Paul Sellers Router Plane

[Dr.Al]

I made a "Paul Sellers" router plane:





Not much to say really: unusually for me I didn't change the design really, although I did make several of the bits in a different way to the approach Paul Sellers used in his video (for example I cut the bottom face of the top wood bit whereas Paul cut both top faces - doing it my way meant I could use the pillar drill to make sure the holes were square). I made two of the cutters while I was at it (I figured that, having made the angled cut for the bevel I might as well use both resulting pieces), so I've got a spare and won't have to sharpen as often! I've already got a router plane (and I used it to cut the bottom of the groove for the cutter), but two might be useful sometimes... maybe? The sapele inserts are there to make it look good of course: nothing to do with drilling holes in the wrong place or anything like that

I haven't tried it yet as it's only had one coat of oil so far; I just put it together to take the photos.

 

[Argus]

Very nicely made - how long did it take?

I got my selection of metal routers long before the recent price-hike, otherwise I'd be having a go. Two or more of these things can be useful on bigger, more complex projects because you may lock off certain crucial settings for the duration..

I watched Paul Sellers' video and thought that everything - woodwork-wise - was straightforward for the average hobbyist with the exception of cutting and hardening the metal.... which may be a tad difficult for some folk. Certainly not my strong point.
Obtaining the metal bits and various screws can be tricky, too, depending where you are on the planet.

Looking at the interest he's generated, there's a strong following who are making some.

 

[AndyT]

I'm with Argus on every point. If I didn't already have a 71 and a 271, plus a few wooden alternatives, I'd be having a go at that design too. I like the way it gives you easy screw adjustment but avoids the need for a bent cutter, whether home made or bought in.

I'd be interested in how you get on with it in use, Al.

 

[Dr.Al]

Very nicely made - how long did it take?

I'm not really sure as I did in a few instalments in amongst other projects. However, at a guess I'd say the metal work took me about an hour (but then I have a milling machine and a horizontal bandsaw, so the only hand work there was roughly cutting the bevel with a hacksaw as it was a bit of a steep angle to do on the bandsaw. The woodwork (excluding oiling) was definitely less than a day; at a guess I'd say 4 or 5 hours? Heat treating the cutters (including tempering, which Paul didn't do, but I thought it was probably a good idea) took half an hour or so this morning.

I used the thicknesser to get the base to the right thickness, then cut it to size with a ryoba and hand planed it to finish. I wanted the top piece to start as 30 × 35 mm (as opposed to Paul's 19 × 44 mm) due to my approach to making it. I had some 32 mm thick oak, so I trimmed that to size with the ryoba and hand planes again. I could then pillar-drill all the holes and all that was left was chopping the bottom off the top piece, planing the cut edge and then some shaping with the rasp. It's a remarkably quick thing to make considering how well it looks to be designed.

I watched Paul Sellers' video and thought that everything - woodwork-wise - was straightforward for the average hobbyist with the exception of cutting and hardening the metal.... which may be a tad difficult for some folk. Certainly not my strong point.

It certainly would have been harder without the milling machine. I detest filing and I'd imagine that bit of the job takes quite a long time, even if you cut most of the waste out with a hacksaw.

Obtaining the metal bits and various screws can be tricky, too, depending where you are on the planet.

They're very easy to get in the UK (I bought everything on ebay), but I can see that they might be more awkward elsewhere in the world.

I'm with Argus on every point. If I didn't already have a 71 and a 271, plus a few wooden alternatives, I'd be having a go at that design too.

I've got a Veritas router plane and a little record (?) mini router plane, but I like making tools so a third one seemed a good idea!

I like the way it gives you easy screw adjustment but avoids the need for a bent cutter, whether home made or bought in.

Yes, it's a nice design. The Veritas one has a removable head cutter on the biggest size cutter, which is a lot easier to sharpen than the solid body smaller ones, but it's not exactly easy (not helped by being held in place with an imperial Allen key screw ). The straight cutter used by Paul's design is very easy to sharpen.

I'd be interested in how you get on with it in use, Al.

I'll report back, although it probably won't be until next weekend.

 

[Woodster]

Nice looking job. Be good to see how you get on with it.

I’m recently finding those furniture bolts quite handy for some jobs and very cheap at Screwfix. It’s a shame the stainless steel ones are so expensive.

 

[Dr.Al]

Over the course of this week, the plane had two coats of Mike G's Magic Mix and then the bottom of it had one coat of paste wax. I gave it a try today and it seems to work very well:



Certainly good enough to deserve a place on the wall along with the spare cutter:



(there's a slot cut in the plywood on the wall where the cutter sits, so I don't have to withdraw the cutter to put it away).

Here it is alongside my other two router planes:



(the little Record #722 doesn't come out often, in fact I don't think I've used it since I got the Veritas one...)

If my trigonometry is working properly, the 50° angle and 1 mm pitch thread means a full turn of the adjustment screw moves the cutter down by about 0.77 mm, which means I'll probably adjust the depth of a slot by turning it "a bit" rather than an intuitive amount: if it were 1 mm adjustment per turn I could add a quarter of a millimetre by turning it a quarter of a turn. The Veritas one is a vertical adjustment, but it's an imperial pitch screw :evil: so that's no better anyway (I think it's 32 TPI, so one turn is about 0.79 mm and hence quite similar to the Sellers one).

I can see it being very useful when working on the end of a bit of wood as there is a lot of surface area either side of the cutter (it's much wider than the Veritas one). That should help a lot with stability I think.

Of course the Veritas one has the advantage of the availability of different width cutters (including metric ones :eusa-clap: ): I have 3 mm and 5 mm ones as well as the two 12.7 mm ones it came with. I might have a go at making some narrower cutter "inserts": short narrow bits that get held very firmly in (or are welded into) a 10 mm square bit of steel and hence will slide in the cut-out properly. Or I may not bother and just use the Veritas one for those applications :eusa-dance:

 

[AndyT]

I think you've got your options covered rather nicely now, whether the wood you encounter happens to be metric or imperial!

Even if you did need to use a router to cut a groove, you'd probably be aiming for something a bit wider than the cutter itself, or working between sawcuts, so the exact width is not such an issue as it might appear.

 

[Andy Kev.]

Of course the Veritas one has the advantage of the availability of different width cutters (including metric ones :eusa-clap: ): I have 3 mm and 5 mm ones as well as the two 12.7 mm ones it came with. I might have a go at making some narrower cutter "inserts": short narrow bits that get held very firmly in (or are welded into) a 10 mm square bit of steel and hence will slide in the cut-out properly. Or I may not bother and just use the Veritas one for those applications :eusa-dance:

I'm a mechanical innocent so forgive me if this question is daft: would it not be possible to use or adapt Veritas cutters so that they function in your plane? That would have obvious advantages although the costs would go up a bit.

 

[Dr.Al]

Of course the Veritas one has the advantage of the availability of different width cutters (including metric ones :eusa-clap: ): I have 3 mm and 5 mm ones as well as the two 12.7 mm ones it came with. I might have a go at making some narrower cutter "inserts": short narrow bits that get held very firmly in (or are welded into) a 10 mm square bit of steel and hence will slide in the cut-out properly. Or I may not bother and just use the Veritas one for those applications :eusa-dance:

I'm a mechanical innocent so forgive me if this question is daft: would it not be possible to use or adapt Veritas cutters so that they function in your plane? That would have obvious advantages although the costs would go up a bit.

The angles would be wrong unfortunately. It would probably be possible to make a wooden bodied plane that takes the Veritas cutters with a vertical shaft and adjuster, but it would be a different design to the one I've made. It would almost certainly be possible to make a 10 mm square shaft that takes the removable heads of the Veritas cutters, but the heads are only removable on the biggest size (12.7 mm), not on the small ones.

I think you've got your options covered rather nicely now, whether the wood you encounter happens to be metric or imperial!

Even if you did need to use a router to cut a groove, you'd probably be aiming for something a bit wider than the cutter itself, or working between sawcuts, so the exact width is not such an issue as it might appear.

Yes, that's true. I'm just grumpy about imperial sized things on principle! It's handy to have a few smaller size and it helps me if I can think "I'll grab the 5 mm cutter for this 6 mm slot" rather than thinking "Urmm... what daft imperial size is a bit smaller than 6 mm???"

 

[Andy Kev.]

The angles would be wrong unfortunately. It would probably be possible to make a wooden bodied plane that takes the Veritas cutters with a vertical shaft and adjuster, but it would be a different design to the one I've made. It would almost certainly be possible to make a 10 mm square shaft that takes the removable heads of the Veritas cutters, but the heads are only removable on the biggest size (12.7 mm), not on the small ones.

Ah yes, I forgot that factor. Do you think it would be a matter of tweaking the design or would something have to be fundamentally different?

 

[Dr.Al]

The angles would be wrong unfortunately. It would probably be possible to make a wooden bodied plane that takes the Veritas cutters with a vertical shaft and adjuster, but it would be a different design to the one I've made. It would almost certainly be possible to make a 10 mm square shaft that takes the removable heads of the Veritas cutters, but the heads are only removable on the biggest size (12.7 mm), not on the small ones.

Ah yes, I forgot that factor. Do you think it would be a matter of tweaking the design or would something have to be fundamentally different?

It would need a vertical slot (obviously) and a different means of clamping the cutter in place. I don't think it would be that hard to come up with something, but the problem might be the thickness of wood that would be required for strength: as the wood is going to be much thicker than the metal body of the Veritas plane, the cutter might not be long enough to do a decent depth cut.

I thought I'd have a play in CAD to see what it would look like. Note that I've done this without reference to the router, so it's likely that the dimensions of the cutter (including its length) are completely wrong.









Hopefully you can see the issue with the thickness of the wood and the cutter length. It also needs an awkward shape hole in the wood for the cutter, although the advantage of wood is that it's not that hard to make a hole like that: it would be much more awkward in steel!

 

[Argus]

Going backwards to the subject of the original post, (Paul Seller's self-made router), it was suggested in some of the feedback on his site that, whilst the metal-work may be obtained in the UK, where he works, others may not be able to assemble the kit as easily, or like me be a complete non-starter making stuff out of metal.

It looks as if he is trying to source metal kits in the near future.

https://paulsellers.com/2021/12/router- ... it-update/

Even though I don't need a wooden router - I already have Record, Preston and Tyzack versions collected over a lifetime - I think that I may have a go at this little project.

 

[Andy Kev.]

Al,

I'm impressed that you can just "play" with CAD and produce that! I think I'd be at it for weeks.

It's very informative though.

 

[Dr.Al]

Al,

I'm impressed that you can just "play" with CAD and produce that! I think I'd be at it for weeks.

It's very informative though.

Thanks Andy. I find 3D CAD modelling quite an enjoyable thing to do (as long as it isn't with sketchup)