Aaargh! My oak plane handle is way out of whack, and won’t align with the plane in any useable way. I consistently make this same mistake (amongst many others).
![](http://www.sebpalmer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/img_3571-1024x768.jpg)
So I rewatched Paul Seller’s plane tote handle video. And one of the first and most fundamental things he mentions is laying out and drilling the hole that secures the handle with a long rod. First! I’ve been leaving it till last. And it never works. Perhaps some folk could do it. But not me, it seems.
![](http://www.sebpalmer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/img_3573-1024x768.jpg)
So I guess the oak handle will go in a spares box, for potential use on some other future project. And instead I’m trying to make one from some marine ply. And this time I laid out and drilled the main hole first.
![](http://www.sebpalmer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/img_3574-1024x768.jpg)
As I type this the newest handle is gluing up. The block of marine ply turned out to be two blocks glued together. And they were coming apart. So I pried them fully asunder – this is after I’d drilled the main holes and done a lot of shaping with rasps and files – and now they’re gluing up again.
![](http://www.sebpalmer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/img_3577-1024x768.jpg)
Watching Shutter Island – bonkers! – whilst waiting for the handle to glue up.
![](http://www.sebpalmer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/img_3579-1024x768.jpg)
![](http://www.sebpalmer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/img_3582-1024x768.jpg)
When the glue has ‘set up’ as they say across the pond, I’ll continue shaping this latest handle. Probably mostly with sandpaper from this point on. I hope this umpteenth attempt comes good.