The 125-38SBP (Brute) Dissected, also "There's Grinding and then there's Grinding

I'm in the midst of completing a group of "Brute" shooting planes. I use the magnetic chuck of my surface grinder to hold parts during assembly. The chuck supplies the other two hands I generally need during this task. During the process I thought it might be interesting to snap a picture of a cross section of this plane.

This tool is bedded at a low angle of 38 degrees. It's a bevel down design so 38 degrees is the effective cutting angle. This configuration puts the bevel of the iron almost in a line with the cutting action of the plane. With a primary grind of 25 degrees and then a secondary bevel of 27 to 28 degrees it still has around 10 degrees of clearance angle. Plenty, but it does need to be maintained.

The threaded holes serving as assembly points will have taper pins interspersed between those locations when all the parts are in place. This creates a very accurate and rigid structure, for all practical purposes a metal torsion box. The taper pins go into reamed holes and fit zero clearance. When the pins are set with a hammer it creates what we used to call in the fabrication industry, "End of the World Stuff".

If I've performed my work correctly it goes together marvelously well and makes a well fitted assembly. For this to happen quite close tolerances have to be maintained on every part that makes up the assembly.

All the grinding of the interior surfaces has to be completed prior to assembly and then protected during subsequent operations.  Clean vises and not trapping chips between vise cauls and the interior of the plane body is something that requires close attention. Other wise it is possible to damage areas that are no longer accessible for further work. When the threaded assembly pins are in place, peined and the taper pins are installed, it's then time to refine the exterior surfaces. Of course one of the most important functional surfaces on any plane is the sole.

The components of this plane are made from so-called precision ground stock. It is supposedly flat to .001 over a distance of 12 inches. I find that it is rarely this accurate. What comes in as precision ground and what leaves my shop as precision ground are two entirely different versions.

While grinding a designated amount of material is removed per pass. This differs depending on the material being work. Most are surprised to know that harden material like plane irons are actually easier to grind than the annealed material that makes up the body of the plane.

 As you proceed with this work the material warms slightly and expands.  In a process that starts with material being removed by 5 tenths to 6 tenths of one thousandth per pass, the final passes will be in the 2 to 3 tenths range. The entire body of the plane is allowed to completely cool again to the ambient temperature of the shop prior to making the final passe. On the first of the two final passes material will almost always be removed at the toe and the heel and not in the center of the sole which has cooled and contracted. Only after these final passes do you achieve a sole that is in fact quite extremely flat. Not allowing the plane body to cool prior to the last passes will leave a slightly low area just before and aft of the mouth opening.

In function this would not allow you to achieve as fine a setting of the iron and would not hold the fibers as tightly for shearing at the front of the mouth. Note the tightly wound shavings, of end grain no less, in the above picture. A very sharp iron and the other mentioned factors come into play to create this result as well as a polished surface on the end of the 45 degree cut of the sample board.

Ron


Leon Redbone was performing in Savannah, Ga. and was accompanied by a gentleman playing the tuba. During a break between songs the tuba player turns to Leon and says "Leon the Invisible man is here", Leon replied, "tell him I can't see him right now!" 

Desert Iron Wood

For some time now I've been interested in obtaining some Desert Iron Wood to use as totes and knobs and infills for my planes. My first attempts at purchasing this material didn't go well and I ended up with pieces with such obvious defects that I just didn't think they would be acceptable.

A couple of months ago I received an email from a supplier of this material advertising defect free bowl blanks. They were pricey but I knew the opportunity to obtain pieces this size defect free might be few and far between so I made a purchase.

When I received the blanks I was most pleased to find that one measured single digits in moisture content. A couple of weeks in my finishing kiln and it was ready to use. There was just one problem.

I've never turned a knob or shaped a tote from this material and the plane for which they were destined had to be ready for the recent Lie-Nielsen event at Woodcraft Atlanta.

Working unfamiliar materials with short time is not something that I approach lightly. Honestly I was excited to work this material and scared to death at the same time. If I invested a lot of time and then experienced a problem I wouldn't have sufficient time to recover. I finally decided nothing ventured, nothing gained and set about the work.

I began work on the rear tote early in the morning and finally applied the first coat of finish that night at 11:30. This material has a specific gravity of 1.20. I first thought that was a typo and it was more like Macassar Ebony which is 1.02. Nope, it's 1.20. I milled the blank with a fly cutter on the mill equipped with carbide inserts. The shavings coming off this material were shaped more like metal shavings than wood shavings. This stuff may well be harder than brass.

I do a certain amount of material excavation on a tote with power tools and I was thinking router tooling was going to be a problem, ironically the surfaces left behind by that tool were glassy smooth. When starting the hand tool removal of wood with a chisel I had envisioned having to pull up a new edge on my 1/2 chisel quite often. Once again this material surprised me. It actually got out of the way of a chisel fairly easily. However when I attempted to make the tight inside corner at the top the tote nice and sharp by cutting into the corner with the chisel I noticed this material kept fracturing right in the corner. I eventually had to resort to abrasives wrapped around the tight corner of a piece of brass to remedy this issue.

After all the fixing points were established and the final shape was attained with a varied selection of hand tools all the surfaces were final sanded up thru 1000 grit. When I flowed on the oil finish that night at 11:30 I was rewarded for my efforts. I've been to this point with a lot of different materials but the experience with this wood was something different and particularly special.

The  turning of the knob the next morning went quite well and in the end I actually had the plane completed with a day to spare.

Ron

Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event at WoodCraft Atlanta

Besides being a very well stocked woodworking store and having a well appointed shop adjacent to a state of the art teaching facility, WoodCraft Atlanta is a very friendly, welcoming place to visit. You can tell the customers that frequent this store are comfortable there. I don't know about you but I'm always going to migrate to the place where I feel comfortable and this weekend during the 2 days I spent in this store it was apparent the people that frequent this store feel the same.

I know when I walk thru the door Steve Quehl, Robert and the rest of the staff are going to welcome my presence and if it's your first time there they'll do the same for you.

I've participated in several events at this store and this weekend there was lots of activity.

Curtis and Tim were on hand from Lie-Nielsen demonstrating tools and answering questions. These guys are knowledgeable and charismatic about hand tool work. If you talk to Tim you may well learn a bit about lobster fishing as well.

The local SAPFM chapter members were there performing all kinds of interesting work. These members basically just bring in pieces or parts of pieces they have in process so people can observe them performing these task. It's pretty amazing and it's a learning experience as well. The tool chest below was made by a gentleman named Ken Kline and it is an amazing piece of work. He's brought this piece along to other events and I always discover something different about it every time I have the pleasure to see it.

The chair below is the work of Marion Smith. The details in both of these pieces is remarkable.

Several local turners were on hand during both days turning all kinds of different objects. With the holidays approaching Christmas tree ornaments seemed to be a popular item.

Bob Zajicek of Czeck Edge Tools was there with a full array of his offerings and Jon Fiant a local Work Bench Builder from Marietta was on hand talking to folks about workbench construction. The bench in front of them was made by Steve Quehl at the French Oak Roubo Project this summer. Bob and Jon were standing next to a piece of history.

There was also a bandsaw tune up clinic and a Saw Stop demonstration, and I was there as well showing some planes that I had just completed, but I was the one taking the pictures so you'll have to take my word for it.

Ron

Working Under a Time Line and.......Halloween Stuff

 I'm working with time constraints this week. I don't enjoy that. Plane making requires a lot of concentration and is not something that one can rush without risk. However I'm participating in a Lie-Nielsen event this weekend and I have a Winter Panel Plane coming together that I would really like to have at that event so I don't have much choice in the matter. To make matters even worse this is my first attempt putting Desert Iron Wood in a plane. If you live in the Atlanta area drop by Steve Quehl's Atlanta Woodcraft store this Friday and Saturday. If things go well I'll have a Winter Panel Plane that you can put thru it's paces. If things don't go well I'll have some other planes. Such is life.

For more information and times follow this link:   https://www.lie-nielsen.com/usa/woodcraft-of-atlanta-open-house/

I'm not much of a Halloween enthusiast, however this year while browsing some social media sites I ran across some stuff that really shows the true spirit of Halloween..... fun for kids.

Below is a short video of one of the neatest ideas for a Halloween costume I've seen in quite some time. I just couldn't resist posting this.

Having just visited Brooklyn, NY a couple of weeks ago this picture on "Humans of New York" was pretty hilarious. The caption was "Robin Smells a Crime". It seems a lot of dogs end up in the pictures on "HUMANS of New York".

During this time of year my preference is typically photos of fall harvesting as shown in this picture. This photo was not found in historical archives. Helen English Ellis snapped this photo just this week in Lancaster, PA. As a kid I was involved in square bale hay harvesting but the wagon was pulled by a tractor. A team of horses doing this work is a thing of beauty. Also notice the kid in the shadows of the bales.

Fall may be my favorite time of year. I'm partial to the seasons that allow me to work with the front door of the shop open.

Ron

Winter Smoother Different Flavor

I never ceased to be astounded how one can the take a plane form, apply different combinations of woods and surface treatments of the metal parts and create something that is quite different from the plane of the same form completed just a bit over a week earlier.

This particular plane, compared to the Olive and Stainless plane in the last post are as different as you could possibly expect when considering two objects using the same lines and overall form.

A darker wood, Rosewood in this case,  with contrasting highlights and brass with an aged patina, coupled with a plane body made from 0-1 steel creates an entirely different presence.

It's what makes this work so interesting and actually quite a bit of creative fun.

Ron

The Stainless Winter Smoother is Complete

Sometimes the hard part of this work is taking this tool that you've just poured yourself into and putting it in a box and sending it on it's way. Of course that's the ultimate goal but nevertheless it would be nice to have time to use the plane for a couple of days just to get the full experience of that particular tool.

That would have been particularly interesting with this tool because it was a slightly nonstandard version of the Winter Smoother. The thicker stainless sides on this tool created a bit of a different package of mass in that this tool is just a bit heavier than the 0-1 version.

As I was tuning this tool and then subsequently putting it thru it's paces I frankly forgot that it was any different. That's a good impression because that means it's not overtly toe heavy and it never occurred to me that there was any misplaced weight anywhere in this tool.

There was one other thing I learned when taking and then editing the photos of this tool. If you're not careful when enhancing a photograph you can change the color of a piece of wood to something that it really can never be. I had to go back into edit mode to color correct my overzealous editing. You may notice in this last photo that the wood is a bit more orange than the other photos. The Olive wood will change dramatically over the next couple of years but it will never be that orange.

I had one major interruption while completing some of the final operations on this plane Saturday afternoon. Julie set out to do a bit of yard work on such a beautiful early fall day and shortly thereafter came walking into the shop with a rather pale look on her face. Once she was over pointing outdoors and speaking incoherently she finally blurted out "SNAKE!" While fetching the wheel barrow she noticed it contained some water which she immediately poured out on a nearby bush. The bush immediately started rattling and that is when she realized she was in close proximity to a Timber Rattler!

Fortunately as soon as she heard the noise she stepped away and was never within striking distance as the snake coiled up.

 It actually would be a rare fall if we didn't see a one of these snakes this time of year. I guess it's getting too cool for them to operate efficiently at night and they're trying to feed a bit more before time to hibernate for the winter, so it just makes sense they would be more apt to crossing paths with a human this time of year. Of course finding yourself in close proximity to one of these is always an alarming experience. We went our way, the snake went his. Everyone was happy....well I guess the snake was happy. Who knows how a snake feels after an unexpected shower?

Ron

Winter Smoothers Coming Together........and Woodworking in America

As of late I've been working on a batch of 3 Winter Smoothers. The opportunity to have this tool at an event where woodworkers could actually put their hands on this plane had not occurred until this past spring at the Handworks Event in Iowa. It was received quite well and it immediately became apparent to the attendees that this was a very versatile plane.

Some people have asked "if I could have just one of your planes, which would you recommend?" I always suggest this plane. Why? This plane is easy to handle when using it to clean up jointed edges, face or door frames, however it's substantial enough for smoothing panels.

I'm obviously a fan of all my offerings but I have to say that this plane is my favorite. It's fast becoming the favorite plane of many customers as well.

One customer requested that I make this plane for him in 440c stainless. You may notice that the plane on the left in the picture has slightly thicker sides. The standard side thickness for this plane when made in 0-1 steel is 5/32 (.156), however I can only source the stainless in 3/16" (.187). If I try to dramatically reduce the thickness of the stainless it will stress relieve and frankly it will bow and do all kinds of crazy stuff. The only remedy to this would be to stress relieve this material and frankly I have no way of exposing this material to the kind of heat required to accomplish this so 3/16 sides it is on the 440C version of this plane.

Woodworking in America would have been a great opportunity to give woodworkers a chance to try this plane and that is one event I had really hoped to include in my event schedule this fall, however it is not to be. My lead time at present is the longest it has been in the history of my business and for that reason I really need to stay in the shop, make planes and do everything thing I can to reduce the time it takes to get planes into the hands of customers. Filling orders is obviously the other way to get this plane into the hands of woodworkers.

If you plan to attend WIA have a great time. It's a great event......maybe I'll get there next year.

Ron

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