# Infill smoothing plane



## Longknife (Oct 25, 2010)

In one of the recent issues of ShopNotes there was a plan for an infill smoothing plane. It looked interesting so I decided to make one and this is the result:











The plan called for 5/32" steel for the sides and 5/16" for the sole. I didn't have any of those dimensions so I used 8mm and 10mm.

The joinery is not the conventional dovetails.Instead steel dowels are used. They are installed in holes drilled through the sides and into the sole. I found that quite attractive, it would have been a tough job cutting dovetails in that thick material.









The idea is to peen the dowels so that they swell in the hole and into the countersinked opening. This didn't work out so well :furious:.
In fact it didn't work at all.

The dowels did not swell in the holes and it was possible to pull them out.

At this stage I was ready to pull out the welder, but I realized that wold not work so well either. The body wouldn't be near to square after that.

Instead I slotted the dowels and installed a steel wedge that goes into the hole. The upper end is then peened. Lot of job with this (would have ben easier to cut dovetails :laughing but it turned out well.









All dowels peened.









I used a thick (3/16") Lee Valley blade. All that iron make it quite heavy but it has a nice balance. The wooden parts are made of bird-cherry

I haven't tried it yet, some finetuning of the mouth and sharpening of the blade to do first.


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## Texas Sawduster (Apr 27, 2009)

*Very Nice*

Very Nice build.
I have that issue of the magazine and would like to give it a try one of these years.


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## ACP (Jan 24, 2009)

Very cool! I can't wait to hear how it works.


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## knotscott (Nov 8, 2007)

That's amazing! :thumbsup:


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## haugerm (Nov 19, 2009)

So cool!
--Matt


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## rayking49 (Nov 6, 2011)

That is very cool.


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## Brink (Nov 22, 2010)

Long, that is fantastic! Love the plane, the metal work looks wonderful. Great solution with the dowels. I'd like to see how the you cut out the sides, can I assume a bandsaw?


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## Longknife (Oct 25, 2010)

Brink said:


> Long, that is fantastic! Love the plane, the metal work looks wonderful. Great solution with the dowels. I'd like to see how the you cut out the sides, can I assume a bandsaw?


I cut the rough shape with an angle grinder and the rest is good old hand filing.


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## Wrangler02 (Apr 15, 2011)

Nice work!! Quick question. Do you have a separate metal working shop? Mixing metal and wood in the same space has always caused me issues.


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## Longknife (Oct 25, 2010)

Wrangler said:


> Nice work!! Quick question. Do you have a separate metal working shop? Mixing metal and wood in the same space has always caused me issues.


No, unfortunaty not. I have a metal working corner in my shop. When it's possible I try to do welding and angle grinding outside the shop but we still have snow here so that's not always an option. (Cooling cut metal is no problem, though :laughing

I agree, metal and woodworking doesn't go well together. I try not to do them both at the same time and clean up thoroughly after the metal working. I've also been considering one of those plastic curtains to separate the metal working area, but my shop is rather cramped so I don't know if it would work.


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## oldmacnut (Dec 27, 2010)

I have the issue of shop notes with that router/lathe build, I really wanna make that something bad.

Sent from my Xoom using Woodworking Talk


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## buggyman1 (Nov 16, 2011)

Is there anything you can't do? Very nice job, i'm impressed.


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## STAR (Jan 1, 2008)

I have allways wanted to make some hand planes. Even got together with a group of guys where we imported the steel from Europe and got the blades professionally cut.

All I had to do was to hone it. it was to be for a large wooden Jointer. The problem was that as I was gathering all the information and doing the research I was given quite a few old wooden planes and other blades from friends who felt that i would appreciate them more then their family who would probably ' flea bay them "

Now, I do not need to make any. I really liked your build Longknife, especially how you were able to do it without some specialised tooling.

Pete

ps.

I am thinking about making a brass backed Dovetail or tennon saw. I have everything here I need except the motivation to start.


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## Brink (Nov 22, 2010)

Longknife said:


> I cut the rough shape with an angle grinder and the rest is good old hand filing.


Wow!! How long did that take?


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## joesbucketorust (Dec 13, 2011)

I like this plane a lot. The lines are crisp and it puts a modern look on an old-style tool. Great job with the metalworking.


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