Sunday 30 June 2013

New Batch of Jointers.


About 10 days ago I started on a batch of 10 jointers, I've never done that many in one go before but stocks are low (ie my last one went to Australia last week!).
The picture above shows the blanks with the dowel and cross pin holes drilled and the sides cut off on the band saw.
I decided to make two left handed planes for stock, I find it disrupts my work flow when I have to make a left handed one.


The woods I'm using are Bubinga and Indian Rosewood and this shows the planes with the bed, escapement and chipbreaker screw recess cut.


These are the cross pins, I cut them all to length and then form the shoulders of the round tenons on the table saw. Each pin needs 8 cuts which is boring work but I have to concentrate as my fingers are never far from an unguarded blade. I made plenty of extras this time so they'll already be done when I make the batch.


Here's my attachment for forming the tenons, an 8 mm plug cutter. Once centred this goes quickly, I don't know what I would do without my Flip Stop system!


Here's the batch glued up and shaped on my smaller band saw. It takes less than 5 minutes to turn each rectangular block into a plane shape, however the work needed to get each plane ready for finishing (below) takes a great deal longer!


Two of the rosewood planes had lovely lighter coloured streaks running through and I was dying to see how this would finish, very nice.


Three planes with their first coat of finish, the dark handsome rosewood at the front is the more usual colour of the Indian variety.


I have stopped adding Lignum Vitae soles to my longer planes, the very dry climate found in some parts of the US is not suitable for combining different wood, so each each jointer is made from one block.
To make up for not having the super hard Lignum on the sole, the Rosewood planes feature a brass wear insert which is dovetailed and glued with epoxy.
These jointers always take longer than I think, the price will be going up in the Autumn.


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