This DIY Plane Scraper Changed My Woodworking

Read Time: 2 mins

Something NEW crossed my path a couple of weeks ago while I was visiting a my friend Paul's shop. He showed me a new sort of scraper / plane he had just made that lies flat on the project surface. It was one of those tools that as soon as you see it you think, WOW, what a great idea, I need to make one of those for myself. Paul told me he had seen it somewhere else before and was not his idea or design, but there's no reaon people cannot make their own versions of this idea, and so I did.

I started off with an old block plane I no longer use, but was once my go-to plane. The blade was still sharp, but would need a tiny bit of stropping to get it super sharp, but that would come later ....

Next I needed to find some lumber to use, I happened to have a single board of Bubgina wood that has been patiently waiting for it's turn in my wood supply bin for over 20 years, and today was it's day. Unfortunately the board was too thin for my purpose, but thought this would be a good time to laminate some of the Holly wood that I have on hand as mid layer, to get the require thickness I needed.

And so the process of joining 2 sides, planing for thickness and cutting for size began, and finally the glue up. The block of laminated wood worked out great, a bit bigger than I needed but I can use the off-cut for other things like tool handles, drawer pulls and more.

With a bit of backwards engineering, I realized the blade would need a backstop in the base that would be thinner than the actual blade and curved to follow that back of the plane blade. I also had to keep in mind that I needed to allow space for 4 x 1/2" earth magnets to hold the blade to the base, and that the plane blade either have a center hole, or have "sides" to the base to allow for "no sideways" movement.

trim plane 1

During this planning time, I decided that best thing would be to make all the parts I need first, then put them together in sequece, which is what I did. Not many parts, the main carcass of the scraper plane, the blade back-stop, the blade center stabilizer (the washer and screw), the blade, and finally a blade safety cover (very important).

trim plane 2

I used the basic outline of my new block plane for the outline of carcass, then cut this out on the bandsaw, performed some routing for smooth hand-hold sides, and finally some sanding overall, and soon the carcass was ready to go. Only needed a coat of finish as a final step when all assembled.

trim plane 3

Colin Knecht
woodworkweb

{source}


<script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
<ins class="adsbygoogle"

style="display:block"

data-ad-format="autorelaxed"

data-ad-client="ca-pub-6275166179423917"

data-ad-slot="7631316853"></ins>
<script>

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
</script>
<?php

// You can place PHP like this

?>
{/source}

{source}


<script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
<script>
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({
google_ad_client: "ca-pub-6275166179423917",
enable_page_level_ads: true
});
</script>
<?php
// You can place PHP like this

?>
{/source}