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Building Wooden Planing Forms

By: Don Schneider

Building your own wooden planing forms is not difficult but it is timeconsuming and exacting work. Having the proper tools available ishelpful. Some tools you can get by without, and extend the buildingtime, however I don’t see how you can do this project without oneof the following: a drill press or a doweling jig. Think about whatyou are trying to accomplish, building a tool to make taperedbamboo strips accurate to within 001” or less. All of the holes youdrill not only have to be in the correct location, they must beparallel to each other otherwise the form will not open or closeproperly.

Objective: Straight adjustable form that has a “V” groove in eachside, top and bottom, with a slope of taper .001”/inch from oneend to the other. Close doesn’t count.

Choose the wood:The wood for this project should be a hardwood. Maple is a goodchoice. Maple drills well, you can tap threads in it, finish it smoothand it is durable. Make sure your selection is straight, no twists andhas a straight tight grain. No visible grain at all is better yet.

Start:The first thing you have to decide is the size of your form. Thechoice is yours. 62” length will allow you to build any two piece rod10’ or less. If you are never going to build anything over 8’, make a50” form. If you want to build one-piece rods 8 or less, make a 98”form. It’s up to you. If you are keeping track of these lengths, youwill notice that the form is 2” longer than the maximum length ofthe rod. Reason: The first adjusting station is located 1” fromeither end of the form.

Let’s build a 62” form where each of the two finished pieces are 11/4” X 1 1/4” X 62”. What we are going to do is mill a piece ofwood 2 3/4” X 1 1/4” X 72”. Why 2 3/4” wide? Reasons:

1. After we drill all of the dowel and pull holes we are going to ripit down the middle and the finish off the sawn surfaces backto 1 1/4”. This will also ensure all of our holes line-up bydrilling first.

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drilling first.2. Why 72” length? Later when cutting the groove it’s nice to

have the extra length for “run-out” of the cutting tools. Whendone cutting the groove on both sides, cut off the form to its62” finished length.

3. Why a finished form, when closed, 2 1/2” wide? To me it givesyou a much more stable surface to work from, especiallywhen using grooved sole planes. With forms that are only 11/2” wide it is very easy for the sole of the plane to go overthe edge resulting in a planed form. Also makes it easier to getthe feel or sense how level you are planing.

Drill the adjusting & dowel holes:Let’s use 1/4” or 5/16” Hex Bolts. Take your pick. Make sure youdrill all of the dowel and pull holes, 25 total, with the TAP SIZEDRILL. That’s 12 dowel & 13 pull holes. All holes are midway top tobottom of the form. Pull holes are on 5” centers starting 1” in fromwhat will be the end of the 62” finished form. Dowel holes are on5” centers mid-way between the adjusting stations. I wouldsuggest when drilling the holes that you use the same form to drillpress or doweling jig orientation so that if either does not drillexactly perpendicular at least the holes will be parallel. We will drillthe 13 Push holes later after we rip saw and resurface the piece.You may have to tune your drill press table or doweling jig to drillthe holes perpendicular to the sides of the form. When you can drilla hole mid-way up the side of a piece of scrap and exit midway onthe other side you are ready.

Rip saw and plane the pieces:It’s a good idea to put a pencil mark across one end of the piecebefore you do the rip cut so you know the orientation of the twopieces later. Rip saw the piece down the middle. You will end upwith two pieces 1 1/4” thick, 1 1/4” wide and 72” long. Plane thesawn edges so you end up with two pieces 1 1/4” X 1 1/4” X 72”.

Drill the push holes:The push holes are only drilled through one side of the form.Midway top to bottom locate the hole 1/2” inboard of the pull holesstarting from each end of the form. Which side of the center pullhole should you drill? Take your pick. So now you have 13 pushholes drilled. Remember that the drill size is the tap size for thehex bolts you are using. Now tap all 38 holes in this side of theform. Next enlarge all 25 holes in the other part of the form to theshank size, snug fit, of the pull and dowel bolts. After some use thepush bolt chew up the rail they are pushing against. This can be

over come by drilling a small guide hole smaller than the shank sizeof a roofing nail and cutting a recess for the head. Insert theroofing nail. Now the push bolt has something solid to pushagainst.

Dowel pins:



Dowel pins:I personally don’t think they are needed but if it makes you grin,use them. Cut the hex heads off the 12 dowel bolts. Round the endof the shank. The length of the remaining shank on the bolt shouldbe long enough to protrude slightly through or well into the formwhen the form is closed. I would suggest threading the same railthat the heads of the pull bolts are located. Some use floatingdowel pins, if this is your choice I would point out that when youare drilling holes prior to rip sawing, use a smaller drill than thedowels for their location. Drill out the hole to snug fit size deepenough for the forms to close in each rail later.

Put the form together:Install the dowels, if you are using them, in their location. Seat thedowels to the start of the shank. For the floating type just put waxon them and put them in the holes. Put some wax or carnuba onthe dowel shanks and in the their prospective holes. Put the twopieces together starting the aligning dowels in their snug fit holes.

Put wax on the threads and shanks of the pull bolts and install. Putwax on the push bolt threads and install. You now have a formthat can be pulled together or pushed apart. Close the form. Therails should fit together with no gaps and top and bottom alignedflat. If all is well you may not be able to see the joint when theform is closed. If the top and bottom have a slight edge at the jointand you have a planner, no sweat. With the form closed make avery light pass on the top surface and then make another pass onthe bottom surface until flat.

The procedure from here on will work for wood or metal forms.Please note that this procedure only requires the setup adjustmentonce prior to cutting the groove for both sides. Once set, don’tchange it. Some may ask, “Why do you have the butt end on thesame end of the form on both sides?” It’s so you don’t have toreadjust the form from one side to the other to cut the groove.

Cutting the grooves:One side of the form will be used to make tip sections and theother to make butt sections. The finished slope of the groove oneither side will be .001”/inch.

Lay the closed form, with pull bolts facing you, on the bench in

front of you. Draw a line across the top of the form directly overeach pull adjusting bolt. Label the lines starting on the far-left 0, 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. This will be the TIP side of theform.

Turn the form over front to back. The pull bolts should be facingaway from you. Draw a line across the form directly over the pulladjusting bolts as before. Label the lines starting at the left 12, 13,14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24.



0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

.060” .055” .050” .045” .040” .035” .030” .025” .020” .015” .010” .005” 0”

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

.030” .035” .040” .045” .050” .055” .060” .065” .070” .075” .080” .085” .090”

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

.090” .095” .100” .105” .110” .115” .120” .125” .130” .135” .140” .145” .150”

Objective: Cut a groove on each side of the form so that the slopeof the grove is .001”/ inch. so that tip station 12 and butt station24 will be the butt end of their respective sides.

With the Tip side up, open the form slightly, about 1/16”, its entirelength. With a 60° point installed on your Dial Indicator start at tipstation 12 and set your Dial Indicator to “0”. Move to station 11and set the form so the DI reads .005” deeper. Continue towardsstation "0" setting each station so that the DI reads .005" deeperthan the previous.

Recheck your work. When you are done your readings will look likethis:

Tip - Do Not change the setting of your DI, you will use it later tocheck your progress of cutting the groove. You also shouldn’t needto change the setup to cut the grooves in the either side.

Example: Tip side station 0 to have a .030” depth with the formsclosed. You are finished cutting the grove in the tip side when ALLstations and every thing in between reads .090” with the abovesetup. You are finished cutting the groove in the butt side whenALL stations and everything in between when the DI reads .150”The resulting grooves will have slopes of .001”/inch.

Results: Closed form groove depth dimensions of the finished form:

Tip side

Butt side

Getting ready to cut the 60° groove:You will need to make a couple of cutting tools. Here are two: “60°Lathe Bit Plane”, for fast cutting and the “File Plane”, for finalcutting. The FP is featured along with how to use it in “PowerFibers” October 2001 issue.

60° Lathe Bit Plane:



You can see the lathe bitplane at the top of thisphoto.

Objective: Mount a 3/8” 60°lathe bit in a self-centeringplane type hardwood block.The bit must be adjustableup and down. You will findout that very small cuts arebest. You can push it or pull itbut you must keep the bitcentered in the gap of theform.

Using Maple stock:

Mill 2 piece 3/4” X 1” X 12” (stock for sides of tool)Mill 1 piece 3/8” X 1” X 12” (spacer stock)Mill 1 piece 3/8” X 3/8” X 12” (guide stock)Cut: 2 pieces 4” long from spacer stock. Cut remaining in half.Cut a 60° V bevel point on each end of the 3/8” X 3/8” guidestock, then cut in half.Lay one of the side pieces on a flat surface.Using the lathe bit and the two 3/8” X 3/8” as spacers place thelathe bit in the center with a 4” piece on either side followed by aV block on either side followed by one of the 2 scrap pieces. Gluethe pieces without gluing the bit and V blocks. Glue the

remaining side in place.When everything is dry trim the ends of the scrap pieces flush.You should now have a block approximately 1” high 12” long and1 7/8” wide with three 3/8” square holes. At the center hole, drilland tap a 1/4-20 hole for a setscrew to hold the bit adjustment.The forward and trailing V guide blocks are needed to keep thebit centered in the gap. They must also be able to move up anddown freely to follow the width of the gap. Drill a ¼” dowel holeat a location where the V block’s downward travel can not projectmore than 3/8” below the bottom surface of the plane. Glue adowel leaving a projection out each side. Mount a flat springpushing down on the dowel.You may want to mount a handle like a block plane or a ½” dowelprojecting to either side or simply round and sand the trailingedge of the plane. Just rounding works fine.



File Plane:

The File Planeworks on theprinciple of aparallelogram. Thecutting tool is athree-corner file.Epoxy the file toone side of theparallelogram later.Mid way on theopposite side drilland tap a 1/4-20hole. Now, with a1/4-20 thumb boltyou can force theparallelogramapart.

The short sides of the parallelogram are made from steel strapwith 1/4 inch holes on about 1 1/8” centers.The long sides are slightly thicker than the flat width dimensionof the file. The length will depend on the file you wish to use,probably about 6” or 7”. Mill a piece about 24” long, you will usethe scrap latter. The width will be about 5/8”. Drill a 1/4” hole1/2” from the ends. Cut a slot, thickness of strap material, ineach end of the long sides. Using 1/4” steel dowel pins, lengthequal to thickness of long sides thickness, put the parallelogramtogether. The slots are cut deep enough so the long sides willcome together. Now you can center and epoxy the file in place.Build a box, open top and bottom, to hold the parallelogram. Theinside width will be the same as the thickness of the long sidesof the parallelogram. The inside length will be the length of theparallelogram when the long sides are touching. The height willbe slightly less than the total height of the parallelogram whenfully extended, not including the file.Mill two 1/2” thick pieces of stock for the sides of the box. Cuttwo pieces from the left over scrap from the long side of the



two pieces from the left over scrap from the long side of theparallelogram to a length equal to the height of the box. Theseare the ends of the box. Glue one piece aligned to the right handedge of the side piece. Using the parallelogram as a guide withthe long sides touching, position and glue the second end piece.Take the parallelogram apart. Glue the top piece, the one withthe bolt hole, aligned with the top edge of the box and buttedagainst the left end piece. Please note: The cutting direction ofthe file will be pointing to the left when assembled.Sand both sides of the piece that has the file epoxied slightly.We want this piece to be able to move up and down in the box,not a jam fit. Put the parallelogram back together with the file’scutting grain pointing to the left.Glue the other side in place, add some 1/4” dowels for strength ifyou wish, trim off the ends, relieve the edges and sand. Roundover the trailing top end for palm comfort.

Cutting the groove:Secure the previously setup form, butt end tip side up to the leftfor right handers, to the bench top. This is where the extra lengthof the form will be used as runout to help keep the 60° LBPcentered.

Using the 60° LBP set the lathe bit to just touch the gap on the buttend of the form. You will quickly find out that you can not be tooaggressive in the amount of material you try to remove per pass.You want to shave it, not hog it out. When the tool will no longercut adjust the bit down and shave some more. Continue thisprocess until the lathe bit is making contact with the form theentire length of the gap. When you get to .004 - .005 of the finaldepth of the groove switch to the FP. You will find the FP will load

up rapidly when filing wood, not so with metal. Clean often andtake your time. This is not the time to screw-up. When you get tothe depth dimensions as stated above at all locations along thegroove, you’re done with this side.

Turn the form over and do the other side. After the grooves arefinished on both sides, trim off extra length to final form lengthdimensions.

Congratulations, You did it.

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