Scrub Plane

Some years ago I found several 34 mm plane blades as new old stock. Too many narrow for a jack or smoother plane, perfect for making scrub planes (just I had to round the cutting edge). 
This is a four pieces plane (two lateral, two central). The woods are beech for the body and wild olive (from Puglia, Italy) for the sole.

Pinch dogs

In the pic above (1933), an odd double nail is described and intended for joining wood elements for which a classic clamp would be inapropriate. Its name is pinch dog. They have a squared section and a shape with two parallel tips; each tip has a chisel shape, the bevel being toward the internal side. When the pinch dog is driven in the wood, across two parts to be joined, the opposite bevels push them one against the other.    
The dark side are the holes they leave on the wood, so can be better used on surfaces not shown or those to be painted.The pinch dogs are available on online sites and their price is around 3-4 $ each (depending on dimensions)
 So, I tried to build some home made pinch dog, using iron fence staples I took (for free) at my hardware store.
Differently from pinch dogs these nails had not parallel sides, but they work.
The first job was to cut the tips and grind two new inner bevels by a file for obtaining the shape you can  see in the pic above on the right. 
A dozen of home made pinch dogs required half an hour ca.

I had my first try for gluing up a panel.
It will be painted, so no matter for holes.
Being its thickness only 10 mm, this is a case where metal clamps do not work well: the grip surface on the edges is restricted and it is easy to cause distorsions when the clamps are tight; sometimes the panel needs a new flattening job when the glue dries.



One main advantage of pinch dogs is that the elements to be glued, stay simply on the bench; it offers a solid and flat surface for a good gluing up (only you have to protect the bench with papers).

A necessary condition to permit to the nails of working properly is to have perfectly jointed edges, so the planing job must be done carefully. In this case I used my type 7 Stanley #8 (1893-1899), a fast and accurate workhorse.

 Glue up.

When the "pinch dogs" are nailed across two panel elements, the glue squeeze out is evident.

The result is definitely great, the job really easy.















When the glue dries, remove our home made "pinch dogs".

The panel is ready for the next steps.

Johnny, sleep like a god tonight!

A couple of months ago has arrived in our family Johnny, a four months old Beagle. 
I always thought, if a new born was arrived a day, I should have to make a cradle but never I would have imagined I should have build a dog kennel! 

The job was easy; I utilized mainly recycled wood and pine wood paneling (2 cm thick) for sides and roof.
Simple joinery by lap joints, some brass screws and dowels make this project really easy to realize. 

The pitched sunroof (slightly asymmetric) helps to access to the internal zone. The panels are not glued and are stopped by a thin internal nailed frame. The rebates are obtained by gluing 30x10 mm elements to the external frame (6 mm dowels secure the frame in place).     

 This kennel has been built thinking for an external collocation. The roof is impermeable, being treated with a special plasticized varnish; a ridge avoids to the rain of penetrating between the two movable roof panels.
The entry door is decentralized, so the dog can find more repair from wind and cold. Some gum strips cover the opening, offering more repair but easy access.
I added wheels to the structure in order to move it easily.
Here in South of Italy the temperature is not too low, even in winter.
However, in the case it lowered overnight, a small fan heater and a thermostat avoid too much low values.

The wood has been treated with two coats of cementite and two coats of covering paint.
The flag is a tribute to Beagle origins.....

Here he is, shooted by camera....a little bit confused, but after awhile the kennel has become his preferred shelter.
Johnny, I am sure, you will sleep as a god, tonight!!

The project sketch up file can be downloaded here:

 https://app.box.com/s/tiq5j7wvejrf9srprxh9

Panels in five steps

When we are using solid wood, the panel building is a frequent process in our projects. Apart the difficult of finding boards large enough for our intents, wider pieces have frequently stability problems and risk too much movements in following the humidity changes. 
Building a wood panel is not a particulary difficult job if we have the right tools and follow some precautions.

We can divide the process in five steps:

  

1)    Planing the elements

  2)    Composing the dry panel

  3)    Planing the edges

  4)    Gluing

  5)    Smoothing the panel

In planing the single elements, admitting of using rough wood as start, we can utilize (in order of use) the classical planes as scrub, jack and jointer if we have longer pieces.
Personally, I do not use a smoothing plane in this phase, but I pay particular attention to obtain straight elements and of same thickness (slightly more than the final thickness). In fact, even if a good attention is observed in this phase, is quite improbable to obtain perfect panels: little steps between the elements are frequent and not rarely we will have to relevel the entire panel surface.  
The second phase consists of a dry composition of panel for searching the best aesthetic result. When hand planes are used, is better to orient the elements in the same grain direction in order to favour the next planing steps. For a bigger stability is then better to use well seasoned and/or quarter sawn woods.
If I have to obtain a raised panel, however, I use to orient an external element in the opposite grain direction; in this way, the raising (or moulding) plane can work always with the grain for a better result.
Of course in the successive levelling step this element should be planed in the right grain direction (although this is not always necessary if the wood has straight grain).  
A ideal case occurs when the panel is obtained by resawing a single board in two pieces opened like a book. In addition to the possibility  of using raising planes with favorable grain, the aesthetic result is particulary interesting, mostly if the wood is well figured.

After the wished sequence of elements has been found, mark the panel surface whit a "V" (or a triangle), so we can easily reconstitute the exact sequence.

It is important that edges join perfectly. This is not always easy when the job is done with hand tools. 
A method I use is planing two adjacent panel elements together, a technique I call "book planing" ("tecnica a libro" in Italian), in wich the pieces are picked and closed like a book (see pictures), so the error of plane squareness can be compensated when the elements are opened and joined together.

By planing the elements together, the errors self compensate

the concavity has been exaggerated for drawing clarity

Our attention will be then payed mostly for obtain two straight edges or slightly concave, permitting to the clamps of keeping easy the pieces well joined during the gluing.

What kind of plane is better to utilize for this job?

My advice is to use a longer plane. A Jack plane could be suitable if the work has reduced dimensions (max 50-60 cm long), otherwise, better to use a jointer. It, as its name says, is the plane designed for this specific task.

During planing pay attention to not rock the plane and to obtain a continuous shaving for both coupled elements while we are using little cutting depth.
Pay particular attention in entering and in exiting from the piece (the pressure is on the knob while entering, on the handle when the plane leave the piece).

Marking pieces with a pencil can help in following our job. Continue until all signs are disappeared.

When all edges join together well, we are ready to gluing up following the order indicated by the "V" previously traced.
Prepare all before. For the job we can use some 50x30 mm straight pieces. They keep the panel flat while the clamps push the edges one against the other. Their face in contact with the panel can be overlayed by masking tape in order to avoid their gluing. 

Spread the glue onto both edges by a little brush. If our jointing job has been well done, the glue, with the clamp pressure, squeezes out uniformly along the gluing line.
Eliminate the glue excess with a wet cloth and leave it dries.

 
The finishing step will give to the panel its final appearance, so it is necessary to do it well. The plane type to use depends from the flatness grade achieved during the panel building. Normally a smoother is enough for the job (rarely we will have to use a jack first).
I use to attack the panel with a bigger cutting depth and a diagonal action, so the panel becomes flat rapidly.
In a second step the plane is set for cutting thinner shavings. The action is along the grain. The panel is ready to receive the finishing cycle.

Look at video

More weight for better smoothing

Some time ago, while surfing the net,
I found and purchased this infill smoother. 
It has no marks on the body, the blade is a tapered one type (more thick at cutting edge) and may be is not the original iron, as these planes often had a parallel iron (constant thickness).  
The infills are rosewood, the anterior one shows evident signs of a customer repair. The iron is marked I & HSorby, the cap iron has "Dell Bros Cast Steel" on the showing surface.

I have been very impressed from its weight, 2,2 kg, although the plane was only 18 cm long. The body seems to me a single piece of steel. The iron is held in place by a rosewood wedge. It fits between the blade and the strong steel abutments.  
If compared to a wooden smoother
(1,1 kg) the weight is doubled, although the infill plane was shorter.

The performances are very good and, I am sure, the body mass, concentrated in few inches,  provides something extra.