On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 16:16:53 -0800, Ron Hock
wrote:

Steve wrote:
I am in process making my second wood plane (Rock Maple body,
Goncalo Alves Sole, Hock Irons.). It's a great way to get a quality
hand plane that means a little more to you as you use it knowing that
it's your own creation. I've read David Finck's book "Making &
Mastering Wood Planes" that has a great deal of Krenov influence. They
discuss one manner of making the cross pin. Having worked with my
first and experienced some frustrations of getting the wedge and cross
pin to sit as tight as I'd like, I was wondering if there are other
means of making the cross pin? By using the tenon style cross pin with
a flat side for the wedge to sit against, you have to have the two
match PREFECTLY. My question is... has anyone ever used ¼" or 5/16"
brass rod, cut to length between the cheeks for the wedge to work off
of? Would the brass and Rock Maple have enough friction between the
two to create enough tension to hold the irons? By Using brass rod,
your only machining one surface that must be perfectly flat. You would
not want to glue the rod into the cheeks for expansion purposes, etc
but it just seems to be a good way of creating a solid surface to use
the wedge against. Just looking for a different way to skin a cat.

Thanks,

Steve

That Krenov-style pivoting cross pin adds a quantum level of difficulty
to making a plane. Making the plane is fairly easy but that tenoned
cross pin is unnecessarily difficult. We just use a 1/2" dowel for our
plane kits. Works just fine and I haven't seen any deformation of the
wedge from it. And since it's wood glued into wood, there is less
weakening of the side than there is with the pivoting pin. The hard part
is finding accurate 1/2" dowels -- the ones at the hardware store are
always undersized. (We get them from Woodcraft.)


Ron,
I certainly do appreciate your response and help. I'll be opting for
the 1/2" dowel. The tenoned cross pin and wedge (first hand made
plane) just do not seem to want to work together, and I'm seeing
slight movement over a planing session.

Thanks again,

Steve