Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Spill Plane, Part I

A friend who works for the York Agricultural & Industrial Museum asked if I would make a spill plane for the museum to be used in an interactive demonstration. Sure, but what does it look like? I had seen one only once before, and briefly, so I checked online and found some great articles here, here, and here.

I used the one posted on the WK Fine Tools site for the layout & construction process. After 3 bungled attempts at not being able to cut the bed so the iron’s cutting edge protrudes from corner to corner at the same height on the wood surface of the plane, I finally decided it was time to ask dad for help. Dad = retired nuclear projects engineer, i.e., dude with some serious brainpower.

Bracing myself for a dissertation on trigonomics, I handed him my mangled pieces of wood and a copy of the article and asked for his advice.

A mere 10 minutes later (thank you, God) he determined that there was an angle missing from the article and that I could actually salvage my last attempt.

Dad felt good about helping me solve the problem, but more importantly, I was able to remain in the dark where trig is concerned... and that's exactly where I want to be!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

VERY cool, VC. THANKS! I look forward to seeing the plane completed.

I have a very, very old version that needs a good iron in it - and a wedge. It was in a box with other stuff we picked up at an auction. Please let me know if you would like dimensions and angles to produce such items :)

Kari Hultman said...

Thanks Al. If I mess this one up, I might be bugging you for some information!

Anonymous said...

LOL!

I meant, *after* you finish yours, would you be willing to put together an iron and a wedge for *my* plane?

You would need the angle info for my plane. I really messed up this one, I think :(

I don't know nuttin' 'bout birthin' these babies.

Kari Hultman said...

Al, I'm going to show how to make the wedge and iron on my blog, so you will be able to replace the parts on your plane.

I'm making this spill plane for several reasons:
1.For community service (supporting a museum)
2.I've never made a spill plane before, so it's a personal challenge
3.I'm repaying a favor to my friend

Plus, I hate to do the same thing twice...I'd never make it in a production environment!
Plus, plus, it's gratifying to figure things out on your own, so I encourage you to make the pieces yourself.
Plus, plus, plus, I have faith in you! : )

Anonymous said...

Well, sometimes I feel that way about reproducing things. Even though both my kids were made exactly the same way, they look a little different. Uh, I wonder what I screwed up to make that happen? At least the newer model is performing a little better than the first so I must have improved upon something?
I forgot we were talking about woodworking projects. In that arena, sometimes I do like to make a second or more because I get better at it, but it can get boring.

Kari Hultman said...

VI, you have a good point about improving each time you make the same piece.

Shazza said...

I have just one question...what do you do with a spill plane?

Kari Hultman said...

Shazza, a spill plane was used to make long, curled pieces of wood that were used as matchsticks. Thanks for asking!

Shazza said...

Well...how about that? You learn something new every day!

Kari Hultman said...

The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know. : )

Anonymous said...

The best is going back to dad.

More then sweet. There is nothing, absolutely nothing in life so sweet as being allowed to help your little girl!

Problem solved: great! The plane: wonderful. Going to dad - to dad: priceless!

God bless, your good deed is infinitely greater then returning the favor.

Kari Hultman said...

Vinny, sounds like you are speaking from experience and have a little girl of your own. : )

You are right, in fact, my mom called the next day to tell me how much dad liked helping me with my dilemma. It's nice to still let dad be dad.

Anonymous said...

So I surfing looking for articles on how to make planes and I came across something on wkfinetools.com about making a Spill plane. Very cool but what is a spill. Sure enough I Google'd it and came across this post. How cool it that a plane where the shavings are the intended result. Thanks for this post!