Buck Rogers Inspired Wooden Smoother

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Recently Tim Dahn posted a blog about refurbishing a Miller Falls # 709 “buck rogers” hand plane. He did a great job. These planes a very cool looking. A number of months ago I decided to make a reasonable facsimile. I used the Veritas Wooden Plane hardware kit to make my own Buck Rogers style smoother.

I already had a number of wood plane body blanks glued made up from various pieces of shop leftover and found this maple and mahogany one that was just about the right size. The maple is left over hardwood flooring and the mahogany is old door jambs salvaged from a home renovation project. I turned a mahogany knob and shaped a mahogany tote. The tote is attached to the plane body by a mortise and tenon joint.

The blade is 1 5/8 s inches wide and the plane is about 11 inches long. Its a little on the long side for a smoother but I was reluctant to remove too much wood from the plane body.

It took about 6 hours over two days to make this plane and the nice fresh bed of mahogany, maple and cherry shavings.

Its not perfect, but the good thing is I can always keep the plane hardware, throw out the body and make a new one.

Nice plane. I have some persimmon- Might try one of these.

Cool idea woodbridge! That Veritas kit is nice isn’t it.

I keep telling myself use more hand tools and looking at this makes it more and more tempting .
Thanks for the inspiration Peter .

Klaus

Very nice , when you can make your own tools it’s one less $ that could go overseas.
And If a part breaks you can fix it or make a new pcs. I think it helps you to do better work all together cause you know if you make a crappy tool it’s going to perform crappy and it will show in your work. Quite a few of my woodworking tools are modifications, or old tools I’ve rehabbed and I’d use them before any of the new stuff that’s out there . I like wood and metal , plastic has very little place for good , durable tools I expect all most all of mine will wind up in my son’s hands one day.
Quality materiels and proper use will ensure that.

Mark DellaCamera

Very well done. Making tools for yourself has no better feeling of accomplishment, it’s a bonus that this one is so beautiful!

CHRIS, Charlottetown PEI Canada. Anytime you can repurpose, reuse, or recycle, everyone wins!

I love this plane great job.

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