Plane Till

Have been absent from blogging for awhile. Since Christmas I have been out working in the shop on my days off. We have been trying to get everything set up and in working order. The big tools that dad brought needed tuning up and rust removed. I have also been working on tool storage to get everything organized and kept in order.

Till still needing couple coats of polyurethane

The plane till was planned to hold only the planes I thought I would use the most. I decided on storing two no. 4's, two no. 5's, a no. 5 1/2, a no. 6, a no. 7, and a no. 40. To keep the weight from being one sided I alternated the planes, the bigger planes near the sides and the smaller planes in the middle. I ended up with a panel 24.5"x23.5" made up of three pieces of pine, they were glued together and reinforced on the back side with two strips spanning the three boards.

Three boards made up the till panel, once glued they were planed smooth.

The top edge was going to be against the wall so I needed to put a fine angle to the top edge. the table saw only went to 45° so it was out, the radial arm saw would do the 62° I need but was limited on the width of board. I have never tried to rip with the RAS before but it was my only option to get a consistent cut. Saw was raised, tilted, and turned to do the rip cut, dad had warned me the risk of ripping on the RAS and to be cautious. Went nice and slow pushing the panel through and left a small area where the saw didn't cut. Quick use of the rasp removed the uncut area.

Wonder if the compound miter saws do something like this?

Milled a few pieces of 7/16" square stock to make the dividers in between the planes. Used a old gift card as shims to give a little wiggle room for the planes. The dividers were attached with brass screws, no glue was used so they can be removed and rearranged.

fitting the planes' dividers

Case was put together, added a couple of shelves above the till and the mounting boards were put in to give the case structure stability before attaching the till.

fitting the panel into the case

 During the most of the construction process Morris loved to come over and "help" once hopping up and laying down onto of the till. Tonight he decided he supervised enough and went to sleep in the new box dad modified for him and added his blankets in.

Morris gave up supervising