From the Workshop

11-sa dovetailed smoothing / finishing plane

I have discovered a few pictures of work in progress, not the complete sequence, so decided to show what I have here.

 

 11-sa smoothing plane components before assembly.

 

Tapping for adjuster bush after boring.

 

Front infill boring for spacer.

 

Rear infill boring for spacers.

 

Polishing the throat side of the front infill.

 

Routing the quirk on the front infill after polishing.

 

Adjuster bush and its threaded dowel.

 

 Tapping for the adjuster bush after the boring.

 

Front and rear infills ready for assembly

 

Plane sides ready for assembly

 

Plane sole ready for assembly.  Note that I do not use tongue and groove here as it is spliced in a way that the rear sole is captive next to a dovetail.  I believe that the tongue and groove used in older planes are there mainly to keep the front and rear of the sole in line due to the lack of precision in their working.  They have nothing to offer in the plane’s structure.

 

Components here ready for final assembly prior to peining.  I use a precisionally milled aluminium former incorporating rebates on either side to carry the plane sides so that the downward strokes of the peining  keep the shoulder lines tight with no gaps.

 

Peining the underside of the dovetails, filling up the voids and creating the impossible compound dovetails.  Note that the assembly is also clamped with two ½” thick precisionally ground steel pads with corresponding dovetails milled in, and secured in a precision milling vice.  This applies much needed support so there is no gap between the sides and the bottom; otherwise the space between the two sides could exceed the size of the already prepared infill – very undesirable.  I doubt if anyone has ever gone this far!

 

After the first stage of peining on the underside the whole structure is now secure and some lighter peining will provide a little bit more security on the sides.  A great deal of care is needed at this stage to maintain the true dovetail form, instead of looking at wobbly lines and lose of form as sometimes can be seen where bi-metals have been used.

 

All the tools used in the peining.  As can be seen the aluminium former is still inside the plane.

 

Before milling the bottom flush a quick check is needed to seek any irregularities in the surface.  There is little point continuing when there is a possibility of any tapering in the sections. 

 

It is always nice to see something flat again after a pass over with the surface cutter.  Much better than filing.

 

Now that the bottom of the plane is flat the body can be turned over and secured in the milling vice.   Ready for flushing the dovetails at true right angles to the bottom.  

 

After the fairies have put in the missing work whilst we all sat around drinking tea!  It is now time to rout the radiuses at the front and back of the plane.

 

 

Now there is a bow fronted end I can also either put a slight round or a chamfer along the top edge.  In this case a round.

 

Some of the planes in the making.  Considering I average 30 planes a year you can see there was a considerable investment made in this production run.  This will never be repeated, it can take years to recover all the investment.

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