Thursday 2 April 2015

My Largest Batch of Bench Planes


With upcoming shows it was time to replenish my stocks of bench planes. I've made more of the mini smoothers in one go but never as many larger planes, 20 in all. Before anyone tells me I can't count, I know there are only 18 but I've had to finish and post two already.


I should sharpen the blades and complete them all today. In all it will have taken me just under 60 hours to complete them, dusty, repetitive and sometimes dangerous work. I have scars from the disc sander and bench grinder to show for my efforts. I think I'll stick to smaller batches in the future!


5 comments:

  1. Be quick people, I picked up two of these stunning planes this afternoon. The Jack and High angle smoother are a couple of welcome additions to my tool collection and I can't wait to use them

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  2. David I have a question if you don't mind - I'm wondering how tight you make your channel in the ramp for the cap screw, width wise. I've made a number of these planes, and originally left plenty of slop, then experimented with keeping it quite tight - my thought was that if the screw couldn't move side to side, when adjusting the blade would pivot more efficiently. I can't say I found it to be a resounding success - couldn't really decide whether it was helping or hindering... Do you have an opinion on this?
    Thanks,
    Owen

    Ps, very nice to see that you didn't slack in your grain matching/parts management with the big batch :)

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    Replies
    1. Hi Owen, I keep the channel wide enough for the screw not to play a part in the adjusting, however I can see your thinking. All the best, David.

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