Читать книгу Classic Handplanes and Joinery - Scott Wynn - Страница 6

The planes described in this book were originally created for making joints—grooves, rabbets, dovetails, and gains for hardware. We now usually use power tools to make these joints, but these planes remain irreplaceable. They can achieve a good fit on a wide variety of joints and also make joints that might otherwise be difficult or impossible with power machinery. These planes are so good at this that I believe they are indispensable for doing high-quality work.

For instance, say you cut a groove in a wide panel for a hardwood plywood partition. First of all, you can’t use a ¾" (19mm) dado head on your table saw because hardwood plywood is less than ¾" (19mm) thick; it is ²³/₃₂" (18mm) thick, to be exact—except when it’s not. Industry tolerances allow up to a ¹/₃₂" (0.8mm) variance in thickness, so some parts of your panel are thicker than others and your partition doesn’t go into its slot. What do you do? Try to shift your router fence less than ¹/₃₂" (0.8mm) to try to get your specialty ²³/₃₂" (18mm) router bit to cut a bare fraction more? The easiest thing to do is make a pass or two with your side rabbet plane until that partition slides in. You can even use your side rabbet plane to only widen the groove in areas where the panel is thickest, so you don’t end up with gaps along its length.

Sometimes you cut a groove in a panel or piece, and your partition goes in but not all the way; apparently the panel rode up slightly off the saw or router table top and the cut was not made full depth in some places. This is really common. If you run the piece over the table saw again, you run the risk of widening the cut. If you use your router plane, you can trim the dado to an exact depth for its entire length.

There are myriad uses for these planes that will get you a fine fit in a short amount of time. Sometimes these planes are not just the best option—they may be the only option for a good job.