Low angle beech router
Well, not so much low as low for a traditional router plane.
Traditional high angle router planes are great for final clean-up of a grove or dado, but sometimes you want one that takes off more stock.
For that you need a lower angle on the blade, something more like a standard plane, so about 45 degrees.
First thought was grab a likely looking piece of beech.
However, I've got nothing thick enough so I'll have cut to length and glue it up.
Square it up and plane 45(ish) degree chamfer.
You don't need to do this, but I find it easier to drill the hole at 90 degrees to the face
Drill a hole, just eyeball it, doesn't need to be perfect.
Square it out and angle it with a chisel and rasp.
Test fit.
Keep taking bits off until it fits tightly at both ends.
It's at this point that I realised that working out the angles I needed to end up with would have made this much simpler.
I could have altered the wedge angle, but figured it would be better to change the hole.
And that's a working router plane, everything from this point on is removing stock for comfort, grip, looks & ease of use.
Time to shape it.
Add some curves.
Cut a slot so you can see the blade.
And done.
OK, after testing it needed a few changes, the grip was digging into my palms a bit and I couldn't see what was happening if I was planning away from me.
So needed some adjustment.
Easy enough to sort, use a rasp to fix the grip by smoothing the spots where it was digging in.
And use a rasp to enlarge the place to view the blade so it can be seen from directly above.
And that works, I think the next one needs a bit more width and depth, this one ended up just a little small for my hands.
Well, not so much low as low for a traditional router plane.
Traditional high angle router planes are great for final clean-up of a grove or dado, but sometimes you want one that takes off more stock.
For that you need a lower angle on the blade, something more like a standard plane, so about 45 degrees.
First thought was grab a likely looking piece of beech.
However, I've got nothing thick enough so I'll have cut to length and glue it up.
Square it up and plane 45(ish) degree chamfer.
You don't need to do this, but I find it easier to drill the hole at 90 degrees to the face
Drill a hole, just eyeball it, doesn't need to be perfect.
Square it out and angle it with a chisel and rasp.
Test fit.
Keep taking bits off until it fits tightly at both ends.
It's at this point that I realised that working out the angles I needed to end up with would have made this much simpler.
I could have altered the wedge angle, but figured it would be better to change the hole.
And that's a working router plane, everything from this point on is removing stock for comfort, grip, looks & ease of use.
Time to shape it.
Add some curves.
Cut a slot so you can see the blade.
And done.
OK, after testing it needed a few changes, the grip was digging into my palms a bit and I couldn't see what was happening if I was planning away from me.
So needed some adjustment.
Easy enough to sort, use a rasp to fix the grip by smoothing the spots where it was digging in.
And use a rasp to enlarge the place to view the blade so it can be seen from directly above.
And that works, I think the next one needs a bit more width and depth, this one ended up just a little small for my hands.