Let's Build an Infill the Easy Way! #2: It's Cleaning Up Nice

I don’t have a ton of pictures for this entry, as I got a little carried away on the tasks I was doing. I looked at it and decided that the bun placement could go one of two ways:

or

I got finish on the tote and bun. I decided that for now I won’t make a decision on bun placement, though I am leaning towards the more forward position because it allows for better hand grip on the bun and more room for chip ejection. The only con is that it looks a little funnier. Oh well.

After 4 coats of Formby’s low gloss tung oil finish, I did a coat of paste wax. I’ll do one more before I call it good. I apply the paste wax with gray scotch-brite, as it helps really smooth out the surface and makes it feel silky smooth.

Of course a mockup is necessary:

For now I am planning to use the stock iron and chipbreaker, as well as the stock lever cap just until I can make a new lever cap with a nice thumb screw. For this, I needed to drill for and insert a threaded insert. #10 is all I have, I would have liked 1/4” but oh well.

Because of the dimensions for the head, shoulder, and threaded portion, I had to turn up a custom screw. I started with 3/8” mystery steel that I had kicking around. Stock lever cap screws are about 3/8” head diameter, with a .287” shaft and threaded something really weird. A little larger than 1/4”. Probably #14 or something. Anyway, I turned the .287” to .293” for a little tighter fit on mine, then turned down to .185” to thread #10-24. I polished it on the lathe a little and then went to slot it. Slotting this was down really low tech, but a way that I find works really well. I took a piece of 1/8” thick aluminum scrap and drilled and tapped #10-24. I threaded my screw in as far as it would go and put a nut on the back to secure it. I then put the aluminum piece in my drill press vise vertically. I set my drill press speed to 3000 RPM (max speed), chucked up a cutting disc and mandrel for a dremel, and set the height to be right in the center. I left a tiny nub from the lathe to make this easier. Then I turned on the drill press and too slow, shallow passes until I got a slot the right depth. I wanted it a little wider, so I lowered the disc about another 1/64” and continued. Once I was satisfied with the screwdriver fit, I removed it and took a triangle file to the slot just to ease the hard corners. Polish it up with some gray scotch-brite, et viola:

After that, I wire wheeled the iron, chip breaker, and lever cap along with the plane body. Then it all got a coat of paste wax to prevent rust. it has been really rainy here, so I want the protection:

All in all, this has taken me a little while. I also opened up the mouth another 1/32” or so. I did this in the milling machine with a 1/8” end mill. Worked great.

Total time in so far: ~8 hours…? I have no clue.

-- Brian T. - Exact science is not an exact science