Poor Man's Infill Plane

Jim DeLaney

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I made this one using a generic #4 plane body, and stuffed it with an infill of my own design. It took me about three months to get it right, and I made the tote portion of the infill over several times. I kept messing around with different tote shapes and angles until I got what is comfortable for me.

The LN blade and chipbreaker are bedded directly onto the wood at a 52.5° angle - just a bit higher than the 'typical' high angle blade setting.

The wood is Honduras Mahogany, which was fairly easy to carve. Other than using a bandsaw for the initial rough cutting out, this plane was made using all hand tools - mostly carving knives and chisels, and oh yeah, quite a bit of work with Nicholson #49 and #50 rasps.

I'm pretty happy with it overall, and as you can see from the shavings, it does a pretty good job, too.
 

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That's COOL Jim!

Jim,
Not a bad way to convert otherwise "standard" No4 into something truly special and unique. I love the proof-in-the-pudding shot with the whispy shavings! :D

Well done!
 
Very good Jim I like the shape of the tote very much and it gives the plane a complete different "speedy" look.

I'm thinking about sort of "Krenovizing" a #3 that I got on Ebay that has both the tote and the know missing but the rest is in pretty good condition.

By Krenovizing I mean to pretend to infill the plane with wood inserts but instead of making a tote/handle giving it the shape of Krenov's planes. We'll see it is another thing in my "to do " list
 
Jim,

Great job. I may have to search out a #4 just for this type conversion. How did you attach the bun and the tote?
 
It' beautiful. But, I have a question: What is an infill plane? e.g. how is it different than other planes?
I tried Googling the subject but got mixed, and not very useful, results.
One English site said they were made with bronze and wood. Other sites inferred the difference was that they were made with an eye to beauty plus better precision and performance.
I find that unlikely. If it were true, then all other planes would give inferior performance.
Color me puzzled. :huh:
 
Jim,

Great job. I may have to search out a #4 just for this type conversion. How did you attach the bun and the tote?

SInce the metal sides are too low to allow cross drilling and brass rivets - which I would have preferred - I ended up using a thick, putty-like filled epoxy to attach the wood to the metal.
 
It' beautiful. But, I have a question: What is an infill plane? e.g. how is it different than other planes? Color me puzzled. :huh:

Frank,
I don't think there is a 'formal' definition.

Loosely, an infill has the wood 'stuffed' (fitted) into the metal portion. Many of the English ones have the metal body made from three parts: a sole - sometimes brass, but usually steel; and the two sides - usually brass, but sometimes steel.

The purists fit the sole and sides together by cutting dovetails, and hammering - or sometimes soldering - them together to form a "U" shaped channel, which is then stuffed with the wood.

Others are built by milling out a "U" shaped channel form a solid piece, then stuffing it.

Many (like mine) have no blade adjustment mechanism. Some of the more famous (and more common) commercially made ones, like Norris, have a very fine, double threaded, depth adjuster that also serves as a lateral adjuster.

Norris and Spiers are two of the most prolific makers, and are therefore the most commonly encountered, but there were many makers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A few makers still exist. St. James Bay comes to mind. Shepherd was around for a while, but went OB a couple years ago. Holtey is still around, I think, and there are probably others as well.

Probably more than you wanted to know, eh?
 
Jim, ... Do I surmise correctly that an infill plane doesn't do anything a regular plane can't do?

That's pretty much correct, yeah.

The only really unique thing about this one is its 52.5° bedding angle. The 'norm' is 45°, and LN's high angle frog takes it to 50°. The higher angle supposedly works better on very hard woods, and figured woods with gnarley grain structure.

Also, some (me included) feel that bedding the blade directly to the wood, instead of a metal frog, cushions the blade and makes the planing action smoother. Those (us) folks also have a fondness for the old 'woodie' and the newer 'Krenov style' planes, too.
 
Jim, wonderful design and execution. A few questions, if I may:

is the LN blade a .125" thick one? And is that the new LN chip breaker too?

How did you attach the bolt that holds the cap iron to the frog/bed?

I assume you adjust the iron with [gentle] taps. Does the wooden frog move with the weather requiring you to readjust the iron?

And lastly, how much does it weigh?

Thanks in advance, and thanks for posting the plane. I think you're inspiring more than a few of us.

Ken
 
Jim, wonderful design and execution. A few questions, if I may:

is the LN blade a .125" thick one? And is that the new LN chip breaker too?

[size=+1]Yes, it's the thick 'standard LN replacement' blade, not the Stanley replacement one. The Chip breaker is also the new LN version. (I like it, too, and may get more for my other planes.[/size]


How did you attach the bolt that holds the cap iron to the frog/bed?

[size=+1]I used a brass threaded insert, directly into the face of the blade bedding ('frog').[/size]


I assume you adjust the iron with [gentle] taps.

[size=+1]Yes, but not to the blade itself. I tap the front or back of the bed with a rawhide mallet, or a plastic 'dead blow' mallet.[/size]


Does the wooden frog move with the weather requiring you to readjust the iron?

[size=+1]So far, the humidity hasn't changed more than 10% or so since I built it, but I've not noticed any movement.[/size]


And lastly, how much does it weigh?

[size=+1]It weighs in at 52½ ounces - just about the same as my unaltered Type 11 #4C.[/size]


Thanks in advance, and thanks for posting the plane. I think you're inspiring more than a few of us.

Ken

[size=+1]Thanks for the 'vot of confidence' Kent![/size]
 
Wow I missed this one Jim. What a cool idea, oh boy this plane stuff is infectious. I know where i can get an old junker to convert like this but i think i will hold on for a while and get some woodworking done with the planes i have.:D Will put it on the to do list.:) Thanks for showing us how.:thumb:
 
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