1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



371 



"notions" that lack actual proof. Let's 

 have this subject aired, and let the truth hit 

 where it may. — Ed.] 



CARPENTRY FOR BEE-KEEPERS. 

 Planes. 



HY F. DUNDAS TODD. 



In oriler to handle a plane intelhoently it 

 is essential to know somethino' about its con- 

 struction. This fact was bi"ou<)lit iionie to 

 me very ein|iiiatically when 1 invested in my 

 first outfit of tools. Somehow the plane did 

 not seem to work perfectly, so I decided it 

 needed sharpeninii'. 1 removed the cuttino- 

 blade, i-eleased the cap-iron, or chip-breakei', 

 and carefully proceeded tosliarpen this. Then 

 I put the combination back into place u])side 

 down and tried to plane a board with the 

 chin-breaker. When it came to handling 

 tools I was the biggest duffer in the whole 

 of Uncle Sam's immense territory, even if in 

 some other lines a few people thought I was 

 real smart. One thina I do deserve credit 

 for: 1 generally know that I don't know, and 

 on such occasions I dig right out for infor- 

 mation. 



Take a plane and lay it beside you and I 

 will try to teach you wdiat I learned at that 

 time. 



The plane-body is made of either wood or 

 iron. In front is a knob on which the left 

 hand rests; at the end is a handle the right 

 hand grasps when the plane is in use. Any- 

 body could guess that much. Extending 

 from the bottom of the plane to above the 

 handle is the cutting blade, which is clamp- 

 ed in position by means of an iron lever 

 which is made up of two parts — the lever 

 proper and a movable thumbpiece at the up- 

 |)er end. To get out the cutter we must first 

 remove the lever, and this is done by lifting 

 up the thumbpiece, then withdrawing the 

 lever from position. We can now see that 

 the lever is held in i)lace by means of a screw 

 set in the body of the plane, also that this 

 screw is really the fulcrum of the lever. In 

 the practical working of the plane this screw 

 deserves more attention than it ordinarily 

 trets, because by it we are enabled to regu- 

 late the pressure required for the best work- 

 ing of the plane, as by driving it in we in- 

 crease the pressure; by withdrawing we ease 

 it. As we shall see later on, much depends 

 on the nature of the wood, whether hard or 

 soft. 



Now remove the cutter. It is really a chis- 

 «1 of ecjual thickness throughout, tempered 

 and ground, and sharpened at the lower end. 

 Fastened in front of it is the cap-iron or chip- 

 breaker. It is the business of this iron to 

 give a sharp upward direction to the shav- 

 ings or chips so as to keep the cutting edge 

 of the plane-blade free, also to prevent split- 

 ting or tearing in front of the cutter. The 

 decided curve at its lower end is intended to 

 snap the fibers and divert the course of the 

 shaving as soon as it begins to run up the 

 face of the plane-blade. In other words, the 



shaving is caught by the cap-iron, and bent 

 and broken before it can be converted into 

 a lever. The chip-breaker must be on the 

 side opposite the bevel of the cutter. Its 

 distance back from tlie cutting edge depends 

 on the kind of wood that is being worked, 

 and will be dealt with later. 



In use, the cutter rests on a casting called 

 the bedplate, which is held in p:)sition by 

 means of two screws. In front of this plate 

 is an opening in the bottom of the plane- 

 body called trie "throat," through which the 

 cutter projects. The bedplate may be mov- 

 ed forward or backward so as to vary the 

 width of the tiiroat. 



There is a mutual relationship between the 

 width of the throat aperture, the distance of 

 the chip-breaker from the cutting edge of 

 the blade, and the firmness of the pressure 

 exerted by the lever upon the cutter, this 

 being determined by the (juality of the wood 

 that is being worked. I3roadly speaking, 

 with coarse work on soft wood set the chip- 

 breaker 's inch back of the cutting edge; set 

 the bed-plate well back to insure a wide 

 opening of the throat so that the thick shav- 

 ings will have free passage, and have medi- 

 um firm pressure given by the lever on the 

 blade. In the case of fine work set the cap 

 close to the end, ^'j inch for ordinary work, 

 but as close as -/f inch for fine work on hard 

 wood; then narrow the throat by pushing 

 forward the bedplate, and, last of all, drive 

 in the lever-screw. The shavings will be so 

 fine that the plane will really be acting as a 

 scraper. 



Behind the bedplate is a brass screw by 

 which it is possible to regulate the thickness 

 of the shaving. With rough work we can 

 save time by taking deep cuts; but in finish- 

 ing it is wise to make thin shavings. 



Under the upper part of the plane-blade, 

 and in front of the handle, is located a lever 

 that works sidewise. By it the cutting edge 

 of the blade can be brought into position ex- 

 actly sfjuare with the bottom of the plane, if 

 it should be out of true when the plane-blade 

 is first clamped down. Again, in the first 

 stage of smoothing a wide rough board it is 

 often advantageous to set the blade awry so 

 as to work in grooves rather than in even 

 cuts, and the lever readily permits the nec- 

 essary adjustment of the cutter to the desir- 

 ed angle. The final smoothing is, of course, 

 done with the blade square to the bottom 

 surface of the plane. 



So much for the construction of the ordi- 

 nary plane and the possible adjustments of 

 its many parts. The average bee-keeper 

 will be practically limited to soft wood in his 

 carpenter work, and it will pay him well to 

 find out by trial the proper width of throat, 

 the best distance of chip-breaker from the 

 cutting edge, and the tightness of lever pres- 

 sure for his average work. When a job in 

 hard wood turns up, as it will do sometimes, 

 the necessary changes can, of course, be 

 made, and then the i^ane can be reset to the 

 former adjustments. 



Boards smoothed on all four sides are so 

 common nowadays that the average amateu'" 



