 |
Into the vice and I cut the ends
and sides of the steel sole close to the body, then filed away the excess
solder and the steel down to the body. |
 |
On to the disk and belt sander,
#60 grit belt then #120 grit belt. I test the sides and sole with a square
and dividers to see if they are identical, working from the sole.
|
|
I put the smoother aside as I worked on the body of the
shoulder plane (it needed more work). The L and R sides needed to be
matched, and the champhers redone, also to match.
|
 |
The sides of the body were not identical, so I cut out
a cardboard template
by tracing around the lower side and used the template to scribe around
the higher side coloured with a black permeant marker. |
 |
With the blade in
place, I scribed down to the throat opening, and across the sole to the
other side. The blade was sitting up a little on a high spot in the
centre, so I scribed a second mark where I would like it to finish up. |
 |
 |
This is what I am aiming for.
The group of 4 bottoms (far left) all have the same throat opening.
The one I did myself, second from the top, and pictured close-up (left)
has a 1.5 mm wide throat. The same as the Mathieson, 3rd down. |
|
cutting the throat...Oh
what fun...
|
 |
I cut across the sole with a jewellers saw
( #4/0 blade) and I ran into a problem. When the body was heated it must
have expanded a little, and on cooling the body must have contracted, so the blade stuck solid near the end
of the cut and broke. I hadn't encountered this with the last one because
I did that in 2 pieces. There was enough
compression in the sole to make it unmovable, so I cut next to it,
releasing the stuck bit of blade and carried the second cut right across.
Opening up the cut to about 0.6mm. With that little piece of blade out, the
original cut almost closed completely. The back and front are VERY
slightly out of plane when it closed the fraction of a mm. I will
get them flat in the final dress up. |
 |
 |
This is the piece I cut out with
the second cut. 0.1mm thick. The final opening I want is about 1.5 mm but I
want the extra metal there to ride the edge of the file along when I file
the bed for the blade. Then I can cut forward to open the mouth to the width I want. |
 |
I use a flat file with
a safety edge (no teeth on one edge) and CAREFULLY file away the steel,
trying to keep it flat, and not touch the brass. The safety edge rides
along the front of the throat. |
 |
The file just starts
to turn a wire over the edge, I am happy so far... |
 |
With the blade in
place it won't come through the narrow opening, but looking back along it
I see I have a high spot in the centre. Much harder to keep this flat than
on the narrow 1/2 inch plane done previously. |
 |
Black marker pen on
the blade, rubbed onto the steel gives me the high spot. |
|
I had an idea to make this easier. I put a flat file
down the throat in place of the blade and swiped it side to side, did well,
but didn't reach out to the sides. A blunt flat file is usually still
sharp at the end, so I will grind the sides off one( shaped like the blade wider at
the end) and use it left to right sideways fashion.
|
|
continued on page 3 |
