A perfect ending to a perfect week

This past week was great. I started the week doing some much needed millling of plane parts... after becoming sidetracked with the jointer bun. I spent 2 days roughing out Ebony. It went extremely well and I managed to get a few more parts than I had hoped for. I roughed out a few Rosewood sets for XSNo.4's too.

Today was particularly great, and this will mark the beginning of a new weekly component of the site. I spent the morning working on the Ebony front bun for the jointer. It was just the right amount of time to make some solid progress. I have decided to spend one morning a week working on this plane, with a targeted completion date of November 28th - in time for the Lie-Nielsen show in Boston.

The scale of this plane continues to bring up new challenges. Thankfully - they have all been manageable and are allowing me to try new techniques. When I was designing this plane, it was not just a strait "scale up" of the 22-1/2" jointer. All the lines and proportions changed - and the front bun was no exception. Once this plane is completed, I will take a few comparison photos with the smaller jointer and point out some of the details.



The next step was to finish the shoulders that transition from the sidewall to the front bun. This is done with the bun in place. I was once again reminded of why it is worth paying for premium wood - it is strait grained, consistent and behaves perfectly. I used several chisels, a few hand scrapers and finally a bit of sandpaper to finish the shoulders.

I tried a new technique to finish off the very front - just in front of the raised deck. I usually pare this with a chisel, but given the size of this area, I decided to use a 1/2" wide by 3-3/4" long rebate plane. I just pretended the sidewalls were metal bench dogs holding the workpiece.



It worked extremely well - here is a quick photo of the planed front area.



With the joints between the metal sidewalls and the bun finished, I could remove the bun to finish it. I rounded the corners of the top of the bun and then finished everything with sandpaper. I use the same Norton A275 paper for this too. I start with 220, then 320, 400, 600 and then 1,000 grit. Here are a few shots of the finished front bun... and just in time for lunch with Jill and Lucas on the patio.