I’m getting ready to make a kitchen table, and I need a shoulder plane to make sure my tenons are as crisp as they can be. But there’s no way that I’m going to pay over $100 for a shoulder plane, so I’m going to make one. I’ll get an iron from Lie-Nielsen (because I can drive over there and listen to Derek Trucks on the way), and I’ve got a choice of scrap maple, beech, or cherry for the body.
Is there anything that isn’t obvious about making a shoulder plane? Any fatal error that first timers tend to make?
Rp
Replies
While I don't want to discourage anyone from making their own tools, why not just use a chisel, or a rasp, or a file to come to a final fit for your tenons? A table doesn't have many tenons to it. And you probably have one or more of those tools already...And a replacement blade is going to be $35 or so.
Ok. That said, I would probably do a laminated design for my first shoulder plane if I were making one. I would perhaps do a bevel down, 40 to 45 degree bed. If I went for lower, I would do a bevel up at 20. By doing a laminated design, it should be easier to deal with the mouth and bedding.
Oh. I would still start out with a single block, drill holes through very squarely and then resaw it open. Use the holes to aid in realignment.
Take care, Mike
Mike, you ask why I don't just use a chisel, etc.Well, I've done "all of the above," and I tend to make sloppy tenons. I've found that the best way to break bad habits -- and sloppy tenons are my bad habit -- is to do it a different way for a while. Therefore, a shoulder plane.Thanks for the suggestions.Rp
Rp,
Hmm . . . It seems you want to fabricate all your own stuff - gourmet chef ovens, hand planes. I think you need to ask yourself, what is it you want to do, woodworking or tool making?
I think I know someone else with that same confusion of purpose. Who is that? . . . Oh! ME!
I make my own wood body planes. I love to teach others how to make planes. I feel my planes perform as well as any plane I can buy, anywhere, for any price. I use Hock plane irons and regrind them as needed. I use lignum vitae for the soles and usually tropical hardwoods for the body. I've made planes of brass sides with lignum vitae soles.
The first plane is the hardest. It will take many, many hours to get right, and may be unusable. After that experience, you'll be able to whip up a hand plane of almost any size and shape you want in a day or so. The only real limitations are curing time for gluing the "laminations" together and your ability to true up the sole and mouth opening (an hour when you get experienced). Wood bodied planes are a joy to use. The joy is increased when you've made them.
Having said all that, I strongly encourage you to buy a good shoulder plane. LV and LN have excellent ones. A shoulder plane is not the first plane you should try to make with a wood body. Of all the planes you could want, that's the hardest to make as a wood plane. What is your time worth? You may not believe it, but the time it will take you to make a good shoulder plane will put your table plans back months. Of course from that point on, it will only take a short time any time you want to make another, but unlike "bench planes," of which we desire many, you really don't need more than one good shoulder plane.
Wood worker or tool maker?
Wood body planes derive their strength from the sides (cheeks). In a metal bodied shoulder plane design, there is no cheek near the sole of the plane. The upper part of the body is strong enough to hold the plane rigid. With wood, that's not the case, so one of the sides of the plane must have a cheek. That means you need 2 planes - right and left hand versions. There are other designs possible, such a front-mounted blade - a "chisel plane."
If you're really interested in making wood planes, get "Making and Mastering Wood Planes," by David Finck, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc, N.Y. It's the best book on the subject.
Rich
Rich, I appreciate all your comments. But who said this would be my first plane? I keep looking for where I said that.Woodworker or toolmaker? I have to choose? Right now? ;-)Rp
Edited 1/8/2007 2:55 pm ET by Riverprof
Rp, "Is there anything that isn't obvious about making a shoulder plane? Any fatal error that first timers tend to make?" Call me crazy, but I thought "first timer" meant, well, first time. Rich
Right -- first time making a shoulder plane. Not first time making a plane. Your answer assumed that I had never made a plane, or had my first beer, or smoked my first cigarette ....;-)Rp
Rich, I am going to take your advice and either buy a shoulder plane, or do without for now. I think the LV plane looks like the device that sucked the bug out of Neo in The Matrix, so I won't be buying that one!Rp
Sinister-looking sucker, in'it? Hey, in the 2007 LV catalog, page 41 there is a wooden rabbet plane that would serve as a good design - or just buy it for $28.50. It is an "open" design like metal shoulder planes. But the blade is wedged well away from the cutting edge, so it might chatter. Looks pretty good, though.
Edited 1/8/2007 5:10 pm ET by Rich14
Now that I think of it, I have a Miller Falls sash plane that, with some tuning, would do service as a shoulder plane.
Sorry, I didn't mean sash plane. I meant rabbet plane -- the Millers Falls 85.
Based on your logic, Volkswagon would not have made the Beetle & they would'nt have made any money! You will not find a better shoulder plane that fits your hand, has a thousand uses and cuts extremely fine!
dlb
.
The undisciplined life is not worth examining.
You are talking about the LV? The LV is the beetle?
You wrote,"I think the LV plane looks like the device that sucked the bug out of Neo in The Matrix, so I won't be buying that one!"
My reply, in plainer terms, is that the Beetle was not an attractive car but it was very functional, well built, easy to drive, and easy to maintain - just like the LV shoulder plane.The undisciplined life is not worth examining.
let's look closer at this:I have an ECE shoulder plane blade on order with plans to make a wooden shoulder plane.
I plan to model mine roughly after the Gordon shoulder plane. Do you think that using ebony or lignum vitae for the sides would make it stronger?
I have also considered adding brass stips to the sides (lower 1/3 of the plane) to solve this problem and to provide a good wear surface. My mom is a metalsmith, so working with a little brass doesn't sound too scary. One more question- how good is the wearing properties of lignum vitae for soles? I've only made hard maple planes and the soles marked up pretty fast. I have a granite reference slab for truing them, but it seems like I have to use it a little too often. I just made a table and cleaned up my tenons with some coarse sandpaper glued to a stiff, flat block. You have to go a little slower to make sure that you are removing material evenly, but this actually did a good job. The trick is to get those tenons really close and only slightly oversized to begin with. A few extra minutes of machine setup and careful measuring can go a long way!
Vince, I haven't used lignum for the body of a plane. I don't know how strong it would be compared to Koa, ipe, maple, wenge which I have used. I haven't used ebony. Lignum for the plane sole wears very well. Don't prepare glue surfaces with sandpaper. Such a surface has nothing but torn fibers and makes a very weak glue joint compared to one sheared with a blade. Rich
Rich,Hock plane irons eh ? Good ? Where do you find them ?C.
hocktools.comWhen you call, you get Ron Hock on the phone. Not to be confused with Hack (Garrett), who wrote Taunton's book about planes.Rp
If you would not be offended by my suggestion to look at ShopNotes Vol 88, there is an faily well detailed article on making a small to medium sized shoulder plane with dovetailed metal sole and sides and wood infill. I've considered making one myself even though I have a small Clifton 410 and a large Lie-Nielsen shoulder plane.
It sounds like I'm the least experienced at planemaking around here, but I made a heterodox shoulder/rabbet plane of walnut a few years ago that worked out quite well. It was the first wooden plane I made. It's bevel up (with a 20 degree bed) because I happened to have a plane iron from one of the Stanley ones; its edges were chamfered so I didn't think it would be well supported if I used it bevel down. The funny knob sticking out the back is attached to a carriage bolt depth adjuster that works very well.
Here is a link to a photo. The previous photo in the sequence is an exploded view before glueup. The plane is not pretty but it works well, and the walnut, suprisingly, has held up.
http://www.woodworking.org/photo/displayimage.php?album=18536&pos=4
Alan,
"It sounds like I'm the least experienced at planemaking around here"
Not!
Very nice work!
Rich
Get a Beadlock jig.
kesac advises: "Get a Beadlock jig."Is this like "get a life"? (I take it you think a Beadlock jig is the solution to my sloppy tenons.)Rp
I don't have any idea if your tenons are sloppy or not. Look at a Beadlock jig. For $35 you can make perfectly fine mortise and tenons first time every time.
If I had meant to say get a life, that's pretty much what I would have said.
I only asked because if I had wanted to find a new way to make tenons, I would have asked about that, instead of about the difficulties of making a shoulder plane.
I din't mean to hurt your feelings. I just figured that if you had problems with a tenon, you might have problems making a plane too.
I thought I might be of help to you.
Of course, if you just want to make planes, that is one of those wonderful things to do.
kesac,"I just figured that if you had problems with a tenon, you might have problems making a plane too."Interesting proposition.Just slightly OT but in line with that, two guys who taught a lot of woodworkers had slightly different takes on this. Ian Kirby taught that the tenon could and should be made to the needed accuracy right from the tenon saw. He taught accurate sawing technique and insisted it be done that way. He sawed almost to the shoulder lines and finished the shoulders with a chisel. He held that trying to true up inaccurate tenon cheeks just led to twisting and more inaccuracies.Tage Frid also taught accurate sawing but didn't caution against trying to true up a bad tenon. Maybe he could trim the cheeks without adding more problems. He demonstrated such trimming with a chisel, not a shoulder plane.I've found that, while a shoulder plane is a nice thing to have, like many complications on the basic tool, doesn't do any better than a very sharp chisel, held tightly agaisnt the work on its flat, polished back. The chisel, held and pushed correctly shaves the thinnest of layers off a tenon or similar piece very accurately and dependably, and reaches into the corners to maintain nice crisp details.Rich
He held that trying to true up inaccurate tenon cheeks just led to twisting and more inaccuracies.
If you suspect that the effort of correcting an incorrection has just created more incorrection, then this is a time to pull out the router plane and use that to true the sides of the tenon cheeks parallel to the stretcher faces.
Regards from Perth
Derek
Dereck,
Hows the cyclone and bushfires?
I tried that router plane bit the last time you suggested it, worked a trick to re-establish the parallel between cheek and the face of the board. Thanks.
Dave - only two small fires here yet and no cyclone
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