Popular Woodworking 2006-11 № 158, страница 18
Tool Test Build a Wooden Handplane - in a Day Making your own woodworking tools can be rewarding - but it can also be time-consuming and thus takes you away from building furniture. Several years ago I felt exactly this way when I built five metal planes from kits. However, you can have the best of both worlds: building furniture and the occasional useful woodworking tool. Hock Tools sells a wooden plane kit that you can assemble in less than a day if you please. The $98.50 kit comes with pre-cut parts - a maple body and a jarrah sole - plus a sweet 1 V2"-wide iron and a beefy chipbreaker made by Hock. The kit is designed to make a low-slung plane like the ones popularized by craftsman James Krenov, but because the body is wood, you can make any plane you please. I used the kit to make a Roman-style plane, with its unusual through-the-body grips, and the kit worked brilliantly for that. To build any style plane with this kit, here's what you do: First glue the two maple sidewalls to the two center blocks using four included dowels to keep the parts in line. Then glue the sole to the body and add the cross dowel that secures the cutter with the wedge (which is included). Then comes the fun part: Shape the 11"-long body using a band saw, rasps and knives. Sharpen up the cutter, open the plane's throat with a pocket knife, flatten the sole on some sandpaper and go to work. Honestly, most of the time invested in making this handplane is in allowing the glue to dry. Building your own plane - even from a kit - is a fast way to learn a lot about plane mechanics. You don't need to do much tuning on the plane, but the work you do have to do is quick (because the body is wood, not metal) and enlightening for any handplane user. My Roman-style plane came out great and is a blast to use. — CS For more information, circle # 172 on Free Information Card. SPECIFICATIONS Hock Tools Plane Kit Street price: $98.50 Iron: High-carbon steel, 3/16" thick Body: Maple and jarrah Performance: Price range: Hock Tools: 888-282-5233 or hocktools.com Craftsman Digital Readout Plunge Router Adding a digital readout to a plunge router is more useful than adding a laser, but this digital feature alone might not be reason enough to give up your old plunge router. The Craftsman #17517 allows you to set the depth of your cut in 1/64" (or 0.1mm) increments and see the results in a lighted LCD window on the front of the tool. This clever function is surprisingly accurate and easy to learn to use. You simply touch the router's cutter to your bench, press a button to zero out the digital scale and then turn a dial to set the depth of cut you want. (The readout is in fractions or in millimeters.) You then lock the setting and start routing. One warning on this feature: the millimeter scale on this tool actually is finer than the imperial scale so you might be tempted to "go metric." The digital function works best with the router used handheld - it's less than perfect with the router mounted in a router table. Also, I think it's too easy to accidentally "zero" out your setting when you intend to simply turn off the digital readout. And while the router holds its setting fairly well in use, you can knock it loose by plunging with excessive pressure. So take it easy. Regarding the router's other features, I liked the soft-grip handles and the soft boot for the dust collection hose - too bad the dust chute clogged immediately every time I used it. The router offers a nice 10'-long cord, a spindle lock for one-wrench bit changes and a motor that ramps up gradually and is variable in speed from 15,000 to 25,000 rpm. The 10-amp motor itself is gutsy enough for most workshop tasks, and is (like most routers) too loud to be used without ear protection (89 dB up to 100 dB). The router comes standard with both V2" and V4" collets. For me, the router would be more appealing if the digital readout could be switched to decimal fractions, the router were more friendly in the router table and if the dust chute functioned well. However, for the first digital-readout router I've ever used, I can say that I'm intrigued by what's next. PW — CS For more information, circle #173 on Free Information Card. SPECIFICATIONS Craftsman Digital Router (#17517) Street price: $140 Motor: 10 amp Speed: Variable, 15,000 - 25,000 rpm Collets: V2" and V4" Performance: •••OO Price range: $$ Craftsman: 800-549-4505 or craftsman.com 32 Popular Woodworking November 2006 |
