Just made my first plane

[Vaughn McMillan]

... I posted the whole process of making it sometime ago, but I'm not able to find the post to insert the link to it. (web tricks are not my strong points). (I rely on a indulgent moderator that can help me on this)...

Were you looking for this one?

http://www.familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5854

 

[Toni Ciuraneta]

Yes Vaughn. I was confident that some of you would help me on this.
Thanks again.

 

[Pete Simmons]

Misleading Title

Everytime I see these topics I click on it then remember it is the other type.

Here is my first plane.

Built mostly of foam and fiberglass. No preformed parts. 2 people, 160 MPH over 2000 mile range called a Long-EZ. Designed by Burt Rutan built by me.

Flew amout 1000 hrs with no problems. My wife and I traveled all over the US in it.

 

[Stuart Ablett]

Neat Pete!

I've heard of a "Tail Dragger" plane, but I've never seen a "Nose Dragger"

I think I saw one of them in "Popular Mechanics" years and years ago.

 

[Toni Ciuraneta]

Everytime I see these topics I click on it then remember it is the other type.

Here is my first plane.

Built mostly of foam and fiberglass. No preformed parts. 2 people, 160 MPH over 2000 mile range called a Long-EZ. Designed by Burt Rutan built by me.

Flew amout 1000 hrs with no problems. My wife and I traveled all over the US in it.

Yeah! I understand it is misleading, but is there any other name for it?

 

[Pete Simmons]

There is a retractable nose wheel.

You lift the nose up, crank the nose wheel down and hop in.

When it is on 3 wheels with no person onboard it is just about balanced on the center of gravity.

With wheel retracted as you lower the nose (by hand) it gets heavier and heavier as the CG shifts forward of the main axel.

The retractable nose gear of course adds some speed but it was really done for parking. With the nose down like that it is very stable parked in moderate winds.

There are two kinds of retractable gear pilots - those that have landed with the gear up and those who will. To many Long-EZs have landed with the gear up. Most got away with heavy skin damage. Most builders used a small stainless steel plate with a shaped hockey puck mounted on it as the bumper the nose rests on. Very durable to drag along the runway.

So far I have not tested the hockey puck landing system. There is a simple system of alarms connected to gear position and throttle position to alert the pilot to a gear up situation.

 

[Pete Simmons]

Toni- You have a perfect title. I just respond to it with a different thought process.

 

[Frank Fusco]

Tony, I hadn't commented yet. I'm very impressed with your plane. Not only a beautiful tool but, obviously, performs masterfully. Before seeing your post for the first time, I had just watched a recorded issue of the Roy Underhill show. He was featuring a Japanese craftsman who demonstrated his plane. Of course, it was a Japanese style. Now a word of caution and qualification: I don't want to offend anyone but I do get a bit irritated at the implication frequently seen that Japanese tools are better than western. Many are very excellent and are used in a different manner than western. But, IMHO, just being of Japanese origin doesn't make them better. Oh, well, back to the show. They showed the, pull style, plane making very thin shavings. Impressive indeed. Noteworthy, they were no thinner or more uniform than what you have showed us with your homemade plane. Excellence is excellence regardless of country of origin. As we say in the Ozarks, 'Ye dun gud'.

 

[Mark Kosmowski]

Very nice!

By the looks of things, you might be the trendsetter for the summer! I think many of us now want to build "a plane like Toni's"!

 

[Alex Reid]

Toni,

Very nice plane and your picture tutorial makes it looks easy or at the most easyish. I just may give it a go.

 

[Toni Ciuraneta]

Hi guys.
Thank you very much for kind and encouraging comments, in response to them and as I have another blade without body, I'll make another plane with better step by step pictures, as Mark Kosmowski says it might be the trend for this summer.

May be the title for the next post should be " This is my plane show me yours" and we could have a whole bunch of different designs and approaches.

Wait a couple of weeks and you'll see the new one plus the first one reshaped.

 

[edward alexander]

wow- toni -nice, i know what your talking about when you say you just planed a piece of wood down to nothing-i've done the same thing; ever since krenov's
first book i started making his style of planes and every time one is finished and i start trying it i can't put it down -so what did you use for the bottom and did you put an insert in front of the blade- what kind of wood.
i heard not long ago that they were auctioning off krenov's planes-image owning one of those heck image using one-thanks for showing your plane and i bet you make more.

alex

 

[edward alexander]

Toni, extremely nice plane. Nota one of my over-the-counter planes work that good. I'm in need of a shoulder plane, where did you get the plans for the design, also not clear what the "JK method" is. Jerry

http://gschacht.bootlogic.com

for gerald (sorry toni don't mean to steal your thunder) krenov talks about making his planes in his book "the fine art of cabinetmaking" also " fine woodworking-#126-oct. 1997" has an article -making the krenov style plane.

alex

 

[Toni Ciuraneta]

so what did you use for the bottom and did you put an insert in front of the blade- what kind of wood.
i heard not long ago that they were auctioning off krenov's planes-image owning one of those heck image using one-thanks for showing your plane and i bet you make more.

alex

Hi Alex.

I used hard maple for the whole plane and I neither made any sole nor insert in the front of the throat. Being it my first attempt at plane making I wanted to keep it simple.
Moreover, being maple a rather hard wood and wear resistant I thought it would do no harm.

I'm not sure but from your text it looks as if you've tried to post some images and they don't show. Is that so? if yes could you post them again?

 

[edward alexander]

nope-wasn't me toni-i didn't try to post no images that didn't show-i thought about it-but didn't do it-must be telepathy.

rounding off the sharp corners
alex

 

[edward alexander]

well i don't guess the telepathy is working-i'm not picking up nothing-i mean i know spain is a long way away but i thought telepathy was like the internet-fast with few natural limitations -oh well i'll try this-

when it gets sloppy-eat it over the sink
alex

 

[Toni Ciuraneta]

i heard not long ago that they were auctioning off krenov's planes-image owning one of those heck image using one-thanks for showing your plane and i bet you make more.

alex

Hi Alex.
Then it must have been me who misunderstood those "krenov's planes-image "
"heck image " whe I saw the word image next to a hyphen I thought that there had to be an image inserted, hence my comment.

 

[Mark Kosmowski]

Any reason not to tinker with Toni's design and make a low angle plane? My small collection is missing a low angle block plane - may as well make something that I don't have.

 

[Toni Ciuraneta]

well i don't guess the telepathy is working-i'm not picking up nothing-i mean i know spain is a long way away but i thought telepathy was like the internet-fast with few natural limitations -oh well i'll try this-

when it gets sloppy-eat it over the sink
alex

Beatiful plane Alex.
Is is rosewood or cocobolo? I 'm not good at identifying woods and the sole? is it lignum vitae?

 

[Toni Ciuraneta]

Any reason not to tinker with Toni's design and make a low angle plane? My small collection is missing a low angle block plane - may as well make something that I don't have.

Hi Mark.

You must have been reading my mind, because that was the next plane I was thinking about making