Lab made scrub plane.

Jeff Horton

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The Heart of Dixie
Scrub planes were made for rough work. Hogging off a lot of material at a time. For thinning down a board for example. Last week I had need of a scrub plane. I needed to hog a lot of wood of a paddle I was building. I could use a draw knife but if you have ever used one you know what happens.

I happened to remember I had a Miller Falls Handy Man plane that I had no intentions of doing anything with. It would be a perfect candidate to covert over. There are some differences like a wide mouth but I figured if I slid the frog back I could try it. So I ground the blade to a rounded shape and sharpened it. Moved back the frog as far as I could and it worked well. Better than expected quit frankly!

scrub1.jpg scrub2.jpg

You can see the thick curly shavings. It will hog out a deep trough and quickly. Of course it will tear out and leaves a nasty looking cut but it's supposed to. I am pleased and the price was right!! ;)

I have been using it tonight to hog off some wood on another Greenland Paddle I am making. I rough it close to the line, then go back with another plan and smooth and finish the line. Saves hours or planing little thin shavings.
 
Cool idea, Jeff. I've got a Proto brand plane that looks like a bigger version of your Millers Falls that might be a good candidate for that. I used it for the first time last night to make a flat spot on a turning blank for the faceplate. (I've recently been using my Bosch power plane to do the same thing, but last night I didn't want to deal with the dust and noise.) For my purposes, it only needs to be approximately flat, so the curved blade should do the trick...only faster.
 
Cool Jeff, its kind of need to convert, manipulate and adjust your tools for your needs.

As for you Vaughn,watch out my friend. You may get bit by the hand tool bug and only use electrons to see by.:)
 
...I have never used a scrub plane, do they take a lot of “effort” to push through the wood?

First off, I must say I am only planning Wester Red Cedar, soft as Butta (butter), But no. I find it takes a lot more force to use my #3 taking of a full width shaving on the same wood. Now if I run it way down, yea it does. But it also makes some horrible cuts too. Of course it leaves a gouged surface anyway, but the tear out and chipping in this cedar gets really bad with a really deep cut.
 
Lowly ?

Don't know, but looks like its chow'n down with a pretty good degree of accuracy. 100 years from now they'll say " what was this guy think'n ". Then they'll lay it on a board and be amazed !
 
I did the same thing with a rust pitted old number 4 Stanley. It works just fine, and i used it happily for quite a while. Then, about 2 years after i converted that one over, i picked up a # 40 scrub plane in a box i got at an auction for $1. I cleaned it up a bit and do like it better for 2 reasons - the wood argues less with its thicker blade, and it's a lot lighter than the #4. This comes into play because it's kind of an aerobic activity when you're scrubbing down large panels. I compared the two while flattening off a 30" x 96" laminated maple slab. They both worked just fine, but the #40 was less fatigueing on a "long haul".
Paul Hubbman
 
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