Plane Cabinet

When I did my workbench I enclosed a shelf for most utilized planes. The shelf became full rapidly and several planes had not a dedicate place. 
The solution was building a new cabinet for hand planes, a good way for keeping them in order and ready to use.

I used the frame and panel technique, with panels inserted in grooves cut in the frame inner edge. 

on the bottom are the long planes boxes

The loop screw engages a chain for keeping the mobile shelf

the cabinet is anchored to the wall for avoid its tipping

For a better use of available space, the long planes are held in vertical position in the back side of cabinet


The smaller planes are on a mobile shelf; this rotates, permitting the access to the back. 

Long planes are available after the shelf is tilted forward

The wood was mainly recycled Douglas, coming from old windows and some piece of silver fir. 

By utilizing recycled wood, we'll have to accept some defects it will show, if we want to avoid of discarding too much wood.
In this case the wood was varnished and exposed to sun (windows) during some decades; this caused tone differences you can see mainly in lateral panels.However this is a shop cabinet and I think some defect is acceptable.

The building  details are shown in the video in the previous post.

Frame and Panels, a way for building furnitures......

......offering many advantages:
1) Panels are thin and allow to lighten the structure and save wood

2) Frame can be jointed by tenon and mortice, a simple and sturdy way.
3) We can add mouldings and raised fields.
4) Panels are free of moving in the frame following the humidity changes.

But have a close view in the following video:

Moving Fillister, for rebates and....for making raised panels

The adjustable fence rebate plane is a wooden plane able to compete with its metallic sisters. This model I own, is a moving fillister and comes from UK, made by the planemaker William Kendall (York, 1818-1830). 

These planes have a sturdy structure, with side escapement and a skewed blade. The plane has a depth stop, adjustable by a brass thumb screw on the plane top. More, on the left side is also present a nicker, held by a wooden little wedge. Its function is to pre-cut the wood fibers while planing across the grain. On the bottom is the adjustable fence; two big screws stop it at the wished rebate width.
The plane works very well along the grain as well as across the grain. For this reason I use to utilize it for making simple raised panels too.

 The first step is to trace the final thickness on all four edges.
This dimension is the same of groove width, minus a quote (1 mm in this case with a 15 mm rebate) for permitting to the panel edge to be inserted correctly into the groove and to move in the case humidity changes were.

The panel is worked across the grain first on both sides.

This trick allows to correct the possible tearout when the plane comes out from the piece.

With the nicker in cutting position trace the internal rebate width by moving the plane backwards for a couple of times. Then set the depth stop and cut the rebate.

In the successive step the plane is inclined on the left side for making the bevel. A ca.10°  slope (I cut it by eye) is enough for obtaining the wished effect.

The job finishes when the thickness mark is reached.

A piece of frame is useful for be sure the panel fits correctly in its groove.


Repeat the same steps for longitudinal cuts, without nicker this time.

Some little finishing by a shoulder plane and the panel is ready to be used.

A new old home for the Lewin Universal Plane

Some days ago I finished writing an article about combination planes and their uses for the Italian woodworking magazine Legnolab. Was this an occasion for a job I had in mind for some time, regarding a not so common combination plane, the Lewin Universal Plane.
The Lewin plane was a British tool sold around 50s. 
Very close to Stanley 45 and 50, is featured by an aluminium body onto which steel skates are fixed. Another particular feature are the cam bolts; they permit a faster and easier part fixing. 
The plane I acquired was in excellent conditions, complete of all cutters and original instruction manual.
The original wooden box (it came with the plane too), instead,  came in  poor condition.

The plywood bottom was quite irrecoverable as well as the cover was cupped and with its veneers lifted.
The box sides (pine) showed the time signs too, split in more points.

Clearly, the box was been stored in a very wet site and the moisture was an hard test for the wood, causing the inevitable damages
Either the plane than cutters, instead, came in very fair conditions, rust free, due to a thick grease layer I found onto the plane and blades: someone payed particular attention to the precious box content: Thank you!



So, I decided of restoring the box, preserving as well as possible the time signs which give a beautiful lived look.
The first operation was to disassemble parts. The nails were very thin and rusted, so their recovery was quite impossible.
I provided to repair splits and, where necessary, I added pine wood for restoring original dimensions.

Original side joints were pinned rebates but, due to the poor wood condition at extremities, I preferred simple rebate joints. For the purpose I added a little bit of new wood and nails for more strength.

I unglued the cover upper veneer and reglued it onto a piece of 4 mm plywood.


The new bottom was veneered on both sides with a pine veneer on the upper side and a beech one on the bottom side: the original bottom had a similar structure. 

For veneering I used hide glue and pressed the work between two boards for 24h.

The box inside showed some critical points: the cutter box, obtained from a pine block was glued cross-grained to a corner. This probably contributed to the box splitting. So, I preferred to  leave it free on the bottom but stopped by two little wood pieces, glued with the grain in the correct orientation. In this way is also possible to remove the cutter holder and keep it on the bench.

 
The plane holding system is clever and permits of keeping the plane assembled and lifted, so its  weight does not act on the bottom.
One holder was substituted end increased in thickness for offering more support to the rods. The instruction manual too has its place in the box, protected now by a plastic bag.
On the external side I refreshed the original colour using a water based dye (a combination of cherry and rosewood dyes); a wax coat completed the box finishing.

A particular was still missed:
Looking at a box short side I noticed a little piece of paper, the remaining of the original label with plane description. A lighter coloured area established its dimensions.
I found a scanner of the label on the net. I printed it and did a colour photostatic copy (my ink jet printer does not produce colours resistant enough for the purpose). 

In order to give an antique look, I used a diluted coffee solution in which the paper was soaked for several minutes and a microwave (1 min) for drying it. The final colour was right with some (good) stains due to the fast drying.

The Lewin, is now inside its new old box, ready to work again. 

Together for Ever!

Should have more than a one hundred years these tongue and groove planes. I picked up them from ebay, maybe they come from Austria or Germany. No marks on the plane body, neither on the blades.
They cut a 8 mm tongue and groove.

When I had them I noticed they needed a restoring job. The plane body showed numerous worm holes, although the wood was solid enough.

The main problem was that the wooden screws was blocked into the body and for two of them I cannot unscrew. The only solution was sawing the plane body for reach the thread and release the screw.
The damage was inevitable and a repair needed!
I dislike to have these tools only for collecting them; I love to use them too. So I attempted to a structural and functional recovery, preserving, if possible, their lived-in look with some sign of aging

After washing with soap and treated with an anti-worm product (although the old holes seemed empty), blades and steel skates received a anti-rust treatment.

The pieces were then re-glued and veneers were used for closing the saw grooves.
Then I closed the worm holes, leaving some intentionally.

The functional recovery concerned after all in to steady contact points (soles and fences). For this job I used mahogany strips. This wood is also present in the wedges and regulating screws.
The skate bed and sides were rectified by a big file and by sliding the plow on the abrasive paper while keeping it square.

The two half-skates are inserted into a groove of plane body. At heel ant toe, the skates have dovetail shape and are firmly held by a nail driven into the body.

One wooden screw has split while removing it and I had to repair by gluing.

All screws had difficulties to move in their threads, so I used a thin cylindric rasp for easy their action.

Blades are hand forged; the plow plane blade was worn-out, so I had to substitute it.




I started from a 32 mm single plane iron, cut by a angle grinder (cooling often) and refinished at bench grinder.

By looking at old blade, it shows a trapezoidal section and slightly tapered sides; this avoids the cutter binds into the groove walls, even if the plane rocks a bit.

Moreover, the original blades show a convex shape for a stronger holding of them by wedge; I imitate this for the new blade and it works.
 

Finally, I rectified the contact surfaces (soles and fences) for having the cutting edge square to the fence and parallel to the sole. Of course I tried to cut a joint.