Thread: First jack plane for an apprentice carpenter?

I can't remember when.
But that idea has been put here before.
Regarding milling the bottom flat.
I personally would be cautious on that one.
Even some of the boutique plane makers
Flatten there soles the the old muscle way.

Don't get it milled. If grinding is an option go for that but not milling.

I bought a new Footprint branded jack plane back in the 90's and found it was really badly warped and concave. I decided to mill it flat... well; it got flat...ter. It also picked up a lot of milling marks of various depths because cast iron tends to form a hardened skin a few though thick so unless you take a generous depth of cut to go below the hardened layer the tool tends to alternatively dig in and then skip over. End result? I ended up with a long scrub plane. It has seen more use turning scrap pine into wood shavings for pet's bedding than as a useful tool for wood preparation!

What the others said...

I have very limited experience of milling (most of which was watching someone who knew what they were doing!), so I'm going on intuition rather than factual knowledge, but it seems to me that surface grinding would be the way to go, if you must use machinery. Milling will require even firmer clamping, with all the inherent problems already pointed out. If there is an experienced bloke in the metal department, they should be well aware of the problems involved, so I'd want to have a chat with him, before deciding to take the plunge.

I've got a similar dilemma with the 5.5 I inherited from my old pot, it's got a depression on one side, just in front of the mouth, and is low by a couple of thou for about 1/3rd of the width of the sole behind that. The depression on the side of the mouth is quite deep, and I have no idea what caused that, but the low spot behind the mouth is probably just wear. I've lapped the sole a bit, but only enough to ensure it's level at the toe, across most of the mouth and at the rear. It would take more time & determination than I have left to get it truly flat again. Despite the imperfections, the plane works remarkably well, and actually performs better than many less-challenged planes I've used. So given its history, and that it's just a couple of years shy of its 100th birthday, I'm leaving well-enough alone.....

Cheers,

Forum says NO!

My diamond stone arrived today, and it's err, pretty big. I though I would give the plane a couple of strokes across the surface to see what would happen, and to see if it would remove material from where my eye and straight edge determined it needed to be removed. It kinda did.

IMG_2173.jpg

So I carried on for 10 minutes or so, and the middle is coming up pretty good. Getting flatter with every stroke. Might just spend 10 minutes every night until it's completely flat

Make certain that you are pushing the plane DOWN and not forward. Retract the blade but keep the frog in. This is to ensure the tension is the same as when the plane is used.

The area that is being removed indicates that there is a high around the mouth. This is not the best news. Inexperience can cause this high spot to be accentuated (planing over a hump does not remove the hump). Check frequently with a straight edge that the mouth area is flat and that this flat is lengthening. I worry that the hump is lengthening. This is where an experienced restorer would drawfile the hump first.

Regards from Perth

Derek

There was a thread a few years back where someone was using a scraper of some sort to flatten the plane sole. I've tried to do a search on the forum but can't come up with anything. It seemed very effective though.

TT

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Make certain that you are pushing the plane DOWN and not forward. Retract the blade but keep the frog in. This is to ensure the tension is the same as when the plane is used.

The area that is being removed indicates that there is a high around the mouth. This is not the best news. Inexperience can cause this high spot to be accentuated (planing over a hump does not remove the hump). Check frequently with a straight edge that the mouth area is flat and that this flat is lengthening. I worry that the hump is lengthening. This is where an experienced restorer would drawfile the hump first.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Yeah mate, she's all together and under tension. When I say hump, it's a pretty uniform curve from the toe to the heel. When I put a straight edge on I can see a sliver of light at the toe and heel. When I gave it a couple of passes on this awesome diamond stone, it scratched exactly where I thought it should. I haven't removed much material, but I have made a flat section (see shiny section in photo below, shows it better than the other photo). I'm making sure to use 'planing pressure', as in, the same amount of force I've been using in the last couple of days at TAFE. It seems to be working, but I don't really know how a properly tuned perfectly sharpened plane should feel. I just know that mine seemed to be working better than all the ones at TAFE, including all their new Stanley's. Which isn't saying much I suppose!

IMG_20160420_222300.jpg

Originally Posted by Twisted Tenon

There was a thread a few years back where someone was using a scraper of some sort to flatten the plane sole. I've tried to do a search on the forum but can't come up with anything. It seemed very effective though.

TT

Are you talking about THIS? I've watched it a few times, such skill!

That's the sort of thing I was talking about Kenour. 'Cept it was some formites working on the larger planes. Pretty impressive.

TT

Well after some work on the diamond stone, the skip seems to have gone. I can take a full length full width very thin shaving now without having to bear down heavily on it. So, I think that's and improvement. I really want to have a go at a well tuned set up premium plane now so I have a benchmark to measure against!

Originally Posted by kenour

...I really want to have a go at a well tuned set up premium plane now...

Lie-Nielsen No.8 .

Cheers, Vann.

Originally Posted by kenour

.....I can take a full length full width very thin shaving now without having to bear down heavily on it.....

Ken, you have probably got the old girl very close to as good as she can be, and by the sound of it, it's not doing too badly! If it will take a fine, even, full-width shaving from hard-ish wood with no hint of chatter, that's about as much as you can ask of any plane. You might do some refining by polishing the curve of the cap iron, & making sure it mates absolutely perfectly with the cutter, but you're subject to the law of diminishing returns, now, & a lot of fussing may make very little difference.

Originally Posted by kenour

.....I really want to have a go at a well tuned set up premium plane now so I have a benchmark to measure against!

Don't be surprised if you find it does about the same job as your oldie...

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

You might do some refining by polishing the curve of the cap iron, & making sure it mates absolutely perfectly with the cutter

I did that when my diamond plate arrive! It's amazing Only takes a few strokes to get things flat and shiny. I did the underside of the cap iron too, meets the iron with no gap at all now. Also polished the top, very happy with it.

Originally Posted by kenour

Forum says NO!

My diamond stone arrived today, and it's err, pretty big.

Could you tell me what grade/s stone you bought and where from? Looks like a nice big of kit

Originally Posted by Lappa

Could you tell me what grade/s stone you bought and where from? Looks like a nice big of kit

I got it from AMAZON. It's double sided, Course (325)/ Extra-Fine (1200). It's a fine bit of kit, the course side eats metal and quickly renews a dinged up edge. After I use the extra fine side, I go to leather. But have been thinking about getting a Shapton Glass 8000 as an intermediate step.

Main reason I went for the larger 10" x 4" is because I want to use it to sharpen my 82mm buzzer blades. When you go down to the 8" the width shrinks to 3" which is a shame. Another reason was because of a couple of reviews the Trend 300/1000 was getting, that those two grits were OK to get you up and working quickly again. So I wanted something in the same grit region, but just a bit bigger. Couldn't be happier with the DMT.