Plane Making Gloat.....

Re: Plane Making Gloat.....

Mike Fitterling

>I would be interested in a seminar. Colorado might be a problem for me, but I might be able to combine it with business. Our distribution center is in Ft. Collins.

Cool! Interesting ancestry.

Don Thompson - Cutler Ridge, Florida

>

Re: Plane Making Gloat.....

Frank Mutchler in Colorado Springs

>The location could be centralized for everyone interested. Wouldn't have to be Colorado.

Re: Plane Making Gloat.....

john jesseph

>Hi Frank;

Are you saying that C&W don't make their own floats anymore?

I would be interested in another class from Larry. I took a class in Gatlinburg three years ago, and would be happy to go to another if it isn't too far from home. Ideally it would be somewhere like American Sycamore Retreat, or Marc Adams' school. Maybe someone should e-mail Mike from ASR and Larry and put something together...

John J.

Re: Plane Making Gloat.....

Doug Reynolds in Seattle

>Yep. Sounds good to me. Of course time and location considering.

Re: Plane Making Gloat.....

Dave Anderson Chester,NH

>Hi John- I was up at Lie-Nielsen yesterday and Tom showed me the floats he is making for Larry and Bill. They were very nicely done and of top quality.

Re: Plane Making Gloat.....

john jesseph

>Dave, are they based on the old C&W floats? I have a couple of different sets of old ones, and hope to make a few others based on that design...hope to get around to filling my set of hollows and rounds sometime...

Another question...

john jesseph

>By the way Dave, have you had a chance to look over the new workbenches? If so, how does the new vice hardware look? I am kicking around the idea of making a shaker bathroom vanity type bench (after I make the Nicholson bench I have planned for the last five years)....

Re: Another question...

Dave Anderson Chester,NH

>Hi John- I don't know for sure if the floats are exactly the same as the ones Larry and Bill made, but they were made to C & W specs for them so I assume they are very similar if not exactly identical. The benches are beautiful, and the hardware looked very good in quality. Tom was very proud of them and indicated that the design was set up so that they could customize them easily for individual cuatomers. The basic design allows them to easily reverse things to make leftie benches or make other variations for customers. Interestingly, they have moved the woodworking operations out of Warren to the next town into a separate facility. They are currently finishing up another addition to the main building and completing work on a new building next to the main one. While we were there, riggers showed up with a truck loaded with 2 more CNC surface grinders.

the floats

Larry Williams

>The floats are still our design. With saw nuts in the handles, the new floats are more attractive. For my own use, I still prefer the 6 2/3 teeth per inch but the coarse tooth pattern is more difficult to learn to use. As Thomas Lie-Nielsen said to me, "touch is everything with them."

We used to make floats with 10 tpi but they lacked the ability to get aggressive and sharpening them is quite a bit more difficult. Lie-Nielsen's suggestion of 8 tpi is actually pretty much common sense. 8 tpi is still easy to sharpen because you can still seat the file in the gullet and the new floats offer ease of control at a slight expense when it comes to how aggressive they can be. I don't know that most people making their own planes want the risk that comes with an aggressive float anyway.

Working with Lie-Nielsen we're also going to be expand the line of floats the way we always wanted. People who've taken a plane making class with me are aware I use more floats than we've been able to offer. We'll also be going beyond just plane makers' floats. There's some pretty neat stuff coming and I'm excited about it as well as enjoying working with an amazingly talented and dedicated group of people at Lie-Nielsen.

Re: the floats

Todd Stock

>Larry made me a set of floats years ago - much superior to the flea market tools I'd been using. The vintage floats looked cool with the turned handle and all; however, Larry's design was far superior for consistent stock removal and keeping the cut aligned.

Nice to see that Tom is supporting both chairmakers and wooden plane builders. Now if only I could get him moving on the 289 (sore subject) and the 1/2" bullnose (ideal tool for trimming braces).

American Sycamore

Frank Mutchler in Colorado Springs

>Hi, John. Because of your suggestion, the ball is rolling and we may well have the chance to attend a plane making seminar at AS featuring Larry. We'll just have to wait and see how things develop ;>)