The parts soon to be a plane have come together and now I have a working plane. The body is made from 1/4″ thick bearing brass, the lever cap is made from 3/8″ thick brass, cap screw is stainless steel. The infill is mahogany from an old crotch flitch I’ve had for a while. I made the iron from 1/4″ thick 0-1 tool steel. Weight is just under 4 lbs. This plane does not utilize a cap iron and with the 1/4″ thick iron it does not need one. Some of you will notice that this plane is fashioned after the Holtey 11s. Karl had a great idea to put a small smoother in a miter plane type body. Not removing metal in order to try and mimic the flowing lines of larger smoothers helps the mass of this plane considerably and I think makes it feel better in the hand. I decided to use brass infill pins that once peened and leveled dissappear. This keeps the body cleaner and free of visual distractions. This little plane as you might expect is quite solid.
Ron
Replies
Gorgeous work. What are the dimensions? Very nice plane. Tom
CTSJR82,The model number for this plane is 650-50 which denotes a body 6.500 inches long with
50 degree pitch. The iron is 1.500" wide. Overall width is 2.062. Ron
Ron
That is just beautiful work. It inspires me to make one as well (and I really don't actually need another smoother!).
Regards from Perth
Derek
Derek,Now you know everyone can use just one more smoother.Ron
Derek,
You're scaring me. Are we a bit "under the weather" or perhaps the little lady is pumping subliminal messages into the bedroom while you sleep. Does this seem familiar?
I don't need anymore hand planes......I don't need anymore chisels.......Shoes are good.......You can never have enough shoes...........I don't like sex.....
Oh no Chuck! I think we're married to the same woman! One day I was talking about buying another plane and my wife figured she would fix me and said "you can make just about anything else why don't you just make one". She's been regretting that one for a while now.Ron
Oh yes, she'll choose her words more carefully the next time. At least she has the comfort of knowing that if your long-term plans work out, one day she'll be driving a new BMW. Of course for all I know, she may be driving one now!
-Chuck
Chuck,I'm afraid we're not driving any Beamers around here. You see we've been building a house,
just got moved in before the holidays and now I'm concentrating on paying for it. When I say we've been building a house I don't mean the version where someone else does the work and you write the checks, I mean we have been building a house ourselves. Making planes has been a welcome change.Ron
You're scaring me. Are we a bit "under the weather" or perhaps the little lady is pumping subliminal messages into the bedroom while you sleep. Does this seem familiar?
Chuck
I love that! But it is not my wife's voice that sends those disquieting messages - it is my superego finally catching up with me!! Damn, I thought I had escaped the self questioning and guilt-driven decision-making (smoother ... shoes for baby .... smoother ... dinner ... smoother ... take wife out on the town ... smoother!).
Now my way of coping is to make them myself. Of course the materials have to be paid for .... brass plate ... shoes for son ... brass plate ... dinner ..........
Regards from Perth
Derek
I understand. You were just doing a little soul searching. Okay, you've convinced us that your a good father, and a good husband, and those two great looking end tables you just built have to be worth something toward rationalization. Now get busy on that new smoother:-)
-Chuck
Ron,
It looks great. You've become quite the accomplished plane maker. I've been following your posts and, yes, I noticed right away the resemblance to the 11s. The 11s is one of my favorites. I think the 11s goes for around $2600 American. IF (notice the big "if") I were to offer you, say $2500, would you sell it? ;-)
-Chuck
Chuck, Without a doubt, it could be yours. In fact for $2500 I would personally deliver it, air fare included!Ron
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