Re: Times Etc.
Doug Evans
>This is a bit of a can of worms but, I will make one stab at it and leave you guys to chew on it...
Firstly, I do believe that there are people who spend 40-hours plus on a plane.
Certainly my perspective is largely influenced by our own internal times and the guided environments of our "build sessions". The speed we have, is the speed of knowing how to use the parts themselves as "story sticks" for building impromptu "buck blocks" from an oak skid lying out behind our shop in twenty minutes; knowing each step of the way and reacting to the individual way each piece is progressing; having the right equipment; moving the buck block with the left hand mid-swing and adjusting the right hand hammer strike without losing cadence; knowing what can go wrong; having the forearm strength to get through a plane and knowing when to stop for a bit before the tired muscles become inaccurate and you put a dent in the wrong surface... and on... and on...
Then there are the vagaries of the audience... This gets down to experience (not necessarily metalwork) and confidence. Some folks will spend well over six hours on the instructions. Some will measure all of the parts with machinist-level tools. Some after an hour or so of study, will tell you how you that the parts dont fit, not realizing that you built in tolerances for the fact that everything moves right up until the end. Some will use Jewellers Rouge and put a mirror finish on parts that will have 0.020" sanded or draw-filed off them before the process is finished. Some folks, as Matt Berger of FWW did, will draw-file and lap the metal surfaces flat. On large planes, a large sander with a zirc belt can take as much as 16 hours out of this job! Then there's folks that look at the back page diagrams and start twenty minutes in!
Ben and I have watched well over 100 bench planes being built in "Build Sessions." In the large majority of cases, we have the folks at the stage of glue up (wood glued into rough-sanded dovetailed shells) in about 5 hours. This could actually be less because we are quite long-winded in our morning overhead presentation. A number of people on this forum have seen Sam Simpson in one of these sessions build a shoulder in about 5 or 6 hours. A number in Washington, watched Doug Reynolds get into his third plane by the end of a Saturday. These guys scare me!
Although I have said that a power sander is helpful, some people can get carried away and wipe a sidewall off (mind you this typically takes hands that can withstand abnormal heats and a considerable time). Although the sander is quick, I can recall draw-filing the majority of a shoulder plane in about two hours at an outdoor build (a job that would have taken about 1/2 hour on a sander to the same level). At a build session at Phil Lowes, there were no sanders and the builders were about three times the time drawfiling, that it nomally would have taken.
If there was an issue with the dovetails in the FWW article, I think one source could be seen in the photos themselves. The hammer looked somewhat light. My hammer would have had it for a light snack. You dont want to be too heavy which can distort the shell during peining however, you need to have good penetration.
I talked about confidence (too much and too little) and experience. Some folks have good spatial ability - perhaps about 15% of the population at best. When you talk about compound dovetails, they are with you about five minutes into the conversation - their jargon in describing the geometry themselves tells you they know. The majority though do not - I am not being elitist here - it's not generally a natural ability - it's learned. Some folks will take the instructions and follow the cookbook (labelling parts inside and out, build the guide blocks, etc.). Others have an absolute need to understand it all before they start - it's been that way all their lives... nothing wrong with that... but if they havent lived in the world of "in-car-position" and "blends" etc. it may take awhile. The guys who go through the cookbook are probably ahead in the end. A lot is learned by doing and even after doing (looking back at the dovetails of a brass plane afterwards). Having taken the first step, the lightbulb goes on for one while the other is still waiting to take that tepid step.
It has been a long time since we have revised instructions - there are a lot of new methods and tips to add. In truth, I will likely adjust the smoother times however, it is not very likely I would move them to anything near fourty. There are videos on our site of the processes. If you havent had a chance, take a look.
Hope this helps,
Doug
