Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Making an infill plane from scratch 12, riveting the sides.

Much to my surprise the marshmallow glue seemingly did its job. So technically both infill pieces were now ready to be mounted in body of the plane.
I positioned them and clamped a set of pliers on the sides to ensure that nothing moved during the drilling of the holes.
At first I drilled a new set of holes instead of those that I plugged the other day. After that all the existing holes were bored in the infills as well.

My original plan was to insert some small tubes to function as distance pieces. I had laid my eyes on a piece of stainless steel pipe, but I had to give up the plan because the hole was too large by 1 mm in diameter (3/64") compared to the rivets that I was going to use.
So a quick change of plans resulting in that I assembled the plane without any distance pieces.

The rivets are actually short lengths of round iron bar of 1/4" diameter (6 mm). Those were sanded first to remove the black crust, and one end sharpened just a bit, to make sure that it would engage the hole on the opposite side of the body.
The rivets were driven through and I started peening the metal.
After doing one rivet on one side, I flipped the plane over and completed the other side of that rivet.

The riveting disturbed the look of the sides a bit, I guess that the wood compacted a bit, and the sides naturally followed along. So the bottom of the planes doesn't look quite as nice as it did in the beginning. But the overall feeling is rock solid.

Smoothing the sides again to level out the rivets took some time. Again this is where a belt sander would come in handy, but a file can also do the job if you have a little bit of patience.

A nice trick when filing metal is to pack the file with chalk. This helps to prevent chips to get stuck in the file and make a major scratch in the surface on the next stroke.
You basically just take some writing chalk and rub it onto the file before using it.
It really helps a lot. Especially if you work in softer metals like brass, copper or aluminium but for steel or iron it also helps. These metals aren't as prone to clog the file, but any bit helps to make a nice surface.

The parts ready for riveting.

File packed with chalk.

Almost done with one side.

Body and infills assembled.

10 comments:

  1. Looking good! This has been so interesting, Jonas. Can't wait to see what you're doing for the iron advancement.

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    1. Thank yous very much for the nice comment.
      My plan is to try fabricating a Norris style adjuster. I hope it will work out all right.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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  2. Wow! It looks great! From here, I can't see any of the rivets (or plugs) at all.

    Will you leave the metal sides sanded to this grit, or will you polish them up to a mirror finish?

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    1. Thanks Brian
      If you have the plane right in front of you , the rivets can be seen very faintly, but that is the way it is supposed to be.
      The sides are just finished with a file right now, I plan on sanding them to a higher grit. But I don't want to polish them to a mirror shine.
      I deliberately try to advance the sanding of all parts evenly, based on the progress. My theory is that it is best not to complete one part and then risk it getting dinged up in the process of working on something else.

      I still need to chamfer the upper edges of the metal sides, and that means that there is a risk of accidentally leaving an unintended mark on some of the wood.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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  3. Pretty impressive what you were able to accomplished using Marshmallow glue :-)
    Looking good Jonas

    Rudy, licking Bob forehead

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    1. Hi Bob
      Thanks.
      I had a lot of doubt in that glue when I dug it out of the bottle using a screwdriver and smeared it onto the parts. But somehow it must have worked.
      Bertha's birthday is coming up this Saturday, so I wish I was at home stroking her soft fur.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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  4. Jonas' patronus is an infill plane...I'm blown away...

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    1. Thanks Bill, but I think my patronus is a Newfoundland dog; lazy and with messy hair :-)
      I am astonished of the amount of fiddling with details this project requires. Last night I used a couple of hours to try to make a smooth transition of the heel of the plane. All those tiny things just take up a lot more time than I expected.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  5. Ditto everyone else, lookig great! Thanks for the chalk tip, that'll be valuable to know.

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    1. Hi Jeff.
      Thanks, The chalk tip really helps a lot. It is such a bummer to suddenly have a piece of metal jamming in the file and then making a giant scratch over your nice surface.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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