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277998 | Darrell <larchmont479@g...> | 2023‑12‑01 | Book Plow Build - part 1 |
Galoots I have embarked on my next project, a bookbinders plow. Tom Conroy and I exchanged a few emails and he was encouraging. I don't know that I'll end up with anything more than a decorative piece, but I will make the effort nonetheless. For stock, I am using what I have on hand. I am blissfully ignorant of the price of roughsawn hardwood these days, and I don't want to go to the local boardmonger and give myself a heart attack. Here is where I am busting out some black cherry for the fence and body. I had this nice board all it's life, acquired freshly milled and sopping wet from up near Peterborough. Good to see it beginning its journey towards being an actual Thing. I used my nice Simonds crosscut saw. One of those garage sale finds from back in the days when garage sales actually had tools. https://groups.io/g/oldtools/photo/291287/3712876?p=Created%2C%2C%2C20%2C2%2C0%2 C0 Here's the stock squared up and ready for layout. Unlike most planemaking adventures, the only angles involved in a bookbinding plow are Right Angles. The cherry is almost perfectly quatersawn, and the ray fleck on the one piece is incredible. Too bad the camera doesn't pick up on that kind of thing. https://groups.io/g/oldtools/photo/291287/3712877?p=Created%2C%2C%2C20%2C2%2C0%2 C0 Boring stuff. I made some holes. They are as perfect as I could get them, which is to say 'not quite perfect'. The smaller of the two central holes will be tapped for the adjusting screw. https://groups.io/g/oldtools/photo/291287/3712878?p=Created%2C%2C%2C20%2C2%2C0%2 C0 By the way, this is sort of what I am aiming at. I should've said so up front. https://groups.io/g/oldtools/photo/291287/3712879?p=Created%2C%2C%2C20%2C2%2C0%2 C0 Here is the maple screw blank turned to size. I used the same diameter as the moxon vise I made, because I was gonna use the same threadbox and tapping jig. It worked before, so it should work again. Right? (cue ominous music) https://groups.io/g/oldtools/photo/291287/3712880?p=Created%2C%2C%2C20%2C2%2C0%2 C0 The garter pin works fine. Yay for small successes. I put the hole way too far in, but there is a good inch of meat in that maple screw, it'll be fine. https://groups.io/g/oldtools/photo/291287/3712881?p=Created%2C%2C%2C20%2C2%2C0%2 C0 My threading jig based loosely on what Heron of Alexandria documented in the 1st century AD. Mine is a copy of what Roy U made on one of his shows. S26 E6 IIRC. The metal guide plates follow the kerf in the jig, advancing the scraper cutter at the proper rate. I use a small punch to advance the cutter a teeny bit, then run it through again. Rinse and repeat a couple dozen times until the thread is formed. https://groups.io/g/oldtools/photo/291287/3712883?p=Created%2C%2C%2C20%2C2%2C0%2 C0 Here I am using a spoke pointer to chamfer the end of the screw blank before threading it. I bought the 1-1/2" Henry Boker screw box at an antique store for $10 but it had no tap, thus the jig used above. https://groups.io/g/oldtools/photo/291287/3712884?p=Created%2C%2C%2C20%2C2%2C0%2 C0 And that did not go well. There was no tearout, but the blank was way undersized. How the heck did that happen? https://groups.io/g/oldtools/photo/291287/3712885?p=Created%2C%2C%2C20%2C2%2C0%2 C0 I used a couple of bits of random dowel as temporary guide rods to see how it worked. Nope. Not good at all. The fence and body do this dance as you wind the screw, instead of just sneaking closer to each other like they should. This maple screw is pretty nice kindling now. https://groups.io/g/oldtools/photo/291287/3712886?p=Created%2C%2C%2C20%2C2%2C0%2 C0 Back to the wood rack for some turning stock. This time it's walnut. I ripped a piece to size and turned a new screw blank. This time I used the guide plate from the thread box to check the size of the blank. Once it slipped all the way on nicely I stopped there. And the screw came out WAY better than that maple one. https://groups.io/g/oldtools/photo/291287/3712887?p=Created%2C%2C%2C20%2C2%2C0%2 C0 A piece of beech dowel scavenged from the roadside (discarded crib) was turned down to match the holes in the body and fence. Now I have proper guide bars. This screw works fine, it runs in and out and the fence and body move like they should. https://groups.io/g/oldtools/photo/291287/3712888?p=Created%2C%2C%2C20%2C2%2C0%2 C0 Once I was satisfied that the screw worked, I turned the handle a little fancier and used a rasp and file to round off the finial on the end. Not as pretty as a vintage tool, but better than a plain flat end. https://groups.io/g/oldtools/photo/291287/3712889?p=Created%2C%2C%2C20%2C2%2C0%2 C0 So that's most of the woodworking done. I still have to pretty up the body and fence with those little curves and chamfers, but that will wait until I have the hardware finished. And the hardware is going to be LOT of filing to make the pieces I need. I'll spread that work out a lot because it's so repetitive. I know better than to overdo a task like that (anymore, again, so much chagrin). So that's what I've been up to this week. Darrell -- Oakville ON Wood Hoarder, Blade Sharpener, and Occasional Tool User |
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277999 | Robert Brazile <r.brazile@g...> | 2023‑12‑02 | Re: Book Plow Build - part 1 |
Fascinating. Thanks for sharing. I've been thinking of doing this for a while; you've made it a slight bit more likely. I wonder if you couldn't use the maple screw to make a matching screw box, and thus have a rig for slightly smaller blanks? Not really sensible, of course, but either a fun thought experiment or a way to not have to throw it away, your choice. Robert Brazile Arlington, Mass. |
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278000 | Dennis Heyza <michigaloot@c...> | 2023‑12‑02 | Re: Book Plow Build - part 1 |
Nice work, Darrell! Can't wait to see the finished product. However, I do have a question for you. Most plow planes have two arms - wedged or screwed. I notice you have one screw and two dowels which appear to be of quite small diameter. It's an interesting design option but wondered if you have any concerns about keeping the fence parallel to the body due to flexing. Dennis -----Original Message----- From: oldtools@g... |
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278001 | Darrell <larchmont479@g...> | 2023‑12‑03 | Re: Book Plow Build - part 1 |
Hi Dennis The plane is run in a track on top of the book press (think big moxon vise) so the rods don't have much to do. See https://renaissanceartisancom.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/book- plough1.png?w=768&h=593 -- wood hoarder, blade sharpener, and occasional tool user |
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278002 | Darrell <larchmont479@g...> | 2023‑12‑03 | Re: Book Plow Build - part 1 |
On Sat, 2 Dec 2023 at 07:43, Robert Brazile |
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278003 | John M. Johnston <jmjhnstn@m...> | 2023‑12‑03 | Re: Book Plow Build - part 1 |
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MAnv5WDAVTU Here is one in action. Cheers, John Johnston John M. Johnston “P.S. If you do not receive this, of course it must have been miscarried; therefore I beg you to write and let me know.” - Sir Boyle Roche, M.P. ________________________________ From: oldtools@g... |
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278004 | Bridger Berdel <bridgerberdel@g...> | 2023‑12‑03 | Re: Book Plow Build - part 1 |
That video helps quite a bit. It's not clear to me how the cutter is advanced here though. Small turns of the screw by the right hand whilst the plow is in action perhaps? |
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278005 | Darrell <larchmont479@g...> | 2023‑12‑03 | Re: Book Plow Build - part 1 |
Yes, exactly. Just enough of a turn to cut the next couple of pages -- wood hoarder, blade sharpener, and occasional tool user On Sun, Dec 3, 2023, 1:52 p.m. Bridger Berdel |
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278006 | Dennis Heyza <michigaloot@c...> | 2023‑12‑03 | Re: Book Plow Build - part 1 |
Thanks for the image, Darrell. That makes perfect sense now. Dennis From: Darrell LaRue |
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278008 | Thomas Conroy | 2023‑12‑04 | Re: Book Plow Build - part 1 |
Darrell wrote: "Yes, exactly. Just enough of a turn to cut the next couple of pages." One page at a time, not more. Advance the blade before the stroke starts, never while it is moving. Don't let any pages get trapped under the blade or they will score the edge. Steady rhythm is important. A commercial 1-1/4" screwbox, 6 t.p.i., is actually optimum for a plough screw; it allows you to hold the screw as an auxiliary handle, keeping control of the setting when you shift hand position on the main handle, and 6 t.p.i. gives a slower feed than 4 t.p.i., making it easier to cut just one page. In real professional ploughs the pin/garter and the bolt holding the blade (whether bolt knife or sliding knife) are usually the same piece of metal. Most often the pin/garter is a bit thicker than the wood pin you have now, generally (I would guess) in the range of 3/8" to 1/2" iron for a good Hickok American or English plough. A 1/4"wooden pin/garter will wear through very quickly, even in a finishing press; when replacing one, the hole can be enlarged a bit offset so that you don't cut any deeper into the wooden screw. Get woodworking plow planes entirely out of your head when considering bookbinders' ploughs. Any similarities between the two are superficial, and trying to follow ideas from one to the other will just mess you up. Most important: a bookbinders' plough is a moving-parts tool, and the two guide bars are necessary to keep the cheeks from going skew to each other during use, which will result in the number of pages varying between cuts, which will result in an uneven edge. A crappy edge, in fact, maybe even worse than a guillotined edge. I think Darrell wrote that he discarded his first screw because it had slop in it, and the cheeks closed erratically. Well, that's what a plough is like. Everything has slop in it, and everything wears rapidly because it is all wood in constant abrasion, resulting in even more slop with a different slop distribution. This is not a precision instrument, and bringing precision expectations to it will result in bad work done in misery. You learn to lean this way and that way during the cut, so that you are working at one end of the range of slop, and you learn to snug the left hand (holding the big screw end as auxiliary handle) against the cheek so that the opening will not change without warning. You learn to put paper shims under one end of the blade or the other to keep its run flat to the book, even when the plough has worn a swooping curved- bottomed groove into the press cheek (it will); and you cherish those precise scraps of paper because it takes so long to get them just right. If you start with a comparatively slop-free rectilinear plough, you will adjust to the wear you put on it the way an old-time carpenter would adjust to the increasing dish of his whetstone, keeping everything flat by little accommodations you don't even know you are making. Then you try using a brand new plough and you find out just how much slop has accumulated, and how much you have adjusted to its presence. My respected binding teacher's plough and press was bought new around 1964 and not much altered by the time she started teaching in roughly 1968. From then until 2020 every one of her students learned to use it. By the early 1980s the screw side of the press had a quarter-inch rut worn in it, and the left cheek of the plough was worn low in the inside and at the back. The whole top was taken down to flat by a woodworker in the early 1980s, and maybe fifteen or twenty years later I patched on a new base to the plough cheek and squared it all up (the other cheek, with the steel knife and holder protecting it, did not wear out of true). It now has again a quarter-inch swooping rut in the press, and the plough has again lost a quarter-inch at the near right quarter of the left cheek, and both should be repaired again. I learned to use the plough on this equipment, and was able (when I was binding) to take off a dead-flat semi- polished surface, trimming less than 1/32" from the edge. I though I was hot stuff until I came in one day and found my teacher had left an entire book edge sitting casually on the press. She had trimmed a book, had taken of less than a page thickness, and done it so evenly that the entire edge held together and could be lifted from the book to the press. My swelled head was duly deflated. A bookbinder's plough is a highly skilled tool. Used with skill it can do work far more precise than any other existing book-trimming machine; even a sloppy, irregular prough can produce a dead-flat gilding-ready edge---if used properly. That kind of skill--- well, it is like the journeymen turned out by the Swindon railway works in the palmy days, who (as part of their final apprenticeship examination) were handed a block of brass and a brass plate and had to file a square hole in the brass, and file the block into a cube that would fit the hole without showing light in any possible configuration. Sir Henry Royce (of Rolls- Royce) went through that one. Alexander Weygers tells something similar about his training as a Dutch marine engineer before WW2. That kind of skill. Darrell, as far as I can judge from your photos you are doing a very respectable job so far. I am most impressed. Keep up the good work. Tom Conroy(and I meant this to be a two-line comment, because I am supposed to be writing a paper against a deadline). |
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