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MikeB_UK
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Yew Rounding Plane
3/4" Rounding plane for making dowels and tapered tennons.
Always fancied trying to make a rounding plane, so…
Hand tools only, feel free to comment, question or complain.
Needs to be some hard, tight grained wood - Yew in this case, technically a softwood, but slightly harder than hard maple on the Janka scale, so should work fine..
And a cheap spokeshave blade (8 of them + a spokeshave for £13)
Always fancied trying to make a rounding plane, so…
Hand tools only, feel free to comment, question or complain.
Needs to be some hard, tight grained wood - Yew in this case, technically a softwood, but slightly harder than hard maple on the Janka scale, so should work fine..
And a cheap spokeshave blade (8 of them + a spokeshave for £13)
Square up the blank.
Drill a 3/4" hole to match the dowel size it's going to make.
And then ream out the hole on one side to make a cone shape. Not having a tapered reamer I've made do with a step drill bit and cleaned up the ridges with a rasp and file.
According to the internet I need a bed of about 20 degrees, so out with the high tech tools.
And then just hog out wood until I've just cleared the top of the hole enough to fit the spokeshave iron.
Chiseling out the gap instead of cutting it out to leave myself a ridge on the side to line the iron up with as it will only have 1 fixing point instead of 2 so need a way to stop it spinning round (If not I'll have to try to use something similar to a spokeshave adjuster for depth).
A screw and washer should be enough to hold it in place firmly, the edge of the bed will keep the iron parallel.
Sharpen up the iron.
Hack of a bit of wood and make a rough hexagon.
And test it out, it works, sort of. Makes a very rough dowel that looks as if it was chewed into shape, and the shavings clog up the mouth. Needs a slight redesign.
Reshaped the back to create better chip clearance and reshaped the blade and it works a lot better, I'll shape the iron a bit more later, but I think I can call it a success.
Onto making it look pretty and adding a couple of handles
Cut to size and drill and tap some holes to take a 3/4" threaded rod.
Use some of the rest of the blank to make a couple of handles.
Make them octagonal.
And use the rounding plane to shape the ends. Handles just friction fit in.
After a couple of months of use I extended the exit hole a bit as the dowel could wander a bit if you didn't pay attention.
So, it now looks a bit worse, but works better.
10 Comments
Neat Mike, making cutting tools is satisfying, well done. I like your write up.
Main Street to the Mountains
Really cool tool!
Nice work! Something similar is my next project
Jerry-Holland Mi
Sooner or later I will also have to take the time to make this. Thanks for all the pictures and story. Well done.
Nicely done, Mike! I have a rounding plane I made a couple years ago that still looks and worse considerably worse than yours. Should fix that one of these days…
May you have the day you deserve!
Eric - the "Loft"
Neat Mike, making cutting tools is satisfying, well done. I like your write up.
Cheer Eric
BB1
Really cool tool!
Thanks BB1
TheDutchman
Nice work! Something similar is my next project
Thanks Dutchman, I need to make another one for 1" dowels at some point.
Dutchy
Sooner or later I will also have to take the time to make this. Thanks for all the pictures and story. Well done.
Was a relatively easy build, most of the time was spend faffing with getting the profile right on the iron.
Dave Polaschek
Nicely done, Mike! I have a rounding plane I made a couple years ago that still looks and worse considerably worse than yours. Should fix that one of these days…
Pretty sure you said you were going to fix it when I first posted this 😁
Mike, what about that router plane you posted this past year, on that other site? That was sharp, and one of those have been on my radar to build one day.
Main Street to the Mountains
Eric - the "Loft"
Mike, what about that router plane you posted this past year, on that other site? That was sharp, and one of those have been on my radar to build one day.
I'll port it over, I made a few tweaks after I posted it that I'll add in.
Sounds good. I'll be watching for it. Just something else to add to the list of shop projects, and other stuff to get done. What the heck, it's only time and I am semi-retired now.
Main Street to the Mountains
Sharp looking tool. I don't think I have ever seen one before, thanks for showing. Good job. Mike
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