Hand Outs,Plane

8/3/2019 Hand Outs,Plane

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Plane

y tool for shaping woody used to flatten, reduce the thickness of, and impart a smooth surface to a rough piece of

lumber or timber.

y Planing is used to produce horizontal, vertical, or inclined flat surfaces on workpiecesusually too large for shaping.

y Special types of planes are designed to cut joints or decorative mouldings.

Hand planes are generally the combination of a cutting edge,

y such as a sharpened metal plate,y attached to a firm bodyy that when moved over a wood surface,y take up relatively uniform shavings,y by nature of the body riding on the 'high spots' in the wood,y and also by providing a relatively constant angle to the cutting edge, render the planed

surface very smooth.

.

Woodworking machinery

y that perform the same function as hand planes include the jointer and the thicknessplaner, also called a thicknesser.


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History

Hand planes are ancient, originating thousands of years ago.

Early planes were made from

y woodwith a rectangular slot or mortise cut across the center of the body.- The cutting blade or iron was held in place with a wooden wedge.- The wedge was tapped into the mortise and adjusted with a small mallet, a

piece of scrap wood or with the heel of the users hand.

- Planes of this type have been found in excavations of old sites as well asdrawings of woodworking from medieval Europe and Asia.

- The earliest known examples of the woodworking plane have been found inPompeii although other Roman examples have been unearthed in England and

Germany.- The Roman planes resemble modern planes in essential function, most having

iron wrapping a wooden core top, bottom, front and rear and an iron bladesecured with a wedge.

-

One example found in Cologne has a body made entirely of bronze without awooden core. A Roman plane iron used forcutting moldings was found in In

1918 an air-powered handheld planing tool was developed to reduceshipbuilding labor during World War I. The air-driven cutter spun at 8000 to

15000 RPM and allowed one man to do the planing workof fifteen men thatused manual tools.

Modern hand planes are made from

y Wood,y ductile iron or bronze

- produces a heavier tool that will not rust.


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Partsofa plane

bench plane

blockplane.

A bench plane iron with chipbreaker.

y A: The mouth is an opening in the bottom of the plane down through which the bladeextends, and up through which wood shavings pass.

y B: The iron is a plate of steel with a sharpened edge which cuts the wood. Some peoplerefer to it as the blade.

y C: The lever cap holds the blade down firmly to the body of the plane.y D: The depth adjustmentknobcontrols how far the blade extends through the mouth.y E: The knob is a handle on the front of the plane.y F: The chipbreaker orCap iron serves to make the blade more rigid and to curl and

breakapart wood shavings as they pass through the mouth.

y G: The lateral adjustment lever is used to adjust the iron by skewing it so that the depthofcut is uniform across the mouth.

y H: The tote is a handle on the rear of the plane.(Some aficionados object to the use of theword tote preferring handle).

y I: The fingerrestknobBlockplanes are held in the palm of the hand while the tip of theuser's index finger rests in the indentation on top of the knob. On some planes the knob is

used to adjust the size of the mouth by allowing a sliding portion of the sole to be movedbackor forward to accomplish this.

y J: The frog is a sliding iron wedge that holds the plane iron at the proper angle. It slidesto adjust the gap between the cutting edge and the front of the mouth. The frog is screwed

down to the inside of the sole through two parallel slots and on many planes is onlyadjustable with a screwdriver when the plane iron is removed.


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Typesofplanes

Modern wooden plane A smoothing plane

Stanley No. 32 transitional jointer Stanley No. 55 Combinationplane (26 inches long) Plane

Finger planes, seen in Copenhagen. Router plane

Note the size


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Most planes are categorized as either

y bench planesy blockplanesy In modern-day carpentry, electrically powered hand planers (also called hand or

handheld power planers or simply power planes) have joined the family.

Bench planes are characterized by- the cutting iron bedded with the bevel facing down and attached to a

chipbreaker.

Blockplanes are characterized by- the absence of a chipbreaker and the cutting iron bedded with the bevel up.- The blockplane is usually a smaller tool that can be held with one hand- used for general purpose work such as taking down a knot in the wood,

smoothing up small pieces, making the end of a sawed board square and

smooth.

A typical order of use in flattening, truing, and smoothing a rough sawn board might be:

y A scrub plane, which removes large amounts of wood quickly, is typically around9 inches (230 mm) in length, but narrower than a smoothing plane, and has an iron with acurved cutting edge.

y A jackplane is around 14 inches (360 mm) long, continues the job of roughing out, butwith more accuracy than the scrub.

y A jointer plane (including the smallerfore plane) is between 18 to 24 inches (460 to 610mm) long, and is used for jointing and final flattening out of boards.

y A smoothing plane, up to 10 inches (250 mm) long, is used to begin preparing the surfacefor finishing.

y A polishing plane, this plane is a traditional Japanese woodworking tool which takes aneven smaller shaving than a western smoothing plane to create an extremely smoothsurface, polishing planes are the same length as western smoothing planes.


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Planes may also be classified by the material of which they are constructed:

y A wooden plane is entirely wood except for the blade. The iron is held into the planewith a wooden wedge, and is adj

usted by stri

king the plane with a hammer.

y A transitional plane has a wooden body with a metal casting set in it to hold and adjustthe blade.

y A metal plane is largely constructed of metal, except, perhaps, for the handles.y An infill plane has a body of metal filled with very dense and hard wood on which the

blade rests and the handles are formed. They are typically of English orScottishmanufacture. They are prized for their ability to smooth difficult grained woods when set

very finely.

Some special types of planes include:

y The spokeshave, which has a very short sole, either flat orcurved, and is used forsmoothing curved surfaces.

y The shoulder plane, is characterized by a cutter that is flush with the edges of the plane,allowing trimming right up to the edge of a workpiece. It is commonly used to clean up

dadoes (housings) and tenons for joinery.y The moulding plane, which is used to cut mouldings along the edge of a boardy The rabbet plane, also known as a rebate or openside plane, which cuts rabbets (rebates)

i.e. shou

lders, or steps.y The plow plane, which cuts grooves and dadoes (housings).y The router plane, which cleans up the bottom of recesses such as shallow mortises and

dadoes (housings).y The chisel plane, which removes wood up to a perpendicular surface such as from the

bottom inside of a box.y The finger plane, which is used for smoothing very small pieces such as toy parts, very

thin strips of wood, etc. The very small curved bottom variates are known as violinmakers planes and are used in making stringed instruments.

y The bullnose plane has a very short leading edge to its body, and so can be used in tightspaces; most commonly of the shoulder and rabbet variety.

y The co

mbina

tion plane, which combines the function of a moulding and rabbet planes,

having different cutters and adjustments

y The circularor compass plane, which utilizes an adjustment system to control the flexon a steel sheet sole and create a uniform curve. A concave setting permits great control

for planing large curves, like table sides orchair arms, and the convex works well forchair arms, legs and backs, and other applications.


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Using a plane

Grain considerations

Planing wood along its side grain should result in thin shavings rising above the surface of the

wood as the edge of the plane iron is pushed forward, leaving a smooth surface, but sometimes

splintering occurs. This is largely a matter ofcutting with the grain oragainst the grainrespectively, referring to the side grain of the piece of wood being worked.

The grain direction can be determined by looking at the edge or side of the workpiece. Wood

fibers can be seen running out to the surface that is being planed. When the fibers meet the worksurface it looks like the point of an arrow that indicates the direction. With some very figured

and difficult woods the grain runs in many directions and therefore working against the grain isinevitable. In this case, a very sharp and finely-set blade is required.

When planing against the grain, the wood fibers are lifted by the plane iron, resulting in a jaggedfinish, called tearout. Planing against the grain in this manner is sometimes called "traverse" or

"transverse" planing.

Planing the end grain of the board involves different techniques, and frequently different planesdesigned for working end grain. Planes with the iron bedded at a "low angle," typically about 12

degrees, are often used for planing end grain


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Hand Outs,Plane