Pictures are better than words when it comes to describing how to make something. So yesterday, I made a curved sole finger plane, keeping a camera within reach to record each step. I hope these photographs will be a useful supplement to the written instructions in my last post. Read across the rows to stay in sequence and click on any of the thumbnails for a larger view and (sometimes) more detailed comments.
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- Quarter sawn block of elder
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- Lignum vitae
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- Blade
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- One flat surface on each block
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- Gluing the two together
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- Flattening the back of the blade
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- Block planed square on all sides
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- Sliced into a sandwich
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- Checking the width of the middle of the sandwich
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- Marking for the saw cuts
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- Middle layer sawn
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- How it goes back together
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- How it goes back together (2)
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- Glueing it back together
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- Re-assembled and glued
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- Planing the sole
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- Making a wedge
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- Positioning the crossbar
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- Drilling for the crossbar
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- Drilled
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- Turning the crossbar
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- Checking with the blade and wedge
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- Crossbar installed and glued
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- Shaping the top (1)
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- Shaping the top (2)
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- Shaping the sole
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- Shaped sole
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- Adjusting the mouth
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- Curving the cutting edge of the blade
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- Trying it out
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- Finalising the shaping of the top and throat
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- Carving the wedge
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- Cutting excess length from the blade
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- The three parts finished
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- … and assembled
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- Testing
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- Tight mouth
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- The finished plane
One Comment
Very fine work. I am impressed. Can you recommend a ready made group of planes. I’m planning on a line of mandolins.
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[...] want to find them, go to the bottom of the page and type plane into the seach box. Or click here, here and here. There’s also a short entry about them on the tools and jigs [...]