This post has been written by Vittorio, a friend of mine very skilled with hand tools. I only translate from Italian (hope not too badly) his great job. Thank you Vittorio and welcome to the blog!  For some time I thought to build a metal plane and surfing the net I found a lot of ideas and this very good project:http://user.xmission.com/~jry/ww/tools/a13/a13.htmland my adventure started!
I thank you Jim Yehle from Salt Lake City, the author of the project from which my plane was inspired. I used Fe 430 steel. I think it is strong enough for good plane sturdiness and at same time permits to use hand tools for working it easily; I used 6 mm thick plate for the sole and a 5mm one for sides.
I started by coupling sides together, marking joints and boring for reducing the steel amount to be discarded; with patience I shaped the dovetails. These have 60° angles, as well as files have.

I cut the sole, marked out tails and sawn them as precisely as possible; this job was far more difficult.

Finally, the two sides are ready as well as a wooden support, useful for dovetail peening.

The iron holder comes from a 10 mm steel plate. It has a 47.5° angle and also is useful as support to the file for cutting the mouth back.

Side shaping, first lapping with 100 grit abrasive paper and 6mm rivet plugging in for blade holder fastening. 

The dovetail peening is the most important step; although the wooden support helps, it is important to control that the internal part of sides is square, to avoid troubles during plane assembling.

Cleaning up with a file and abrasive paper, until joints disappear and the sole is flat.

For making the lever cap I used template steel, a very strong material. I had to do more work for shaping it.

Handle and knob come from a 3mm thick well seasoned ash board; apparently working wood seems easier than shaping metal, but I spent several hours to obtain the right shapes.

I used 8mm steel rods (bored in a machine shop) as spacers for handle fixing. Rods were threaded inside and inserted into the wood; as said above if the inner side is not square to the sole, the spacer ability of firmly holding the wood in place will be decreased. 

The wood has been finished with 8 coats of shellac, fixed to metal body with screws firmly screwed and then clinched.   Unfortunately ordinary screws have the conical section too low, so the countersink has not completely filled. However the final lapping  helps to attenuate the gap.

The blade comes from an old industrial cutter. It has been worked with glass paper for obtaining the 25° bevel and with 3M abrasives (40, 30, 15, 5, 1, 0.3 microns) for honing a 30° microbevel.

Finally the road test. I tried the plane with fir, lime and beech. Its a pleasure use it. This is sufficient for satisfying me enough of the job, done only using hand tools. 

The mouth opening is 1 mm. The plane weights 2260 gr.

Here is a pic of the polished infill plane. It is already at work.

Final notes.

While I am waiting for a knurled screw for lever cap, I have done a wooden cap.Although the plane lacks of adjusting mechanism, its set up is easy.

The handle tail could appear too accentuate, but the grip results very ergonomic.

After all I am very happy beaucause has been a great experience with a good result.Ciao 

Vittorio 

Read More..

As part of his day job at an information officer for Penalla County, Tom Iovino of tomsworkbench.com has been in Brooklyn for the past week and a half helping to manage the logistics of the Citys response to Hurricane Sandy. When they finally changed from 12 to 8 hour shifts, Tom and I met up when he got off work and made a trip to Tools for Working Wood (just to find it closed). We then headed back to Long Island to have some dinner, provide Tom some respite from the City and hang out the Penultimate Woodshop. We finished the night with a jaunt to Tim Hortons for a double double and a cruller before I dropped Tom back off at his hotel.

A closed Tools for Working Wood makes for a sad shop monkey.

This was a fun night, because Ive become friends with Tom since first meeting him at Woodworking in America 2009.

Nights like this (& the ones weve had at Woodworking in America and Fine Woodworking Live) have truly developed my passion for woodworking. Its one thing to sit alone in your shop and build something. Its something entirely different to sit around with fellow woodworkers and discuss the craft you love. Combining them is what has turned woodworking from a hobby to a passion for me.

Meeting and getting to know other woodworkers is what makes
woodworking events special.

As I meet more and more woodworkers, I feel confident saying that this is true for most (if not all). Its not about the wood, its about the community. Meet other woodworkers. Ultimately, thats just as important as the woodworking itself.

This Thanksgiving lets be thankful not just for the big things (like making it through Sandy) and the small things (like a four day weekend), but also for the now routine things (like interacting with other woodworkers online) that werent possible just a few years ago.

A few years ago, whod have imagined a dinner of readers, Fine Woodworking
editors and Lie-Nielsen staff.

Personally, I’m thankful to Chris Adkins for starting the Modern Woodworkers Association. It’s been great to play the supporting role I’ve been able to play and help spread our love of woodworking to others. Hopefully we’re helping to spread the craft and community we’re all so thankful for.

Read More..

Is ......
likely that the thin chip is stopped between the two irons with
resulting plane mouth clogging. It is therefore necessary to carefully flatten the surface portion  of the chipbreaker that 
adheres to the blade and ensure a perfect fit between the parties. The problem is that sometimes (if not frequently) the chipbreaker is not regular and after the iron screw has been tight the
blade may show non contact areas, despite having flattened with
care.  Being soft iron, we can try to straighten the chipbreaker in the vice but this is a little difficult job. Another method is to create a burr on the chipbreaker edge, by which we can close any (small) residual gap. The procedure
plans to keep the chipbreaker with an angle respect to a flat surface on which we attack a sheet of 150 grit abrasive paper. Move repeatedly backwards until the metal burr forms. So
use a small screwdriver (electrician models have
the right thin measure) and pass it along the contact line between the two iron until they adhere perfectly.
The process takes few minutes!

   

Read More..