Router Plane - Paul Sellers Kit

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Paul Sellers Kit

Router plane - Paul Sellers Hardware Kit

Paul Sellers has started selling a hardware kit for a router plane, and I quite fancied having one with a mechanical adjuster so I thought I'd give it a shot.
It's basically a modified hags tooth router with mechanical depth adjusters.

So, armed with the Paul Sellers Hardware Kit & a chunk of willow.


Big check in the chunk, so I'll split that off first so I can see what i have to work with.
Lop it down to about a foot to work with.
Couple of small checks left, but they don't look like they will run in much further and I can mostly avoid them anyway.

Mark out an oversize piece for the main body and split it off.


Big knot there, so I'll cut that end off as well.


And make it roughly square with a scrub plane.


Cut it to size.




And square it off - It's a Paul Sellers kit so I think if you don't use a Stanley Number 4 at some point in the build some serious looking men in plaid come and take you away.



And cut a 1 1/4 inch hole for the throat, I'd never used this bit before and didn't check it well enough - the outside of the spur had been filed down from the look of it, so it wandered a little - No great worry, I can fix the hole up later.


Onto making the piece on top where all the hardware goes.
Cut of a chunk and square off 2 reference faces.




Mark the angle that the iron is going to be at - I'm going for 60 degrees on this one.

I was going to cut it to shape at this point but changed my mind as I think it will be simpler to add the holes and cut-outs for the kit with it squared off instead, so square the other 2 sides.

Which brings me on to the kit, it turned up in a neat little box that even the postal service hadn't dented.
It contains all the metal hardware you need to make the plane.




So, cut out a slot for the iron and fit it so it's just a little proud of the surface.





Mark out where the adjuster goes and drill the hole - I'd have normally freehanded this, but the pillar drill is a new toy so I'm using it.




And mark out and drill the holes for the retaining bar.




Now I can shape the piece to give a 60 degree angle for the iron.


And it goes a bit like this - I'll shorten the back and blend it in after it's glued on.


Smooth off the side edges of the piece with some rasps and sandpaper.



On to shaping the main body.
Angle and shape the front.




And glue on the top piece.


Match up the back and round it over to blend it in a bit.


On to the handles.
Paul Sellers just modifies some normal cupboard handles for his - I decided to just make them from scratch, mostly because I wanted squared off handles.

Cut off a chunk and square it off (Using a Stanley number 4, of course)




And then rasp and chisel down to the shape I'm after.






And then just round off the edges and seperate into 2 handles.




I didn't have enough visibility on the hole and it needed fixing a bit anyway, so I re-shaped it a bit while evening it out.


Which just left re-drilling the holes to final depth.


Adding a quick coat of danish oil.


And attaching the hardware, I had a couple of bits left over that would have been used for the handles.


So I made another one with a 45 degree bed angle.
Pretty much followed the same process, but opened the mouth up to give a better view to account for the lower angle.
30 seconds to flip the Iron and holding plate between the 2 depending on if I have a groove to flatten or a mortise to level out. 
 


17 Comments

Very nice, Mike! And you got a two-fer from the kit, to boot!

May you have the day you deserve!

Cheers Dave - well, technically I had to add another threaded insert and a knurled knob, but nearly enough kit for 2.
Sweet Mike, I see one of these in my future projects. Thanks for posting.

Main Street to the Mountains

No worries Eric.

You can go low-tech with a traditional wedge as well.
Hey thats good, the hardest part will be figuring out how to secure the blade and adjustment. But I like that idea.

Main Street to the Mountains

Neat little project and a great walkthrough B_UK...  Not an overkeen hand tool user meself, however, you've given a few clues that might assist if the need be.

If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD

Oh, look! A "floor pig!" Very nice, Mike. What is it they say? "Wider is better?"

"floor pig" is referencing comments in:


It will forever be a ‘floor pig’ now as far as I’m concerned. What a great name for it!

Ryan/// ~sigh~ I blew up another bowl. Moke told me "I made the inside bigger than the outside".

Thanks Mike. I need to increase the width of the lock plate, which is no problem.

Main Street to the Mountains

Mike, what did you use to draft the dimensions? I like that knurled wheel drafting etc.
That's not my draft Devin - it's from Paul's build pdf that links to the kit.
Real nice work on that Mike
Nicely done.  The cutter basically looks like an old mortising chisel with a couple of notches to enable adjustment.  

--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.

Thanks Corelz

Yeah Nathan, it's just square bar stock with a couple of notches and a pointy bit.
Fantastic, and I really enjoyed all the photos.