Bevel Up or Down Smoothing Plane Build Process

Page 25 of 25

Posted 4th May 2026

I said in the first post in this build series that "I like making tools and I find it really satisfying to be able to use tools I've made on other projects". Someone on a woodworking forum I frequent later commented that he'd lost count of the number of home-made tools I'd used so far. Now that the project is finished I thought it would be quite interesting to go through the photos and list all the home-made tools I'd used in the making of this home-made tool. In approximate order of use:

  1. Bowling-ball mallet
  2. Retractable Scriber
  3. Sheet Metal Bender
  4. Welder's Third Hand
  5. Rotary Broach (home-made from a Hemingway Kit)
  6. Heat Treatment Oven
  7. Tormek Support Bar for Bench Grinder
  8. Shooting Handle
  9. Block Plane
  10. Vertical Bandsaw Table
  11. Screwdriver
  12. Portable Workbench
  13. Spring Centre for alignment on rotary table (modified to have a straight shank since I wrote the linked web-page)
  14. Soft Jaws for Metalwork Lathe
  15. Woodturning Lathe
  16. Sanding Table for Wood Lathe
  17. Chisel Handles (arguably doesn't count as a home-made tool but I thought I'd include it in the list anyway)
  18. Various 3D-printed jigs

Page 25 of 25


This website is free and ad-free, but costs me money to run. If you'd like to support this site, please consider making a small donation or sending me a message to let me know what you liked or found useful.