I have never even heard of one of these tools, but I immediately saw the benefit of using one. I WANT ONE! By the way, Ken - kudos on the old school scraper.
I've got an old machine shop course book (from around 1930's) and scraping was described as one of the methods of truing the cast iron machine bases and plates, exactly like what you did :)
I don't think they ever really caught on for one reason. They excel on small pieces and can perform really well, but won't replace your jointer unless all your work is short. Long boards would be very awkward.
I own one, and I like it. I suggest using nylock wingnuts on the guard. That way you can hold the guard at desired level above the table. Hmm, I wonder how much it would cost to take the fences to a machine shop and have them flattened. I think a set of cobalt steel cutters,or possibly carbide, might be nice, and any machine shop could make them from 1/4" tool bits. I've also been considering making a little sharpening jig to hone the cutters.
Taking the machine apart to true it probably isn't the best way to get it really true. None of the parts in question are parallel front to back, and so some Major fixturing would be required to get the four cast parts held properly in a precision grinding machine. The Uni-Plane is a clever design and a nice idea, but it needs to be perfect;y true, or very nearly perfect in order to do its job correctly. This is the second one I have blueprinted, and in both cases, it was a great deal of work to get things lined up and planar. The castings, although fairly small, were all a bit bowed, cupped or twisted, and in need of some serious correction. Cast iron is hard, and very slow to cut! The cutters supplied are lathe tool stock, and as far as I can tell, are high - speed cobalt steel, and hard to improve on. Carbide cutters were an option, and I have a set of them, but these are very challenging to sharpen, and in my opinion, have sharpness angles that are too low for them to give good service, as the carbide tends to chip when the sharpness angle is so acute. We have fooled around with the tool angles, but they work fairly well as supplied. I remember finding some outfit online that will supply new cutters in sets. When the thing is set up properly, it can really perform miracles. We were able to salvage some very wildly cupped black ebony that I'd had kicking around the shop for decades and get a thick pile of beautiful, flat, .025" veneers for covering my pickguards. Worked like magic, with No tearout, even working very thin material! The guard, like many guards, is a joke, and just one more thing to struggle with. Since the cutting forces are all downward towards the table, it's a stable cut, so just Keep your Precious Flesh out of the cutters' path! Push sticks/push plates are a must!
The topic of metal scraping appears every now and then in the machinist channels that I follow. Never thought I would see it being done in one of my wood working ones :D
@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 in my previous life I had access to a surface grinder, and that is how I used to rectified a couple of old Stanleys that I was "restoring". Would you say that hand scraping is better than a surface grinder for this sort of applications?
@@elluisito000 Either way, it's not a beginner's project. The tough thing about the surface grinder is clamping the thin plane casting perfectly true to the machine's travel without distorting it. That's a tall order. Even then, you have to be very careful not to heat up the casting when grinding, as it will bulge and distort unless you have flood coolant. After a couple of tries, I gave up and just lapped the castings on 1/2" plate glass with loose grit and water. In 1976 I lapped a #8 jointer plane in this manner and gave it to Jimmy D'aquisto as my way of thanks for his help with criticism of my early archtops. This was painfully slow, and I remember spending at least a week lapping the big surface outside on the lawn, kneeling so I could get my upper body over the work and apply some pressure. Dark ages. Now we have our pick of new planes that are perfect, although I still use the antique Bailey and Stanley tools that I've trued up. Now that I've done a bit of iron scraping, if I had another plane to true up, I'd use the scaper to at least take off the bulk of the material, if not do the whole job. Here's an example of what appears to be a Stanley #80 Cabinet Scraper expertly scraped by Burton LeGeyt...www.legeytinstruments.com/new-page
@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 I "lapped" de sole and the blade of one of my Lie Nielsens, it didn't take long, but it was kind of tedious nonetheless. That was after my failed attempt to restore the 2nd Stanley, the amount of work needed was so much that I decided to go and get me the nicest new plane I could afford, the Lie Nielsen hahahaha.
There's one for sale near me, so checking it out. The guard looks a little sketchy- doesn't cover the cutters while the pushing hand goes past. I'd put more angle on that push stick!
Thanks Ken, always a pleasure to see you work! Scrap check scrap check with patience. Valuable advice! Never heard or scene Green Heart wood? Where would you use that on a guitar if at all? Thanks again Ken, Patrick
Green heart is hard & heavy and interlocked, so fingerboards, bridges? I'm not a big fan of its appearance & color, so I'll stick with ebony, but it sure would serve well as a replacement material, and is in good supply.
K, Like lots of other uniquely useful manual skills, there's lots of good instruction on youtube, and hopefully we won't forget!. I've heard it said that scraping is no art, really, but a regular shop practice that can be mastered in the normal ways, just like tapping a hole. Then again, there are true masters (not me!) of this practice that make it look like high art to the rest of us.
THey were designed for safety in schools, and I guess the kids found out the hard way that you can still get injured. This is old hearsay, but I was told that the lawsuits ended this machine's short production run. I do believe that there are many out there, but they don't take up much room, so perhaps folks hold on to them even if they're not used? vintagemachinery.org/pubs/1141/4670.pdf
The uniplane works best with short pieces of material. It's tough to control a long piece of wood, especially if it's heavy. I don't think most woodworkers would choose this over a jointer unless they used short material for all their projects, like maybe, us, or a box maker, etc. The surface you get depends on the properties of the wood, so it's kind of just like a jointer, only different.
I have never even heard of one of these tools, but I immediately saw the benefit of using one. I WANT ONE! By the way, Ken - kudos on the old school scraper.
Yeah, a tuned up UniPlane is especially useful for short, distorted, or figured material!
I've got an old machine shop course book (from around 1930's) and scraping was described as one of the methods of truing the cast iron machine bases and plates, exactly like what you did :)
Cool! It's just patience and elbow grease, like a lot of things. Iron is so hard and slow to remove by hand, but this was worth it.
Man, that’s cool! In all my years of woodworking, I’ve never heard of that machine. Thanks for posting.
I don't think they ever really caught on for one reason. They excel on small pieces and can perform really well, but won't replace your jointer unless all your work is short. Long boards would be very awkward.
@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440, lots of advantages for building guitars, though.
Thank you for the perfect justification to stop at every garage sale in search of this tool! ))
They pop up on EBay, sometimes cheap, sometimes fancy $. If you can find one that someone's disgusted with, or scared of, it can be Really cheap!
Literally sharpening the saw. A true craftsman.
.
Thanks, let's get everything sharp!
You're a natural on camera. Good video.
I hadn't seen scraping done before, that was interesting in itself.
Glad you enjoyed it
great show of patience and due diligence, Ken … interesting planer …
Well, either we just give up sanity and say "whatever it takes", or it never happens.
I own one, and I like it. I suggest using nylock wingnuts on the guard. That way you can hold the guard at desired level above the table. Hmm, I wonder how much it would cost to take the fences to a machine shop and have them flattened. I think a set of cobalt steel cutters,or possibly carbide, might be nice, and any machine shop could make them from 1/4" tool bits. I've also been considering making a little sharpening jig to hone the cutters.
Taking the machine apart to true it probably isn't the best way to get it really true. None of the parts in question are parallel front to back, and so some Major fixturing would be required to get the four cast parts held properly in a precision grinding machine. The Uni-Plane is a clever design and a nice idea, but it needs to be perfect;y true, or very nearly perfect in order to do its job correctly. This is the second one I have blueprinted, and in both cases, it was a great deal of work to get things lined up and planar. The castings, although fairly small, were all a bit bowed, cupped or twisted, and in need of some serious correction. Cast iron is hard, and very slow to cut!
The cutters supplied are lathe tool stock, and as far as I can tell, are high - speed cobalt steel, and hard to improve on. Carbide cutters were an option, and I have a set of them, but these are very challenging to sharpen, and in my opinion, have sharpness angles that are too low for them to give good service, as the carbide tends to chip when the sharpness angle is so acute. We have fooled around with the tool angles, but they work fairly well as supplied. I remember finding some outfit online that will supply new cutters in sets. When the thing is set up properly, it can really perform miracles. We were able to salvage some very wildly cupped black ebony that I'd had kicking around the shop for decades and get a thick pile of beautiful, flat, .025" veneers for covering my pickguards. Worked like magic, with No tearout, even working very thin material!
The guard, like many guards, is a joke, and just one more thing to struggle with. Since the cutting forces are all downward towards the table, it's a stable cut, so just Keep your Precious Flesh out of the cutters' path! Push sticks/push plates are a must!
The topic of metal scraping appears every now and then in the machinist channels that I follow. Never thought I would see it being done in one of my wood working ones :D
Great way to straighten out a twisted hand plane, or, better yet, buy ones that are already flat.
@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 in my previous life I had access to a surface grinder, and that is how I used to rectified a couple of old Stanleys that I was "restoring". Would you say that hand scraping is better than a surface grinder for this sort of applications?
@@elluisito000 Either way, it's not a beginner's project. The tough thing about the surface grinder is clamping the thin plane casting perfectly true to the machine's travel without distorting it. That's a tall order. Even then, you have to be very careful not to heat up the casting when grinding, as it will bulge and distort unless you have flood coolant. After a couple of tries, I gave up and just lapped the castings on 1/2" plate glass with loose grit and water. In 1976 I lapped a #8 jointer plane in this manner and gave it to Jimmy D'aquisto as my way of thanks for his help with criticism of my early archtops. This was painfully slow, and I remember spending at least a week lapping the big surface outside on the lawn, kneeling so I could get my upper body over the work and apply some pressure. Dark ages. Now we have our pick of new planes that are perfect, although I still use the antique Bailey and Stanley tools that I've trued up. Now that I've done a bit of iron scraping, if I had another plane to true up, I'd use the scaper to at least take off the bulk of the material, if not do the whole job. Here's an example of what appears to be a Stanley #80 Cabinet Scraper expertly scraped by Burton LeGeyt...www.legeytinstruments.com/new-page
@@kenparkerarchtoppery9440 I "lapped" de sole and the blade of one of my Lie Nielsens, it didn't take long, but it was kind of tedious nonetheless. That was after my failed attempt to restore the 2nd Stanley, the amount of work needed was so much that I decided to go and get me the nicest new plane I could afford, the Lie Nielsen hahahaha.
Love the sound of that thing. Certainly makes you take it seriously. thanks for your videos!
At your service.
What a terrifying monster of a machine. If this realy was invented for highschools, then it most probably was to help to teach the students courage.
It's really a fabulous machine when it's all tuned up, just don't forget your earplugs!
There's one for sale near me, so checking it out. The guard looks a little sketchy- doesn't cover the cutters while the pushing hand goes past. I'd put more angle on that push stick!
The guard is a joke. Keep your hands away from the damn cutters!
Thanks for sharing.
More tool videos please!
Coming right up!
Thanks Ken, always a pleasure to see you work! Scrap check scrap check with patience. Valuable advice!
Never heard or scene Green Heart wood? Where would you use that on a guitar if at all?
Thanks again Ken,
Patrick
Green heart is hard & heavy and interlocked, so fingerboards, bridges? I'm not a big fan of its appearance & color, so I'll stick with ebony, but it sure would serve well as a replacement material, and is in good supply.
Almost forgotten art of manual precision scraping!
K, Like lots of other uniquely useful manual skills, there's lots of good instruction on youtube, and hopefully we won't forget!. I've heard it said that scraping is no art, really, but a regular shop practice that can be mastered in the normal ways, just like tapping a hole.
Then again, there are true masters (not me!) of this practice that make it look like high art to the rest of us.
Steve Helgeson at Moonstone Guitars owned one. Nice machine, fairly rare to find these days.
THey were designed for safety in schools, and I guess the kids found out the hard way that you can still get injured. This is old hearsay, but I was told that the lawsuits ended this machine's short production run. I do believe that there are many out there, but they don't take up much room, so perhaps folks hold on to them even if they're not used?
vintagemachinery.org/pubs/1141/4670.pdf
Nice machinery
Sure is useful sometimes. This is the second one I've "blueprinted".
Hello again. How does this machine compare to a jointer?
The uniplane works best with short pieces of material. It's tough to control a long piece of wood, especially if it's heavy. I don't think most woodworkers would choose this over a jointer unless they used short material for all their projects, like maybe, us, or a box maker, etc. The surface you get depends on the properties of the wood, so it's kind of just like a jointer, only different.