Thin stock planing appliance

 I want to make (lots of) boxes with thin wood to use as drawers.

This is my 1st idea.  The bottom & sides are from pine branches in my backyard that I cut about 6 months ago.  

I jointed & glued 2 pieces to make a wider board. Then I planed the board smooth.

I cut a 1/8 in groove in the sides for the bottom.

The end is scraps glued together that are 2x as thick as the sides.

The bottom is slid into the grooves,  the sides & bottom are nailed around the end pieces.

Simple and it should handle wood movement.

The 1/8 groove is too thin for the bottom.  3/16 would be better.  The thickness of the sides are not consistent either.  I need something better.

 There are lots of hand plane thicknessing appliance (jigs are for power tools, appliances are for hand tools) designs out there.  Most have an adjustable stop screwed into the endgrain.  I find that the end grain screws eventually give out.

I also wanted to handle as wide a piece of wood as I could.  My #7 is the widest I have.

So, 3/4 plywood on the bottom.  1x3 cut in 1/2 for the sides.  I put them tight to the plane and screwed them in place.

The stop is a piece of oak ~ 1/2" thick.

The plane rests on strips of scrap thicker than the stop and ~ 1/4" wide.  Basically from the plane iron in the mouth of the #7 to the edge of the plane.

To get the thickness, I just put spacers under the stock so the distance from the plane to spacer is the thickness I want.

I just needed the right thickness.  Planing things to thickness w/o the jig is a pain.  And I need multiple thicknesses.

I decided to be lazy.  I found these bamboo strips.

They're 15" long, 2mm (1/8") thick and cheap.

Unfortunately, they're narrow.  3/8" wide.

If I lay them side by side & put a little masking tape on front & back, I get spacers that will work.

If I really need to fine tune the thickness, I can add strips of paper to sneak up.

2 of them get me 3/8" thick.

4 to get the box bottoms to 3/16.

I can use these to make precise spacers instead of stacking.  If I want to work that hard.

It's quick, easy and accurate.

I have lots more wood to got through to make my boxes.

Planes - Homemade and Modified

 Most of my planes are used.  

I have purchased some new ones: a Veritas small plow plane and a Lie Nielsen large router plane.  They have the benefit of over a hundred years of prior art.  They have small differences that make them function just as well and "feel" a bit better to use.

I've made planes too.  The 1st one I made is "The poor man's rebate plane" following Paul Seller's video.  It makes a rebate as well as the plow plane would IMO.  It's just limited to rebates. 

Rex Krueger has a video building one also. 

They both have videos to make a router plane as well.   I followed the Stumpy Nubs video to try it out.

The 3rd one I made  is a scrub plane.  It works fantastic!

It's a laminated plane from oak I rived.  The blade is from an old block plane with a heavy radius.  The cross pin is a 1/4" bolt.  The wedge is also oak.

The only real problem I have is that the blade pops out after using it for awhile. 

I think the problem is either the hardwood wedge or using a bolt instead of a wood pin ala Krenov planes.

I bought a cheap #4 from Harbor Freight & just radiused the blade.

It's easier to adjust than my wooden one.

The blade is junk & doesn't keep an edge.  I purchased a pack of 5 Calialstro blades for $30.  They tested well in James Wright's epic plane blade test.  They can't be worse.

It's not as fun as the wooden plane but I'm no longer interrupted to reassemble things.