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How many of you guys have made your own planes? I'm trying to build an archtop but needed a scrub plane to rough out the top and back so I made one. I robbed the iron out of my Ibex palm plane and used some maple and ebony scraps. And after a few hours I have a tool that I really dig using and one that can seriously hog out some maple. Anybody else roll their own planes?
Jason

Nice job. I havent but i have thought about giving it a try. I'm always so busy with everything else. Someday i'll get to it.

I like making little planes, it is what i am often doing when i should be working! That maple and ebony jobbie looks mighty sweet.

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

Jordan those infill planes are sexy! I really want to make an infill smoothing plane but I don't know about doing the metal work. Carl, I'll poke around and see if I can't find your how-to. My next may be a small 12mm/18mm ibex iron using plane for getting into the waist and cutaway areas. I like the idea of just buying an iron and using up scrap wood that would just be sitting in the cut-off bucket.
Jason

Hey guys beautiful planes
got me thinking on making one for bracing
dont have any have fancy woods like that
but the aliminium from the skip might do the trick

i would love to see that tutorial on how you made them
whats title is it under ?
it should be in the tutorial section
thanks ....tomas

Jordan those are beautiful!
Maybe you'd better do a tute.

Chris I tried searching and I can't find your tute on the mini planes. Any clues?

Thanks,
Joe

I would really like to know where that tutorial is too, I need a brace carving plane and it would be great to have one less expense.

Here is the archived Mini Plane Tutorial Chris did.
viewtopic.php?f=10102&t=13157%22

It is listed under the old Archived OLF Tutorials thread which should be a sticky at the top of the Tut section.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

For the woodies, there is not really too much to them, bevel up/down, angle, width, length, the rest is mostly window dressing. http://www.hocktools.com/KF175.htm that little video and the pictures are just about all you need to know, you can either do the glued up sides like he shows, or just chisel out the body.

http://www.xmission.com/~jry/ww/tools/a13/a13.html the metal ones are a severe amount of labor if you don't have access to a mill (i do now, but didn't when i made those, do'h)


Have you checked out these guys http://www.stjamesbaytoolco.com/? They sell plane castings and parts, there is still usually plenty of work to do, but with a casting some of the "heavy lifting" is out of the way. Of course the heavy lifting is kind of the fun part!

edit: posted at the same time as Waddy, nice little planes Chris!

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

If you want to see some absolutely stunning planes, check out my friend Konrad Sauer's site

http://www.sauerandsteiner.com/

Steve

Thanks Waddy, you know how it is for us hillbillys!

And thanks for the links Jordan, I'll check them out.

Joe

Mine aren't nearly as pretty as Jason's or Jordan's, but they are very effective. These are just two of several that I have made. The wooden one is cherry. The brass-sided one has cocobolo infill, and a mild steel cap iron that I fashioned out of scrap. The wedge pin is just an internally-threaded hardware store spacer with a couple of steel screws that go in from each side and ALMOST meet in the middle. This plane is more easily adjustable than the all-wood plane. On the other hand, the wood plane really hogs out material in a hurry. Both have irons ground from industrial hacksaw blades. I made my archtop with these two planes. Self-made planes are fun to build, and extremely satisfying to use.
Patrick

Those are sharp Patrick!
You gotta love builders that make some of their own tools!

Joe

Also at
http://dunwellguitar.com/
Click on the Luthier Pages and the then the link to making finger planes.

Or go directly http://dunwellguitar.com/FingerPlanes/MyDesign.htm

Alan D.

This topic is very timely. I've made my own before, but never got around to actually putting a blade in it. But now I just got word that I'll start carrying the OLF's own Stephen Boone's little handmade finger planes. These are just the right size for shaving braces on an acoustic. Also, notice the bottom has a bevel on each side to allow easy carving at an angle close to the bottom of your brace, and will not damage the top. Also the 1/8" thick blade and large brass tube give it a heavy solid feel. I'll start selling these for Stephen next week some time for $30 plus shipping. Let me know if you are interested.

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Are you kidding me? Those are beautiful, how did you do the infill plane? Brass screwed on sides and brass glued on sole? I have been wanting to make a little chariot style plane like that for a while, yours has really sweet lines, and i like the knob.

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY