Router Plane

A Router plane is something I have been wanting for a while, mostly to create the stopped dado's for boxes and such. As with many of the more unique tools, I couldn't find it at any of the estate sales or the antique places around here. Also, I wasn't about to spend major cash on a new one from the mail-order/online stores.

After quite a bit of research I decided on making the blades from some Allen wrenches "which I picked up at an estate sale". It was tough making sure that the sole of the blade was angled back properly to keep the heel from bottoming out. It killed two hack saw blades to cut off the tip of the Allen Wrench to make it only 3/4" long. I tried to use my hand crank grinder but it was taking WAY to long so I braved the cold in the garage to use my Harbor Freight grinder for most of the work.

The body is made from some 1x4 oak boards I had left over from another project. I had 2 - 10" boards and 1 - 6" board so I glued them up to make use of what I had.

After the glue dried, I gathered up a bunch of different size cans, jars, and plastic jugs to help create the arches and circles in the pattern.

I rough cut the pattern with my coping saw taking several breaks in between so my arm wouldn't fall off.

I cut the large hole using a 2" hole saw chucked into my brace. The wood was thicker than the hole saw could go so I had to chisel off a bunch of wood to get all the way through.

Then I gathered up all my rasps and files to do the final shaping. I tried to use the Spokeshave but all the curves were too tight for it.

I used an Eye bolt that was just a little too small for the Allen wrench to fit through and then spread the eye a little and used a square file to make edges to hold the wrench straight.

I did a lot of sanding and applied some boiled Linseed oil and 3 layers of paste wax to help fill in all the end grain pores on all the angles.