# Making Moulding Planes - Wooden Planes



## firemedic

I have a few projects coming up that will require some rather large matched hollows & rounds and I've had some trouble finding what I need with out spending over $1k for a matched set of 20. SOooo it's time to make em myself...

I was unable to locate any 8-10/4 beech locally however I was able to trade a guy over on the barter site for some 4/4 so I decided to go with laminations to get the ball rolling. The picture starts off with a glued up blank marked out for my tongue mortice and mouth. I'm basing the dimensions and angles off of my other planes so the iron bedding angle is 50 deg and the opposing mouth angle is 60 deg.

I got the mortise started, then used a hand cc saw to establish the mouth.


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## firemedic

Finished the through mortise, widened the mouth. Then I planned out my radius and started with a jack, then to a finely set block and then to sand paper. 

It's not pictured but I slapped on a coat of BLO and set it aside to work on the iron.


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## firemedic

I marked out my blade on some oil hardened 1/8 starret brand steel (unsure of grade). The temper has previously been removed and I was able to cut it with a 12 TPI high tension hacksaw.

Then I installed it after a bit of tweaking with the grinder, marked my profile and went back to the grinder with it. The wedge you see pictured is from one of my other old planes... I'll make it it's own later and sharpen the iron. 

This was all done this morn from 0700-1130 so it's been a bit intensive but I think it's going well. I'll sharpen the iron and run some test after lunch and Jr's Dr apt.

Take care, and thanks for looking!


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## mdntrdr

Awesome! :thumbsup:


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## joesbucketorust

Very nice. But is that a round or a full half circle?


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## tito5

awesome work.


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## firemedic

joesbucketorust said:


> Very nice. But is that a round or a full half circle?


It's sort of an offset round :smile: the idea is that it should allow me to cut sort of a half tear drop shape by leaning it to the side. It's probably going to take some refining to get to what I'm wanting though. Because of that I'm going to play with it for a while before I use it to match the match which is already roughed out but even close to completed.


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## joesbucketorust

firemedic said:


> It's sort of an offset round :smile: the idea is that it should allow me to cut sort of a half tear drop shape by leaning it to the side. It's probably going to take some refining to get to what I'm wanting though. Because of that I'm going to play with it for a while before I use it to match the match which is already roughed out but even close to completed.


That's so confusing I think I just got brain freeze! :laughing:
When you are done half-teardropping it how much of a circle will it cut? Half (gutter planes and bullnoses) or 1/6 of a circle (hollows and rounds)?


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## Brink

Very cool, but...

I see the wood marked, then cut, I see planes rounding over. Then I see steel marked, and then there's a blade.

Nothing Showing the steel being cut, sparks, swarf, no fire.


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## firemedic

Brink said:


> Very cool, but...
> 
> I see the wood marked, then cut, I see planes rounding over. Then I see steel marked, and then there's a blade.
> 
> Nothing Showing the steel being cut, sparks, swarf, no fire.


I used a hacksaw! No sparks or flame there! But here's some fire all the same :smile:


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## Brink




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## firemedic

joesbucketorust said:


> That's so confusing I think I just got brain freeze! :laughing:
> When you are done half-teardropping it how much of a circle will it cut? Half (gutter planes and bullnoses) or 1/6 of a circle (hollows and rounds)?


Ahh! I follow ya. Yeah I think what I wanted and what I made may be two different things :laughing: I played with it a bit prior to tempering the blade and it's not really what I had in mind.

Not having one already I didn't know what I needed. I am going to have to make the plane much narrower with the same radius to do what I'm wanting. Learning every day!


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## joesbucketorust

They are "sized" based on the radius of a the circle they match, but they don't cut the whole circle (obviously impossible) and they don't even cut a half circle (those are the bullnoses). 


Most hollows/rounds 1" and under cut an arc 1/6 of a circle. By some freak of mathematics that also means that a hollow plane sized 4 will be 1/4" wide and will cut an arc equal to 1/6 of a circle with a radius of 1/4.
And a round plane of size 8 will be 8/16" wide and will cut an arc equal to 1/6 of a circle with radius 8/16. 

There are a few books out on the subject ranging from cheap to expensive. I think there's also all the info you need on the internet if you've got the basic wood cutting stuff down and just need the math. Here's a starter link:

http://www.calast.com/personal/ken/Sizing.htm


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## firemedic

joesbucketorust said:


> They are "sized" based on the radius of a the circle they match, but they don't cut the whole circle (obviously impossible) and they don't even cut a half circle (those are the bullnoses).
> 
> Most hollows/rounds 1" and under cut an arc 1/6 of a circle. By some freak of mathematics that also means that a hollow plane sized 4 will be 1/4" wide and will cut an arc equal to 1/6 of a circle with a radius of 1/4.
> And a round plane of size 8 will be 8/16" wide and will cut an arc equal to 1/6 of a circle with radius 8/16.
> 
> There are a few books out on the subject ranging from cheap to expensive. I think there's also all the info you need on the internet if you've got the basic wood cutting stuff down and just need the math. Here's a starter link:
> 
> http://www.calast.com/personal/ken/Sizing.htm


Thanks, Joe! I appreciate the link. I was unsure of how the numbering but more importantly the radius segments went. I think that's all I'll need!


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## autre

That is just superb.


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## tc65

I just want to say thanks for another great thread (in progress). :thumbsup:

So Tom, when are you going to have some ready for sale???:smile:


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## firemedic

trc65 said:


> I just want to say thanks for another great thread (in progress). :thumbsup:
> 
> So Tom, when are you going to have some ready for sale???:smile:


Glad you enjoyed it so far. I got the blade hardened then tempered and then polished and honed around 0400 this morn. I tried it out before heading over to the mill for the day and it seemed to work very well. All in all though it's a LOT of cutting surface to push through wood so all the more reason to take note of Joe's info above. 

As for "ready to sell" probably never, lol. Unless someone out there needs a special profile and either convinces me I should make it for them or is willing to pay decent $ for it :smile:


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## lawrence

great job Tom!! Im not making any headway on mine,,,,,still to busy but I do have some high carbon steel I'll send your way if you want..hard as hell to cut but holds an edge forever


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## firemedic

lawrence said:


> great job Tom!! Im not making any headway on mine,,,,,still to busy but I do have some high carbon steel I'll send your way if you want..hard as hell to cut but holds an edge forever


Thx! I'm not sure what this steel is, lol but an odd lot box for pretty cheap. It hardens and tempers pretty well though. Thanks for the offer, I'll remember that if I end up in need.

So no progress with your plane project?


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## HandToolGuy

What a great build thread. Please keep th pics coming as you close in on your goal.


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## firemedic

HandToolGuy said:


> What a great build thread. Please keep th pics coming as you close in on your goal.


I'll be building version 2.0 in the next few days more inline with the information Joe provided. I'll continue that in this same thread.


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## JQMack

Was there a specific reason to use beech? I have some Maple scraps that would make a wonderful plane.


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## Brink

Beech seems to be the traditional choice. 

I have seen maple, along with other exotic woods for planes.


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## firemedic

Brink said:


> Beech seems to be the traditional choice.
> 
> I have seen maple, along with other exotic woods for planes.


+1

Beech is the traditional lumber used for planes, particularly moulding planes. It's stable, hard and not extremely heavy. Other woods can certainly be used but beech is nice if for nothing else than it's easy to work. 

Beech isn't the hardest wood by any means and that's why you'll find many moulding planes have boxwood inlays in high friction / high wear & tear areas.

Cured pecan should make for excellent planes and I suspect hard maple would as well. I'm trying to get my hands on some live oak in leu of box wood for plane parts.


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## firemedic

Brink said:


> Beavis and Butthead FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!: Annotation Quotes - YouTube


:furious::laughing:


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## tito5

hey firemedic - do you watch the woodwrights shop with roy underhill? the episode on saturday featured a few planes that look like the one you are building. it was a really interesting show building raised panels. I wish netflix had this and other woodworking show on. ok I have nothing really to add to this thread other than that.....


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## Shop Dad

Sign me up. Don't want to miss 2.0! :smile:


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## firemedic

tito5 said:


> hey firemedic - do you watch the woodwrights shop with roy underhill? the episode on saturday featured a few planes that look like the one you are building. it was a really interesting show building raised panels. I wish netflix had this and other woodworking show on. ok I have nothing really to add to this thread other than that.....


I use to watch Roy do his thing and I have a LOT of respect for the man. He's certainly responsible for getting a lot of current hand toolers started. Unfortunately I no longer get the series since I switched to a satellite tv provider. 

You can watch the episodes online at pbs.org. I believe they lag one yr but still. I like to think Roy and I have a lot in common but the truth is I'm just an acorn compared to him!


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## tito5

yeah the more I watch, him the more I want to switch to all hand tools, just seems simpler if you have the time to put into it.


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## Brink

tito5 said:


> yeah the more I watch, him the more I want to switch to all hand tools, just seems simpler if you have the time to put into it.


He does make it look like fun.


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## HandToolGuy

I saw a video of a class that Roy taught. They made wooden handles for chests and turned them on a treadle powered lathe! Wow, would I love to have one of those. He just made it look so easy and seemed to be having so much fun!


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## firemedic

HandToolGuy said:


> I saw a video of a class that Roy taught. They made wooden handles for chests and turned them on a treadle powered lathe! Wow, would I love to have one of those. He just made it look so easy and seemed to be having so much fun!


Well, when you love what you do it's WILL be fun!


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