Paul Hamler's Miller 1882 Patent #50 Plough

Mike Wenzloff

Member
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290
Location
Forest Grove, Oregon USA
One of the spendy vintage plow planes one can find is an original 1882 Miller Patent Plough Planes.

Paul Hamler specializes in miniture reproductions, but also makes full size planes. Paul made a few hundred finished Miller plows and is offering 80 as "kits." I put "kits" in quotes because there isn't much to do. They are spendy at $400 US, but I have always wanted one ever since I saw the ones he made a few years ago. My kit arrived Saturday.

miller_0001.jpg


Cast from silicon-bronze, once cleaned up it looks shiney. Comes with a single 1/4" blade which needs to be hardened before use. I have some O1 which is the correct thickness [1/8"] and so will make a few more widths myself. This was a birthday present and I look forward to the 4-6 hours to clean it up, file off some of the casting's rough edges, sand and apply the finish and linish it.

If I think of it at the time, as I clean it up I may post a couple pictures in the thread. Maybe. Filing and sanding looks as boring as it is! But there will be a picture of it finished and its first shavings.

The weight is wonderful and is now the largest metal plow I own. And it is the last one I'll purchase :rofl:

Take care, Mike
 
Interesting. Keep us up to date on the work in progress Mike.
 
Hi Bruce,

Don't know why this thread never came back up with the new posts...Linish is basically sanding. In this case it cleans off the high places and leaves the patina in the low areas, creating greater apparent depth.

Here's the finished [for now] Miller Plough.

miller_0001.jpg


This took a total of about 3 hours or a bit less. I'm fairly certain I did not do as nice a job as some of the folks doing them. I used my wonderful 050 as a guide--and I mean that in a good way. I figure it's as pristine a job as I need.

Not perfect as regards removing every casting seam in the hard to access areas. "Blended" in would be a good term for those places. All else was filed, sanded, and a buffing wheel on a Dremel went over most all of it.

The skate was filed pretty true and flat on the bottom over its length. That's important obviously. Same with the fence. The fit of the iron on the skate tweaked a little.

I chucked the Rosewood knob on the drill press to quickly sand the knob, Teak oil and a bit of shellac.

Then a liberal dose of wax over the whole plane and buffed off.

Color pictures await the finishing of a couple more blades and its maiden voyage cutting some grooves for some doors I'm making.

Take care, Mike
 
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