Rounder plane for spars

[John Teetsel]

This subject came up on another thread and I thought it was interesting enough that it deserved a thread of its own.

Click the link to see a diagram.

http://www.pbs.org/wws/howto/images/e2104Rounderplane.pdf

This nifty little device is a rounder plane. It's used to make spokes, tool handles, chair & table legs. Round stock that's too long for a lathe. Make it bigger than shown in the plan and you can round & taper spars.

Order the video from PBS here.

http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=1405065

Thanks to Mark Gudschinsky for mentioning this after seeing it on PBS.

[Dave Fleming]

:?

And here I was thinkin' you were going to show how you made a nice SPAR Plane.

:wink: :wink:

[Mike Pennington]

John,

Thanks for the blue print.

I also want to say that you got the right spirit. The way you help out, thats quality.

[Johannah]

Dave Fleming, no fair, don't leave us hanging like that. What's a spar plane and how does it work? Lots of people here have worked out ad hoc ways to build spars but would love to know more. Speak on!

[Mark Gudschinsky]

For some reason my computer wont let me see the diagram?

Can some one post a picture?

[Dave Fleming]

Jo, a spar plane in words, is a plane with a radiused sole, a gentle arc from side to side NOT fore and aft. That is another animal called a compass plane.

The spar plane blade is shaped to match the radius and the planes function is to finish round a wooden mast or spar.

Some are as short as 6 or 7 inches whilst others are as long as a joiner plane ie: 14 to 18 inches. Larger ones are in the Razee pattern. In the heyday of wooden vessels, sparmaking was a separate craft as was interior joinerwork, sawn framing, trunnel boring. Some areas of the country it was piece work, others by the job. Not until later did the idea of a full crew working steady at one yard come into being.

Sparmaking was always separate as was Sailmaking.

Really not hard to make a Spar plane these days if you follow the Krenovian method of wooden plane making vs. the traditional out of solid block way. The iron is without a cap iron so the thicker the iron the better.

With spars rarely of a wood denser than Douglas Fir the angle of the iron in the plane body is close to what a conventional bench plane would be. Not as steep as a block plane or a York pattern bench plane.

A Spar Plane is a finishing tool used after the timber is reduced from a square to an octagon to a whatever the next doubling is called, then comes the spar plane to finish off the rounding.

Some spar shops like the one I can recall in San Francisco down on the way to Hunters Point near Butchers Hollow had a lathe, home made over 60 FEET between centers for turning spars, flagpoles etc.. Place was a living history museum with flat drawers in the office filled with the rigging plans for vessels of all sizes up to and including full rigged ships.

That big lathe had a carriage for purpose made cutters, really scrapers, that could be drawn along the timber to do the actual cutting. Huge calipers for determing the diameter and templates for tapers hung on the walls. When that big lathe was in motion the whole building shook. Bearings were just big hunks of LV aka Lignum Vitae, ways were huge Doug Fir timbers with sheet bronze on top for wear surfaces for the carriage and steady rests.

[BobSmalser]

My Uncle had several spar planes in different radii in his yard that all got "lost" before I got to them. Have been living without them ever since....which is entirely doable on the occasional one-off spar. Spar planes were for folks making spars all day, every day.

I'm about to make my own by converting an old Stanley 35.

I'll take pics when I do it.

Stanley 22's, 23's and 24's would also be good choices. These can all be had on Ebay in the 25-dollar range.

Until I sort it out, tho...try this at your own risk...I haven't entirely decided how I'm gonna do the cap irons, yet.

[Johannah]

Bob, are you planning to make a new iron? If so how? Can an old blade be reshaped without wrecking it?

[Dave Fleming]

Bob' date=' are you planning to make a new iron? If so how? Can an old blade be reshaped without wrecking it?[/quote']

If I may jump in here....

Yes you can shape an existing blade to fit BUT!

It does depend on the amount of radius or you may exceed the temper line of the blade. A thin 'stanley' type blade will suffer without a cap iron for support and the cap iron will take some conservative alteration to work if the radius is on the extreme side.

I personally would seek an aftermarket thick blade but, that is an expense added to the making of a new spar plane.

I too am interested in how Bob's idea turns out.

[BobSmalser]

Bob, are you planning to make a new iron? If so how? Can an old blade be reshaped without wrecking it?

Not unless I wreck the original. :wink:

I can temper the blade easy enuf...the hard part will be reshaping the cap iron if it doesn't plane well with it in its original shape. I may try a thicker iron if necessary before altering the cap iron....but spar planes only do softwoods like spruce and none of this may be necessary, as the original plane was designed to smooth all woods.

Would be easier to convert an old beech smoother, as they have thicker blades and no cap iron...but what's life without a challenge or two?

On either conversion, removing wood from the sole will open up the throat and require a let in graving piece and the plane's mouth reshaped.

Remember the gutter adze, eh?

[Dave Fleming]

Remember the gutter adze, eh?

Ayup, got to learn to think outside my little box.

:wink: :wink:

[John Teetsel]

Here's a picture of a spar plane.

[Simon]

How does one reliably sharpen curved blades? I'm thinking of gouges, but I presume it would be a similar process for spar planes and gutter adzes.

[BobSmalser]

Half-cone-shaped slip stones from a woodcarver's supplier.

Also wood dowels of different sizes with alum oxide wet-or-dry paper wrapped around them.

[JimH]

Dave & Bob, how wide are those blades?

[Dave Fleming]

Jim

No set radius nor blade width.

Whatever radius you require and compatable with the blade/s you might have on hand.

Bob S, is able to retemper blades in his shop and, that is a big plus.

I have, on the other hand, been fortunate to acqure a 'stash' of older ie: thicker blades and of varying widths.

I have several spar type planes made by me and others and IIRC the biggest is approx: 2 inches in width, an old D R BARTON blade I found in the 'gosh box' of Blanchard Boat many years ago after a disasterous fire had destroyed the main shed there. Fortunately the temper of the blade had not been ruined in the fire so I was lucky.