cheap panel plane

Re: cheap panel plane

frank shic (walnut ck, ca)

>i clamped a fence to the bottom of the plane.

Re: cheap panel plane

frank shic (walnut ck, ca)

>here's a test run

Re: cheap panel plane

frank shic (walnut ck, ca)

>here's corner detail

Impressive!

Clay C in Miami

>I've avoided Japanese planes, for worrying that I was already in over my head knowledgewise with Western ones, but hmmmm ...

I am curious, though -- in the pic, the fence looks like it is at 90 degrees to the sole, but your trial panel certainly implies otherwise - ?

Congrats!

Clay

Re: Impressive!

frank shic (walnut ck, ca)

>clay, you're RIGHT! the fence is clamped at 90 degrees and mainly serves to keep the plane relatively straight to the surface of the wood. i used a VEREITAS WHEELED MARKING GAUGE ;) to mark a line all around the edges and then quickly plane down to this line by continually tilting the plane. afterwards, i evened it out gradually as i planed along the angle of the final bevel. i found that if i took out some of the material first, it's a LOT easier than trying to hog out wide shavings from the beginning - but this was all on soft pine as i discovered that maple was MUCH harder to plane and i doubt that an expensive REAL panel plane would change that.

Agree with Clay

Wiley Horne--Glendora, CA

>Frank,

Very fine start indeed! I don't know if many folks appreciate that a Japanese plane (unless it's a high end one) is pretty much a kit when you receive it. The blade won't fit into the body, as received. So getting that bed scraped accurately, and on a skew, so that the blade would fit, was a big success.

As far as planing maple, I suspect that Japanese steel is going to hold up as well as any other high carbon steel, and it's probably finished to a higher Rc value than most.

I am curious whether you can use your Titemark to profile a field into that panel. (I'm assuming you don't have a plough, and assuming is VERY risky.) Anyway, you might be able to use the cutting wheel to knife in two pretty deep parallel lines, the inner one defining the field, and then use your skinniest chisel to plough out the 'waste' between the two lines--this would rough out a field. Then use your panel plane to run the bevel right up to the field. Clean up the profile of the field with a shoulder plane.

Alternatively, and there are lots of alternatives, you could knife in the field with a single line, and use a tighter setting of the fence on your Japanese plane to take the whole periphery down about an 1/8", thereby defining the field. Then keep adjusting the fence to sneak up on the right bevel. However, that chisel thing can really be fast, probably faster than resetting the plane's fence.

BTW, a large shoulder plane is really useful for detailing the bevel, and getting the corner lines straight.

Bottom line: More tools!

Wiley

Re: Agree with Clay

frank shic (walnut ck, ca)

>wiley, your insight is appreciated as usual! getting the iron properly seated took quite a while with the ultraslim file but i couldn't believe the shavings i was making afterwards! i actually do own a plow plane (stanley 45 - bummed that i didn't know about the SKEWED version!) but i wanted to eliminate as many EXTRA steps as possible. after i got the iron to protrude parallel with the mouth, i noticed that the right edge extended from the right edge of the plane by approximately 1/32. i figured that i would have to grind this piece away sometime in the near future but i found last night that if i deepened the bevel, i could actually cut a nice field simultaneously like you mentioned.

thanks for the info on the block plane - getting the diagonals to line up properly is still on my list of things to learn!

BTW, a former internet student of yours (steve parsons) sends his regards!

viva la hand tools!!!

Actually

Wiley Horne--Glendora, CA

>Steve's a great teacher! Very thorough and patient.

The reason the large shoulder plane is so good for detailing the bevel is that (a) it will reach all the way up to and flush with the field, and (b) you can set the mouth down to 1 thou if you want, and leave a perfect surface. Bill Tindall mentioned this use on these pages, and he is so right.

Wiley

gotcha...

frank shic (walnut ck, ca)

>you mean i need something WIDER than a stanley 93? hmmm...