New Router Plane, Handbuilt

Richard Line

Member
Messages
37
Location
Bellevue, WA
I've got a couple of projects coming up that I will need (want?) a router plane for some dado and grooves. Being somewhat tight, and also wondering if I could make one, so I took on the challenge. I did cheat a bit; bought a Lee Valley router plane blade (1/2" square). Other than the drill press it was all done with hand tools.

After looking around on the internet and through my books, melded several ideas and came up with this design.

Actually, its the 2nd version. The first version had the blade set too far forward, but it will work if I need a bull nosed router plane.

It was built out of scraps that were laying around. The base is either high quality chip board, or coarse mdf. The rest is poplar and plywood. Joints are simple rabbets with part glued and screwed together.

What you see is a piece of pine for the test piece. I got the dado started with a couple of saw cuts to form the sides, then took the plane to it. With the grain it cuts easy and fairly smoothly. Across grain, not so smooth, but does the job.

It will do the jobs I have lined up. I'll give it a couple coats of some kind of finish and wax the sole. I will probably buy a couple of more blades, a 1/4" and the pointed 1/2".

If nothing else, it has got me back in the shop and making saw dust after finishing ski season.
 

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Pretty doggone neat, Richard!

As for cheating on the blade - no, not really...but you can always make other blades for it by grinding down some Allen wrenches.:D
 
Thanks

Thanks for the nice words. Its not a thing of beauty, but I wasn't really trying for that, however I may still spruce it up a bit.

Jim, I had thought about making a blade out of an allen wrench, but my grinder skills aren't a thing of confidence. Besides the LV blades aren't that pricey.
 
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