Plough Plane
Quick Links:
Could you make a poor man’s plough plane?
Cutting a Groove With a Plough Plane
Can you cut a groove without a plough plane?
Preparing a Plough Plane for Use
How do you set a plough plane that doesn’t have adjusters?
If you are a beginner, the following links from our beginner site, Common Woodworking, may be useful to you:
- The Plough Plane Guide – This is a general guide which covers what the tool is and the names of the parts
- Buying a Plough Plane – This guide recommends what to look for when buying a plough plane and the best place to buy from
- Using a Plough Plane – This guide shows you how to use your plough plane
- Sharpening a Plough Plane – This guide will show you the basics of setting up your plough plane for use and how to maintain and sharpen it
Could you make a poor man’s plough plane?
You can adapt the rebate plane making video we did to make a poor man’s plough plane. We don’t really have time to go into it in detail at the moment but you should be able to work it out as long as you address the following aspects:
- The sole and blade need to be of a similar width, so you could rebate the base to the width of the chisel.
- You would need a fence or you could clamp a piece to the work to guide the plane.
- A depth stop is also useful, but this can just be a clamp as in the rebate plane video.
Cutting a Groove With a Plough Plane
Can you cut a groove without a plough plane?
A simple method that uses the tools you probably have at hand is that you can mark it with a pencil or gauge, cut the extremes with a saw and chisel out the waste with a relevant width chisel. This is probably more of a temporary solution.
Preparing a Plough Plane for Use
Flattening – You will want to check the flatness of the base and possibly flatten. There is no need to work the sides.
Iron – No need to feather edge the corners of the plane iron, keep them straight and square to the edge.
Fences and depth shoes – It is probably not necessary to flatten the fences and depth shoes. You can feather the leading edges with a file and soften with abrasive paper to lower risk of jarring.
How do you set a plough plane that doesn’t have adjusters?
To set the iron, loosen the lever cap tightening screw near the upper end of the cap iron just a partial amount until you can tweak the iron to set it visual and try to gauge the depth so that the cutting iron protrudes the right amount. Further depth can be tapped even with the cap iron tightened.
This is quick and effective and not inferior to those with adjusters once you are used to it. Definitely no need to retrofit with adjuster. It’s not worth the effort.