From the Workshop

A6 Smoothing Plane

At last I have managed to find a little bit more time  for another entry in my blog.  For this entry I have decided use some old pictures of an A6 in the making as I have come across some pictures which could be useful.  As usual there are a lot of gaps in the picture diary and so I will start with the project already under way.  I feel sure that it will still provide some interest.

This A6 is one of the least copied planes around but is one of my personal favourites.  This is the real smoother as this plane is never much more than 7-7 .5 inches in length as its only job was for surface finishing.  This pattern is one of the most traditional, a fully handled infill plane.

I have been congratulated by many for introducing this informative blog as it shows how different my work is from other plane makers either historic or contemporary.  There are good plane makers but I feel that my methods set me apart. 

 “The nicest things about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from “ Andres S Tannenbaum.

 After all the profiling and dovetailing has been completed (this is the same process as with my other infill planes and has been documented elsewhere in these blogs), I can concentrate on the mouth and the frog.  As you will see from the picture the mouth is slotted and the holes drilled in preparation for the frog riveting.

 This picture shows the frog has been riveted and the heads flushed away.  Here the bed around the mouth is precisionally milled to its angle of 50 degrees. 

 After the bed is completed then the whole plane bottom is turned around so that the front side of the mouth can be trued to its required angle.

 After all the machine working round the mouth leaving only the final finishing work to be filed by hand.

 Here are three bottoms complete and one showing the frog and its mouth slot before assembly.

 Final preparation before peining the dovetailed sides to the bottom.  The picture also shows the sides pre-worked and the blade lateral kicker riveted in place.

 Picture showing milled aluminium former and its ground clamping plates in readiness for assembly of the sides to the bottom.

 The last fitting before it’s too late.

 Everything jigged and set into place using a 6” milling vice.  Note that the dovetails are also clamped.

 Here is the point of no return: peining the brass dovetails into the voids forming the compound dovetail, or double dovetail as I have heard other people call it.

 After the bottom has been peined then the plane is ready for the side peining.  You will see from this picture that any gaps or voids are already taken up.

 Once more everything clamped up in the milling vice.  Note the use of the round clamping bar so the cross sectional area of the plane body will retain its squareness from the true fitting former.

 With everything satisfactorily clamped a light side peining is applied.

 Here you can see the pins being peined in different stages.  This is how I keep my form sharp and crisp.

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