Window to my workshop « From the Workshop

August 14, 2015

Window to my Workshop No 96

Filed under: No 984,Window to my workshop — Tags: classic hand tools, dovetailed, Holtey — admin @ 5:08 pm

It is always tempting to rush off to the next stage, like the bottoms. But once the side profiling is complete there are still quite a number of other operations to be completed and these sides just scream to be finished. The polishing of the sides is a major undertaking and it eats up a lot of my time.

I use four abrading grades and at each stage everything is continually blued which helps me avoid any form corruption.

With a few purpose made spacers I am able to keep the edge polishing true and sharp without any deformation.

It could be embarrassing to mention how much time this operation takes but if perfection is required …..

These sides are now waiting for stamping and another surface grind on the inside faces, for its final texture.

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August 12, 2015

Window to my Workshop 95

Filed under: No 984,Window to my workshop — Tags: precision hand plane, stainless steel — admin @ 6:03 pm

Since the last posting it has been a bit hectic with family visiting. Also I revisited the drawing board a few times as I wasn’t happy with the side profile. I have re-contoured and re-programmed several times until now I am happy with the profile.

These are a few pictures of the current progress.

Next is polishing of the edges, which I love soooo much.

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July 24, 2015

Window to my workshop No 94

Filed under: No 984,Window to my workshop — Tags: classic hand tools, Hand tools, Holtey — admin @ 10:47 am

Drilling the holes in the No 984 plane pre-prepared and surface ground sides which will receive the integral riveting from the bottom.

Once the sides have been drilled they are then ready for profiling. This I do by making a holding plate which is drilled and tapped. In the case of this plane I have chosen six of the fifteen holes which were drilled in the plane sides which is sufficient for work holding purposes

The fixings used here have a 3/16 Whitworth thread to work within the existing holes. I hand cut the threads whilst they are in the milling machine so they are a little small to go through 1/2″ steel. A lot of care and patience is needed here. This means I can only take one or two rotations of cut at a time and then remove the taping tool and blow everything clean, then repeat until I am through.

Now and again I push my luck and this is what happens. This is probably about the worse horror because I have a large piece of the tap seized in the tapping hole with a jagged shard of HSS tap sticking up. If this couldn’t be removed then I would have to spend the best part of a day to grind and drill another holding plate. However, whilst it was in situ I was able to write another programme to mill the broken tap away with a very high quality tungsten carbide end mill. This could have only worked in the CNC as it needed a consistent very slow feed rate. It leaves me on a bit of a high when this works. Not only did I remove the broken tap but the original thread and true axis was maintain. This is extremely important or it would have had to be scrapped.

Sometimes I like to mention this sort of trivia as it is a whole part of the whole process, often unseen. As I have said before, it is not just the tools I make but the tools I make to make them with.

This is the end of the building process for the holding tool, showing the jig screws. Also showing the mirrored side on the left. Mirroring or pair handing is necessary where there is chamfering and countersinking involved.

After use this holding tool will go into my cupboard to join all the others, as each tool is dedicated to its type. It is sad that in the case of this one it will not be coming out again.

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July 17, 2015

Window to my Workshop 93

Filed under: No 984,Window to my workshop — Tags: stainless steel, traditional — admin @ 5:27 pm

The blades arrived back from heat treatment and after many hours grinding and polishing they are now finished. Just packing them in oiled paper until the planes are ready.

The hardening is the only thing I outsource. Everything else is made inhouse.

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July 13, 2015

Window to my Workshop no 92

Filed under: No 984,Window to my workshop — Tags: adjuster, classic hand tools, stainless steel — admin @ 5:00 pm

One of the boring sides of this detail. It is no simple polishing job as the valleys formed by the mill are very hard to smooth out.

It is a case of starting with a coarse abrasive and working down to 1200 grade and then I wrap a piece of denim cloth infused with metal polish for the final polish.

That is a reflection of my magnetic tool rack which looks like a row of vertical scratches.

It seems odd doing polishing at this stage but it is the sequence which I choose to do the work in which gives me the finish. When all the riveting and adjuster recessing are complete I can surface grind the inner parts so everything is sharp and pristine.

Somebody on a forum described my work as being clinical and having no soul, maybe he is right and it is dammed hard work to keep it up

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July 7, 2015

Window to my Workshop 91

Filed under: No 984,Window to my workshop — Tags: precision hand plane, traditional — admin @ 5:03 pm

A little bit more of my daily drudge and a little bit more pain.

This is not so kind on my mill. I use 4 cutters in the forming of this detail for the front and rear bow. When the milling operation is complete there will be at least two days polishing them. Lots of sore hands and fingers. The last time I did this (on No 983), I had to have my hand stitched up by the local doctor.

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June 23, 2015

Window to my workshop 89

Filed under: No 984,Window to my workshop — Tags: Classic, Hand tools, Holtey, precision hand plane, stainless steel — admin @ 4:54 pm

As I have said on my web page the No 984 panel plane is to be my last. This is the beginning of the promised blog. I have been a bit slow starting as I have been busy with stock sales and many enquiries. Thank you very much for all your nice comments – I am not actually retiring as most people I knew retired and died, I will keep up the coffin dodging and I have many other things to do. These No 984 planes will keep me going for about 3 months.

This is the 420 stainless steel that I am using for the bottoms and sides of the plane. The plan is to start knocking some weight off them. I am trying not to let the weight of the finished plane go over 3 kilos. All surfaces will be milled and ground. The steel that I have here is enough to make a limited batch of 12 planes.

Here begins the slog, there is a lot of material to come away. This picture shows a bottom starting out 12 mm thick and it will end up just over 10 mm in the finished plane.

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February 18, 2015

Filed under: Window to my workshop — admin @ 2:46 pm

Unfortunately in future I will have to charge my UK customers postage. I have managed to absorb this in the past but cannot any longer, mainly due to insurance cost increases.

Overseas customers will still pay the courier charge at cost.

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November 5, 2014

Window to my workshop 82

Filed under: A28,Chariot Plane,Window to my workshop — Tags: Classic, dovetail, Hand tools, handplanes, precision — admin @ 11:33 am

During the working of this A28 plane I have been neglecting this blog but now I am ready to update which I will do over the next few weeks.

All the sections I use are cut out of stock material and brought down to size, by sawing and milling.

As most of my working and setting out depends on a high degree of precision (which has never existed before) surface grinding in the early stages allows me to achieve my goals.

This picture shows the edges being ground. This is also important to have a true pinch dimension. I need this for the dovetailing.

Jigs and work holding fixtures are also all made to precision. After much preparation work to the brass, similar to the steel work as described. Then rivet positions are drilled and I am able to screw these sides with purpose made bolts to the fixture for profiling and chamfering.

After routing out the profile then the chamfering is completed whilst the sides are still jigged.

Just overall set up pictures.

Here are the some sides already milled and some pre-prepared waiting for profiling.

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September 1, 2014

Window to my Workshop 81

Filed under: A28,Chariot Plane,Window to my workshop — Tags: Classic, dovetail, Hand tools, Holtey, precision — admin @ 2:52 pm

This Chariot is the last item in the series of low angle planes I have been making recently. I have only made a few of these planes and that was a long time ago in my early days of plane making. Then my side profiles were cut by hand and I made up a template which I would scribe round. Now that I CNC these the machine can’t see my template so I have had to re-draw it showing co-ordinates to write a programme from.

This line drawing by today’s standards might look a bit primitive but I have never had the leisure to learn to use a CAD. With a drawing showing contours I can write this in to my control unit. Drawing contours is more instinct than anything and I just know when it is right however long it takes (I would be ashamed to tell you how long these ones took).

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