Deburr and clean up parts so that the sides may be attached to the sole, make sure to identify the outside surface of the sides by looking at the countersinks on the holes which denotes the outside while the HTNA7K stamp will be on the inside of your plane.
Square up a block of hardwood, roughly 3" by 9" with a finished thickness the same width as the narrow area of the sole between the dovetails. Maple or beech would be a good choice. Take great care to insure that the sides are perfectly parallel and at 90 degrees to the sole side of the block. This is your temporary infill to build the plane around and will determine how much filing will be required to square up your plane so take your time here.
Assemble the sides to the sole and place the block in the plane. Loosely clamp the sides to the block making sure the sole is resting on the face of the block. Now securely clamp the sole to the block and check that the sides are firmly seated against the sole in base of the pin area.
Now drill through the 2 upper and the lowest hole for rivets and do this by drilling in from both sides.
Place rivets in these holes and peen them in place keeping in mind that they will be removed later so this is only a peening test.
Peen these using the ball end of a ball peen hammer and small taps, many small taps not three big ones! Place the plane on a piece of steel, the anvil area of a vice or an anvil and start one end of each rivet flaring it about half of what you would need to fill the countersunk area. It may help to place some 1/16 thick shims under the plane to guarantee that the rivet has material for peening on the other side. Now turn the plane over and due the same to the other side. Go back and finish the first side swelling the head to fill the countersink, finish the other side making sure the rivets are tight when you finished.
File the rivets flush with the sides.
Locate the largest vice you have access to and grip the plane sole up close to but not touching the pins of the sole firmly clamping the sides with the vice. Again with light taps begin swelling the tails of the sides to fill the undercut area of the pins working directly across the sole as you progress down its length. Periodically check that the plane has not slipped in the vice and the pins of the sole are touching the jaws, this will cause gaps in your joint. Spend time here and work carefully trying not to damage the sole and to get nice tight joints. When you are finished with the sole remove the plane from the vice and place it back on your steel work surface and carefully peen the end of any pins that don’t have a tight fit, again working slowly. Once you have things to your satisfaction begin cleaning up the plane with a bastard file working all of the tails and pins down to within 1/32 of the surface of the plane and recheck all of the joints for tightness. The 1/32 leaves you enough material to repeen any joints that are not tight. When all is finished file the plane with a mill bastard file and clean up all joints making certain that the sole is square to the sides.
Now send the plane to us so we can cut the mouth. We will also remove the temporary infill for you. During this time you can start working on the infill, which is made from wood planed to the same thickness as the temporary block, which was used for the assembly of the plane.
When you get the plane back install the infill which should be a snug fit and see how everything fits. You can hold it in place with a little clamp pressure on the sides while doing this. Check that the wedge section under the blade matches the sides in the mouth area, it is much easier to correct any problems with angle and alignment while this piece is still removable. When it suits you drill the infill to accept rivets and rivet the plane together just as we did before while being very careful not to ding the sides. Work the rivets down and polish the plane to your satisfaction and sharpen the iron. You can now enjoy a shoulder plane that you made!
