Build of a Krenov Style plane (Ron Hock Kit)

Brent Dowell

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So, made a little progress on the plane out in the shop today.

I can say that this is absolutely dead easy so far.

The parts of the kit are all pre-cut. What could be simpler? I did take Toni's advice and went to the college of the redwoods and downloaded their instructions. A little more detail than comes with the plane.

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So next step is to position things and clamp it together. The instructions say to position the plane blade so the gap is about 3/16 and that the blade hits about 1/16 up on the inside. This will allow you to fine tune the throat later.

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Hi, My names Brent and I'm a glue-aholic. I always seem to slop on glue. Oh well, I'll just deal with the squeeze out the way I always do and let it dry and chisel it off later.

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While the body was drying, I decided to sharpen the blade. Now here's my big problem. I've got a real mishmash of sharpening stuff, and no real 'system' or rhyme or reason for the stones. I have a little woodcraft tri-stone I thought I would try and use. After reading part of Ron Hocks Sharpening book, I decided that I should check the stones for flatness first.

Nope. They aren't flat, so I spent about 1 1/2 hours trying to flatten the stones on my DMT diamond stone, and plate glass and sandpaper. Never really did get it flat enough to my satisfaction. The plate glass and sandpaper works pretty good. I may just build my sharpening system around the Scary sharp method, unless I find a good deal on some kind of nice sized water stone system.

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And that's about as far as I got today. Just sanded the excess glue off, and trimmed the excess wood of the ends. The positioning dowel's at the end will get trimmed off once I get the plane tuned up and working properly. At that time I'll go about doing the artsy carving to give it a little more personality than a shoebox with a blade...

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Well Brent i see you got off lightly with that kit.:rofl: A guy with your skill could have made one easily. :)

Still it came out nice and great fun Eh!. Now you got the real decision to make, how do you decide to shape it.

i did not take too much time to think when i did mine and it came out ok.

As to the stones in your picture i see you got some of that "router pad material under you paper.

As far as i know that paper should be applied as either PSA type or use pray adhesive and place the paper onto the glass you have so its real flat.

With that spongy stuff under it i dont see how the paper has sufficient support to do its job and remain flat.:dunno:

I dont have glass but have mine on a piece of MDF shelving off cut that was coated ex Borg.
 
As to the stones in your picture i see you got some of that "router pad material under you paper.

As far as i know that paper should be applied as either PSA type or use pray adhesive and place the paper onto the glass you have so its real flat.

Heh, the sandpaper is attached to the glass. The glass is just setting on the padding... :rofl: :rofl:
 
Oh the humanity!!! How many horses must die to satisfy your gluing habits??? Actually, I'm sure you have no love loss with all the horses that come in your yard. :D

Plane is coming along nicely! :thumb: :lurk:
 
Very interesting. I've been looking at some pictures of actual planes made by James Krenov to get some inspiration for the next step.

It appears that he puts a lot of thought into the comfort and usability without going 'all out' for the finish on them. As if they are meant to be used and not set up on a shelf as an art project...

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Hi Brent.

So far so good, now just make some shavings BEFORE shaping it to your liking.

A quick and rewarding project that can be repeated n times, now you know how to do it. If you mess with this one you can use the blade for another one, so no problem at all.:thumb::thumb:
 
So, Did a little sole flattening tonight. I picked up a couple of natural granite tiles at Lowes. Glued a piece of 100 grit to it and went to town.

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Opened up the throat a bit and tried to make some shavings. The plane feels like it wants to do it, but I'm having some issues with the throat width and the wedge. Seems like as I use the plane, shavings are hitting the wedge and plugging up the throat? Do I need to open up the throat even more? Just don't want to go too far on this. I did trim about a 1/8 off the wedge, as it was way down in the throat. Do I need to shorten this even more? A little reshaping?

Thanks for any help you guys can provide!

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From the picture, it looks to me that the the wedge is too long and it is preventing the shavings to be pushed up. Try shortening it a bit and rounding the top part, making it like a rounded ramp so that the shavings do not get stuck on it. See sketch. Besides it looks to me that the shavings are too thick, but I can't be sure of that.
Also check first that the bolt that holds the chipbreaker is not portruding on the other side of the blade lifting the wedge and separating it from the blade leaving a space for the shavings to get clogged underneath. If so just file the bolt or make a ligh slot on the wedge to acomodate it.

I also polish the top part of the chipbreaker close to the blade edge to offer less resistance to the shavings, can be overkill for some people but I believe it does make a difference. The edge of the chipbreaker should not be more than 0.05 inches ( 1.5mm) from the cutting edge. You can also check that there is no gap between the edge of the chipbreaker and the blade, chipbreakers need fettling as well.
Another thing to have into account is that when flattening the sole is that the blade should be on the body, and tightened without letting the edge portrude in order not to damage it. That tension can curve the body slightly making the plane not to perform well if the sole is flattened without it as it will deform once the blade is on it.
 

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Making some shavings now!

Well, I put the blade in and flattened the sole a little more.

I trimmed up the wedge a bit more to give a bit more room. Gave the end of it a bit of a rounding over so that it didn't interfere with the shavings.

I also made sure the cap iron was just a about 1/16 away from the blade edge. The blade and cap Iron from Hock tools is very nice and does fit pretty well. I probably just didn't have it adjusted quite right.

Adjusted the blade so it was just barely peeking out, and voila! Shavings!

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Well done Brent!:thumb:
Now, you can shape the plane at your will. One thing you may want to check in case you want to use it on a shooting board is the squareness of the sides vs the sole.

Now it is time to go for that dining table ;)
 
Great. Now I have yet another thing to add to my "one of these days" list. :rolleyes:

Looking good so far Brent. I suspect the shaping will be the fun part.
 
Shaping should be fun. I'm definitely getting an idea of how I want it shaped and have been sketching things out on the plane. Might introduce it to the band saw pretty soon...

Been researching things and 'practicing' planing on a chunk of hard maple.

I read Ron Hocks sharpening book for about an hour and a half last night. Ron has a way of making metallurgy interesting to read.

I realize that my blades still probably aren't really very sharp and that I need to do some more work on them. Those shapton stones won't get here soon enough though...
 
Finally got around to 'uglifying' my plane today. Not sure how wild I am about the shape, but it fits my hand pretty well and seems to work pretty good.

Used a combination of bandsaw, rasps, carving tools and sandpaper.

Put a light coat of BLO on just because the wood needed something. It looked a little plain without the finish.

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