Nemo Tools

>I like the thought of a stock preparation contest. You could start with a highly warped piece, about 3 ft. long by 6" by 1 inch, rough cut with no edge ripped straight. It would be quicker to use a soft wood like northern pine. Go for planing to a target thickness, like 5/8". You would have to measure at several defined spots and average the results. You could also examine for no light penetration under a straight edge for the jointed edges, no observable twist using winding sticks. You'll have to invent some objective scale to measure these. You could also have a time limit, like 15 min. That would be enough (barely) to get the job done but might force enough disparities in the results to make judging easier.

This sounds like a fun event. Keep us posted on how it turns out.

Re: Plane contest help needed

#4

Re: Plane contest help needed

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>There are lots of different kinds of planes, designed to do lots of different kinds of tasks. If you really want to get people interested, you need a variety of tasks.

For example, you might want to get a piece of really gnarly wood for a smoothing test. Ask Steve Knight or Lyn Mangiameli for some recommended difficult species. For this one, the quality of surface is all that matters. You'll need independent judges to assess the surface quality.

For dimensioning and stock preparation, you might want to consider allowing the use of a series of planes, scrub, jack and jointer.

How about a rabbet? Don't make your target rabbet too big, or someone may win by sawing first and planing to finish. In this case, straightness and perpendicularity as well as time need to be considered, but not surface smoothness.

How about a sprung glue joint? When finished, lightly clamp both boards together at the ends only, and measure for minimum and maximum gap at the center and consistency of the gap on both faces, and flatness across the top of the boards.

Re: Plane contest help needed

#6

Re: Plane contest help needed

paul womack

>To impress (or not) the power tool guys, how about a sheer stock removal race?

The task is to generate 1/2 Lb of shavings (you'd have to define "plane" and "shaving") in the shortest time.

BugBear

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