Fig. 35.
At first it is an easier plan to nail on with brads a strip of wood accurately planed, which in this case, as the sole of the plane is 1 inch wide, must cover it from end to end to a width of half an inch. This will prevent the possibility of going too deep into cut, and insure the correctness of the rebate, Fig. 35, H. The injury to the sole will not be great if small brads are used, but at the same time it is better to learn the art of using the hand as a guide, which is the more general method of the working carpenter. As for the use of rebates, there are few pieces of cabinet-work or joinery in which they are not found, and as stated in the previous chapter, no picture-frame can be made without them. The shavings which escape from the rebate-frame do not rise out of the top, as in the smoothing-plane, but from the side, which is hollowed out for the purpose, as seen in the drawing.
The skew rebate-plane is made like the preceding one, but the iron, instead of standing at right angles to the sides, is placed at an angle. With this you can plane across the grain of the wood.
The next plane to be noticed, is that with which grooves are cut, such as you will often see in the sides of book-shelves, in which the several shelves slide. The same is done where two boards are to be joined lengthwise, and there is danger of their becoming separated as the wood shrinks in drying. The panels of doors, too, are slid into similar grooves in the styles and rails of the framework, and there are innumerable other cases in which this mode of work is carried out. These grooves are generally cut with the plough, a curious-looking tool, by no means like a plane in appearance, but of great use to the carpenter. Of course, we require various widths of such grooves, according to the special purpose intended, and these are determined by various widths of the cutting irons, which, however, all fix into the same stock; a dozen or more of such irons are sold with a single plane.
Fig. 36.
In Fig. 36 is a set of drawings explanatory of the above tool. The central part, or stock, is that which corresponds to the same in other planes, and it is only modified to suit the other parts, which simply act as guides or gauges regulating the distance of the grooves from the edge of the board, and the depth to which they are to be cut. When the arms, A A, are removed, you have the plane as it appears with a brass fence, b, at one side, which can be raised or lowered at pleasure, and set at any point by the screw C; d is an iron plate which acts as the sole of the plane, the cutting edge being set to project a very little way below it.
The arms A A carry the fence g, which is flat on the inside next the plane, and moulded (merely for appearance sake) on the outside. The arms slide in two holes in the body of the plane, and can be drawn out at pleasure, and fixed by little wooden wedges, e e. Thus, while in use, the fence rubs along the edge of the board, while the groove is being cut at such distance as the fence is fixed, and to such a depth as is allowed by the position of the brass check or guide. Complex, therefore, as this tool appears, it is not so in reality. We shall presently describe a chest of drawers or cabinet calculated to receive small tools, or specimens of coins, shells, and such like, in which another kind of grooving-plane has to come into use, called (with its fellow, which makes a tenon to fit such groove) a match plane. This is of extensive use, less expensive than the plough, and on the whole more likely to be useful to the young mechanic. Indeed, although the plough has been here described and illustrated, it is not by any means to be considered essential, and its purchase may well be deferred until other tools of greater importance has been effected. The side or sash fillister to be presently described, for instance, would be more useful.
