It has been a long time but the Chariot Plane is now finished. I have some No 983 planes to complete and then I am moving on to something new.
February 21, 2015
February 18, 2015
Unfortunately in future I will have to charge my UK customers postage. I have managed to absorb this in the past but cannot any longer, mainly due to insurance cost increases.
Overseas customers will still pay the courier charge at cost.
January 28, 2015
Window to my Workshop 86
Despite having some part made infills which had been drying for 20 years, I decided that I preferred this piece of rosewood (which has also been in my workshop for a long time, and I have very little left) – Dalbergia Cubiquitzensis – it has more ‘bling’ 
I am in the process of making a small batch of these planes, which will include this rosewood, Boxwood and a mystery wood – photos soon.
January 23, 2015
Window to my Workshop 85
I am occasionally asked how to dovetail. It is a bit of a cheeky question and it would take me several months or more full time to teach this properly. Sometimes people seem to forget I am running a business.
I have been making dovetailed planes for over 25 years now and I still keep trying to improve my system. Another plane maker described my dovetails as made on the CNC and are very cold and clinical – is this how one would describe a precision job? Then guilty as charged.
Here are some photos of part of the dovetailing process.
Sometimes it is frustrating that I have to do this much work before closing a plane up. The pictures above show a Boxwood spacer which supports the sides whilst peining the dovetails. Sometimes I use aluminium for this process but as I am only making 6 planes it doesn’t have to do much work. Also the sides of the plane will not be scratched when removing the spacer. A lot of work for a piece of tooling which will be discarded after six uses.
Showing everything in place ready for clamping in the vice. Note that the clamping plates support the dovetails as well. There is no movement and everything stays true to size.
This is the first stage of peining. You will see that the peining looks quite messy and untidy as I am stuffing the extra brass into the voids.
The last stage of peining the dovetails is the sides. Again the assembly is clamped in a precision vice with a spacer plate between the uneven peining on the underside so true reference is maintained.
The use of bimetals will show up any untidiness.
Easy isn’t it
January 19, 2015
Window to my Workshop 84
Final tweaking and polishing before assembly
Once assembled there is no access
January 16, 2015
Window to my Workshop 83
Progress on my A28 Chariot Plane
This picture shows some idea of all the work that goes into this plane. Unless you have done it yourself you can never imagine the effort and thought that goes into making this Chariot. This plane is made to a standard light years beyond its original counterpart made by Norris.
November 5, 2014
Window to my workshop 82
During the working of this A28 plane I have been neglecting this blog but now I am ready to update which I will do over the next few weeks.
All the sections I use are cut out of stock material and brought down to size, by sawing and milling.
As most of my working and setting out depends on a high degree of precision (which has never existed before) surface grinding in the early stages allows me to achieve my goals.
This picture shows the edges being ground. This is also important to have a true pinch dimension. I need this for the dovetailing.
Jigs and work holding fixtures are also all made to precision. After much preparation work to the brass, similar to the steel work as described. Then rivet positions are drilled and I am able to screw these sides with purpose made bolts to the fixture for profiling and chamfering.
After routing out the profile then the chamfering is completed whilst the sides are still jigged.
Just overall set up pictures.
Here are the some sides already milled and some pre-prepared waiting for profiling.
September 1, 2014
Window to my Workshop 81
This Chariot is the last item in the series of low angle planes I have been making recently. I have only made a few of these planes and that was a long time ago in my early days of plane making. Then my side profiles were cut by hand and I made up a template which I would scribe round. Now that I CNC these the machine can’t see my template so I have had to re-draw it showing co-ordinates to write a programme from.
This line drawing by today’s standards might look a bit primitive but I have never had the leisure to learn to use a CAD. With a drawing showing contours I can write this in to my control unit. Drawing contours is more instinct than anything and I just know when it is right however long it takes (I would be ashamed to tell you how long these ones took).
June 10, 2014
Window to my Workshop 80
The bullnose and shoulder plane blades must be the most work intensive. Once finished I celebrate with a photo!
Infill/adjuster housing/plane bed – whatever
Always a good feeling when nearing completion, although there is still a lot of fitting and finishing after they are separated.
May 14, 2014
Window to my Workshop 79
Blades back from heat treatment. They have been vacuum hardened and triple tempered, followed by a two hour nitrogen soak. Note that there is no colouration to the blades, which means there were perfect conditions with no leakage.
Now they ‘just’ need polishing and surface grinding.