T&G fun with a 46 and a 044
Mick Foley
>Hey all -
I just had one of those "Hey, this is damn cool." moments down in the garage/workshop. A while back I aquired a 46 (ebay), blades (Jim Reed) and a 044 (Tony Murland), but never really got into using them.
Now I need to join some boards together to get a 14" wide board and while I could just plane them flat and glue them, I wanted to try doing a tongue and groove joint. I decided that I really should do a sample beforehand and I'm really glad that I did - it took 4 tries before I got the tongue right.
What I learned:
� Work from the end of the board back to the start - really.
� Get the tonguing blade really sharp.
� Keep the plane level. The 46 does have 2 skakes, but they both have to be on the right side of the tongue for the depth stop to work.
� Keep the plane moving fast - that encourages light cuts and will help prevent digging in.
� Once you get this working, it goes really fast - but it is a good workout...
� Using a 044 to plow the groove is really easy. The 044 does only one thing, but it does it really well.
� The pre-electron killers were pretty smart - the tongue and groove joint is pretty easy to create and will make glue up much easier...
The end result was a tongue and groove joint that was snug and perfectly aligned. I know that I could have done both the tongue and groove with the 46, but by doing it with 2 planes, I can get each one setup and then just crank through the boards...
Thanks for listening,
Mick