Router Plane
Despite its look, this is no Mickey-Mouse project. This shopbuilt router plane is sure to become a favorite tool in your shop, and one that will get used often.
While a router plane doesn’t share the same iconic status as a smoothing plane or a hand saw, its usefulness has earned it a place in my toolbox. Just as a hand plane smooths large visible surfaces of a project, a router plane levels surfaces that usually aren’t seen but are just as vital to the success of a project. These include the bottoms of rabbets, dadoes, grooves, tenon cheeks, and hinge mortises. The way a router plane does all this lies in its construction. An L-shaped blade extends below the sole to reach hard-to-get surfaces. The base acts as the reference to create a parallel surface within the joint. As a practical matter, the router plane ensures that grooves are a consistent depth from the surface or that tenon cheeks are free of twist for square assemblies. This simplicity of the design means this versatile tool is pretty straightforward to make rather than buy. It also results in a custom tool unlike any you’ve seen.
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What You Get:
- 5 pages of step-by-step instructions
- More than 20 full-color photos and illustrations and exploded views
- Materials list & Project Sources
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Similar Woodsmith Plans
Imperial Plans
The United States Customary System of Units (USCS or USC), more commonly referred to as the English or Imperial system, is the standard set of units for our plans. It uses inches and feet for measurement. This is the one you probably want if you are in the United States, and it is the one we have traditionally offered on this website.
Metric Plans
The International System of Units (SI), more commonly referred to as the metric system, is the alternative set of units that we have available for some of our plans. It uses millimeters, centimeters, and meters for measurement. This is the one you probably want if you are outside the United States. These plans are provided by our business partner, Australian Woodsmith, and are based on the original Woodsmith plan. However, dimensions and other elements of the plan may vary between the metric and standard versions. Be sure to double-check the plan before building.
Premium Plans
All of the information that you need to build our plans can be found in the standard plan. However, if you want even more granular detail to make your job easier, you should consider our premium plans. These come with additional shop diagrams that we drew when creating the prototypes. Shop drawings are not available for every plan.