Thread: Plane sole is gunking up

You must be having some fun planing that stuff
Ive never seen that happen on my plane sole and it may be that I have not planed much of those sorts of woods or it may be because I only use either Paraffin oil, which works really good, or I just rub a candle on the plane which is of course Paraffin wax.

I have seen build up like that on the machine heads like the thicknesser or buzzer. I may not touch those for a service for 6 months to a year sometimes . I use the paraffin oil on the machine beds.

I had similar annoying buildup on my No 7 when doing a big panel of old house frame timber. Fairly red hard timber, think it could be iron bark.

Quite hard to get the build up off the sole.

I also used 3in1 / rag in a can.
Wonder whether wax would be better.

Acetone is good for removing that sort of gunk. I rub it on with 0000 steel wool rather than sand paper. I lubricate the sole of the plane using a candle, like Auscab.

Clean with kero then apply candle wax.Repeat as required. we used to use a lot of spotty as apprentices .

I have had that build up, but not as bad as yours.

I removed it with a razor blade, then steel wool dipped in whatever solvent worked - metho, turps, acetone/MEK, xylene. Then reapplied parrafin wax to sole.

Ck, I had the same problem when planing the sister planks to the ones you are battling with. I don't know why, but the eucalypts round here are the gummiest I've ever come across, spotted gum is the worst, followed by blue-gum (forest red-gum to southerners) with Ironbark being the best of the bad lot - it may be associated with the very poor soil or growing conditions on the rocky ridges they came off, or something like that. Non-polar solvents like turps & kero didn't work well for me, methylated spirits was marginally better, but removing it with solvents alone is tedious. I found scraping it off with a card scraper to be quicker (being careful not to scrape the blade, of course!). I tried various waxes & they all helped but none completely prevented the problem - it's an absolute pest. Just soldier on & you'll get there - just keep telling yourself you won't need to do this again for at least 20 years....

Cheers,

If you try the Paraffin oil out, maybe add one of these to your list of things to do if you don't already have one . The timber version could be a good project. Maybe add a lid to it as well. They attract dust but still keep on working with it wiped off.

Ive got two Oil pads. One is a tin I filled with a roll of felt . The other is a Jarrah block someone recessed and beveled then packed something into , blanket possibly . I gave it a layer of new felt when I got it. It was an eBay purchase from Perth.

The oil can I pick up and use on planes, saws and on machine tops and fences. The Jarrah one stays on the bench and tools get wiped across the top . Its got small clipped nails sticking out of its base to grip the bench top. Once they are oiled the oil lasts a long time. Its just a hint of oil that the tools get from them. You will be able to see the effect of the oil change the look of a dry surface, but if its giving off to much like just after they get a re charge then wipe the tool surface with a dry rag. They wont give off to much for long though.

I recharged both tin and block pad yesterday and was using the shoulder plane on these tenons and the smoother on the fronts all day fitting and smoothing them up. Two bedside tables worth. Its better than first finding, then using the candle . They always get lost somewhere. Either in my pocket , on the floor or in the well . The oil pads never ever get lost.
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The Oil.
Just a moment...

Rob