A Teak Wooden Bodied Smoothing Plane - Part 2

I've just got around to finishing off the plane.
A blade lever cap plate was made, again from some teak, about 3/8" thick x 1-5/8" wide x 3-1/2" long. A 30 degree bevel was cut on the leading edge and the back end rounded off. A 3/8" hole counterbored to 5/8" was drilled at the far end. A brass shouldered and threaded insert was pushed into place. The brass adjustment screw was inserted.

The lever cap needed slight adjustment on the top face to slide under the cross pin with ease.
Then it was coated with some lacquer.
After a couple of coats of shellac I applied another few coats of a waterborne gloss lacquer from ToneTech simple with a foam brush. When the lacquer had cured I set about clearing the slot of any remaining lacquer.

Then the sole of the plane was trued using some self adhesive sandpaper on a convenient cast iron surface (my table saw). The teak really does suit being used as a wooden plane and it was very easy to obtain a true surface.

The first thing to insert was the 1/4" diameter brass cross pin. This is a push fit into both holes and went in with some tapping from a deadblow mallet.

Next to be fitted was the bearing cup. This is dropped into the mortise made by the 7/8" Forstner bit and fits perfectly. I did have to remove some of the lacquer again and just had to square up the bottom of the mortice slightly as it was out by a couple of thou. This made the cup parallel and co-planer with the bed.
The bearing cup was secured with the supplied brass screw.

A Teak Wooden Bodied Smoothing Plane

There has been much renewed interest in old wooden bench planes over the past few years. I guess people want to get back to the artisan ways of making things and using a wooden bodied plane is one such route.
To facilate the manufacture of such planes Veritas recently announced that they would make available hardware kits using their mechanism based upon the Norris style adjuster.
The kit comes with all the parts and a choice of O1, A2 or PMV11 blades. All you have to do is supply the timber of your choice.

My build

I had some teak on my wood racks that was almost the same size as the requirements. Veritas recommend a piece of wood 8”x 2-1/4”x 2-1/2” or larger.

The piece I had was 2" x 2" so I glued another piece to make it 2" x 3" x 18" long. I decided to use some contrasting pieces for the side cheeks, again from teak, but it is a slightly different shade. When glueing teak you have to wipe it down with some acetone or mineral spirits first of all to remove the natural oil on the surface of the wood.

The next thing to do after the glue sets up is to cut it down to 1-11/16" wide and 2-1/2" tall.
Then one block is cut at 3" long and the other needs a 45 degree cut. I left this piece still long just in case of mistakes with cutting the pocket of which there were a few!

The small 3" long block required a 4" radius cut machining into it so I did this with the bandsaw and oscillating spindle sander. There is a 1/4" section that is left square to what will become the sole.

Sketchup representation of the inner blocks.
Sketchup makes it looks as though it is faceted. In
reality it is a true 4" radius.

Toy Chest

This is a toy chest for based upon the TWW Multi Function Toy Chest in aid of Woodworkers Fighting Cancer Charity.
Timbers used are French Oak and Baltic birch plywood. The hinges are Rockler Torsion Hinges.
The finish is Seal R Cell and Arm R Seal.

A pile of stock

My router template jig came in useful for holding
the stock and a pre-existing template I already
had to make the curves. Tip - Never throw away your templates