ZK Project Notebook

While pondering a boring plane and how to make it un-boring (or less so), I had this idea: Now, to find a little Captain Ahab to hang off the side.

Mondo wood shaping and some brass chamfering yielded this:As I sat back to admire my new master piece (and stretch my aching back), this thought occurred to me: “Boring!”. Hmmm, I might have a point, it is rather drab and plain (pardon the pun). As I pondered this over lunch, I decided “oh what the hell, it is just a prototype”, went out into the shop, scribbled on the sides, mounted it in the mill, removed some metal, then used files to remove still more metal, fixed up the chamfers and pondered once more. Then did the same thing to the back half. And voilà, the swaybacked mitre plane!
Well, it isn’t boring any more.

Plane maker Raney Nelson made a post "New toys, new plane" where he is using a plane he made to make the ramp for a new plane. It is truly cool to use something you made in the process of making something new. Since I’m doing the same thing Raney is doing, I thought I’d show the photo Raney didn’t – the end grain shavings made when using a miter plane to trim the end of the ramp when fitting it (well, that and I think these are just cool). These full length shaving are about 3/16” x 1 1/4” Jatoba.

Time to start putting things together. The top of the sole is sanded, as are the insides of the sides (I really should have done the outsides too but got lazy and it kinda bit me). Then a light pien to lock things in position for soldering. Since the dovetails fit really well, I don’t have to move much metal at all, which means light hammer blows, which means I don’t need a buck, just an anvil and wood block to keep the plane on its side (I’m only going to pien the steel pins and I didn’t bother to do any of the “double dovetail” stuff you usually need to do to join infills, that’s why I “glue” with solder). As things fit so well, I suspect this piening would have worked fine in this case.

Here are two close-ups of the same area; on the left, I’ve piened the tips of the pins and you can sorta see how good the fit is. On the right, after soldering and clean up. You can see where the steel has moved the brass up. Scale: each pin and tail is about 3/8” and the sole is 1/8”.
Soldering keeps the front and rear edges of the side plates from flapping in the breeze, not likely a problem but good for peace of mind. My boo-boo: by not cleaning the outside of the sides, there was enough grunge that the solder didn’t flow as nicely as it should have, not a strength issue but you can’t see where the solder has flowed and you have to “help” it move to where it needs to go.

And finally, the shell has been assembled, cleaned up a little and is now ready for wood.

In case you are wondering why one side is pinker than than the other, it is because, when brass gets hot, some zinc boils off (bogus terminology there), leaving copper. In this case, it is a surface affect only.

Yeehaw! Progress. Made two buttons/gussets ends for the cap rod (only took two tries, oh well). Now have enough parts to do a test fit to see if things line up as expected. They do; the cap presses the iron against the mouth block.