Friday, April 21, 2017

Dutch tool chest build 4, fallfront and the shavings deflector.

The panel for the fall front need something to keep it straight, and also something to catch the lower lip of the carcase. It seems as the traditional way of doing this is to attach a couple of battens using nails.
Another method that involves just a little bit more work is to insert some battens in sliding dovetails.
Now there is a plane that is designed for that specific purpose, but mine is at home, so I had to do it with my smoothing plane instead which means that my battens visually taper and don't cover the line up as they would have if I made them the other way.
Since this isn't a show surface it will be just fine.

A narrow board was divided to form two wedges. The surfaces were cleaned up with the plane. Each of the edges were planed at an angle, so the end of each wedge resembled had a trapezoidal shape.

I marked out where I wanted the pieces to go and clamped down the first wedge. Using itself as a guide, I sawed along its edge using my small dozuki. When I had reached my intended depth I loosened the clamp and shifted the wedge a bit to saw the other side of the dovetail dado.
Once the sawing was completed I removed the material with a chisel.
A router plane would have been the obvious choice, but the body of my small homemade one is so narrow that it would fall into the dado. And a chisel does the job fast and well enough in this case.

The wedge was marked out so I could saw off the lower part of the wedge, to enable the protruding end to grip behind the lower front lip. Finally the edges were chamfered with a chisel and the wedge installed.
The second wedge was negotiated in the same way.

A board was split and resawed and planed for making the locking pin. It was cut to length and a hole drilled in the upper part to give something for the fingers to grip when it has to be pulled out.
The bridge shaped piece that will hold the upper part of the fall front was a quick saw and chisel job.

Ralph asked about the shaving deflector for the Stanley No 50 combination plane (mine is actually a Record plane).
As you all know, taking pictures isn't my strongest side, but hopefully the pictures of the deflector mounted in the plane will give a bit of an idea on how it works.
The backside is sloped to match the blade.
The inside is sloped to that the lowest point of the deflector is positioned as far outwards as possible. This slope guides the shaving to the centre of the plane where it can escape without being jammed.


The completed fall front.

Sawing the side of the sliding dovetail dado.

Resawing the locking pin.

Shaving deflector seen from the side of the plane.

Shaving deflector seen from the front.

Shaving deflector seen from the top of the plane.


9 comments:

  1. Looking good! I bet resawing with that hardpoint saw isn't so fun.

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    1. It wasn't so bad, the wood is soft and it is a multi cut tooth geometry, so it can crosscut and resaw.
      Plus the stick was only 2" wide.
      Cheers
      Jonas

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  2. I'll be checking my Stanley 45 to see if I can do something similar. I really would like something like this for my Record 043.

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    1. Hi Ralph.
      Did you check with Patrick Leach if something like that was originally available for the plane?

      Making the deflector was not hard.
      I chucked a piece of brass in the lathe and turned the stem. The lower part was formed with a hacksaw and a file. I scribed the angles directly from the plane.
      I offset the stem maybe 1/16" in the lathe, because the piece of brass I had found wasn't a very large diameter. If you start out with a piece that is maybe 5/8" you can have the stem made in the middle and there should still be plenty of material to make the deflector part itself.
      I am not sure if the stem has got the same diameter on a No 43, but I just measured the stem for the depth stop, as it normally occupies the same position.
      Good luck with the project.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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    2. I have an 043 as well, but I don't recall it ever jamming up too badly. Now that I think about it, I'll have to check and see if the 043 has the ability to hold that accessory, because I suppose it would help.
      Bill

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    3. Also, here is a link to a great little manual for the plane http://www.cornishworkshop.co.uk/record043manual.pdf

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    4. Hi Bill.
      By looking at the pictures I can't really see if the #43 can fit a shaving deflector. But I have never seen a No 43 in real life, so I could be wrong.
      The strange thing about the #50 is that the tonguing blade is the only blade to cause problems since it extends further to the side than the skate itself.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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  3. Ah yes, shaving deflections. The Achilles heel of many joinery planes.
    There are a multitude of various attempts to fix this problem, some work, some are utterly useless, being far too far from the shaving actions.
    If you look at a typical wooden moulder plane, the tip of the wedge is shaped to provide that deflection, it also works in conjunction with the inside of the mortise for the wedge. Some are ridiculously too far away to work, either because the tip of the wedge has been broken and reshaped wrong or just plain bad geometry with all the critical pieces involved. Metallic planes are a different beast, having no sole (uses a skate) and no real real estate above the cutter to deflect chips. The other jamming issues involved our hands location on the plane, those chips need an escape, if you block it, they will jam. All that to say that chip deflectors must be shaped appropriately and have a smooth surface for the chip to glide effortlessly, or....

    Bob, the old tool guy

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    1. Hi Bob

      I have a feeling that I got lucky since the deflector worked straight away. I hadn't expected it to works that well.
      But without it.. The plane was close to impossible to use.

      It seems logical that those deflectors are often found missing, after all if they were only used for the tonguing they wouldn't see much action, and you wouldn't notice if they were gone until you needed them. And if you had a dedicated T&G plane, that would be never.

      But it is interesting to see that the piece really does make a difference, I mean you are not in doubt when the plane jams up, because it just stops working completely.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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