Thread: Restoring Record #5 problem/queries

You need to work out what you want to achieve. If you want a good quality user try lapping the sole normally and see what results. If the depressions make it unstable then junk the body and try to pick up another. Any Stanley or Stanley copy should fit. If you just want to have a go at restoration and get it working, braze the sole and lap it flat or just use some liquid metal/metal putty. That stuff is pretty tuff. Even builders bog.

I would do all electrolysis work before anything else.

Thank NCA, I hadn't thought of brazing. The plane itself is worth bugger all marketwise (although it's complete and all original) but it would be handy for me to have as a user. I think the restoration practice would be probably worth more though.

Time for a bit of research me thinks

Oh yeh, glad you agree on the de-rusting as the first step. It did seem odd to have it after the lapping (without another re-lapping stage).

This is the instructional I was looking at btw.

A very well-known manufacturer of planes made a series of linear pits in the soles of their planes, called them corrugations, and charged more for these disfigured objects....

Seriously, apart from being unsightly, those pits in the sole are unlikely to affect performance one jot, if all else is sound, & as long as they don't impinge on the mouth. Provided the sole is coplanar at the toe, in front of the mouth and at the heel, it should make a very good jack plane. I have an old #5 in about the same condition as yours, & I would be prepared to bet you couldn't pick it from my pristine #5, by the shavings they produce.

Unless you know what you are doing, I would strongly advise you don't start mucking about with brazing or you could end up with a body that's warped & useless instead of just ugly. If you do have the expertise & gear to fill with metal, that would at least be a more permanent fix than bog, but neither will actually hide the defects, and neither is likely to improve performance, so why bother?

I would check that the sole is flat at the points mentioned, then concentrate on the frog (well-seated with a flat blade-bed) and the cap-iron (clean & polish the leading edge & make sure it mates cleanly with the blade back). If the frog & cap-iron are in good shape, a good after-market blade will do far more for its performance than builders' bog in the sole pits.
My 2c..
Cheers,

There is always the option of not lapping it if you are going to use it as a jack/coarse plane with a cambered iron. That being said, I do understand that this may be a trial run or the looks may be important enough to be worth the effort. I just find lapping an absolute bore and it isn't a functional necessity for a coarser plane.

Paul Sellers has video online of how he does the lapping for his planes - similar to other methods but he also eases the sides and heels of his planes.

Though I do like going to the effort of tidying up all the brass and wood even if the sole looks like it lost a war.

My practice to date has been to wirebrush then electrolysis (computer cpu and washing soda bath) before I do any lapping/polishing/other restoration.

just my 2c
Robin

Valid points Ian

My only concern about this "groove" is that it's possible to rock the plane if you're ("I'm") not careful.

When I've done the electrolysis I'll give it a lapping until the other 97% of the sole is flat and see how bad the "rock" is then and then figure out what, if anything, I need to do.

It really is only a junk plane that was picked up from a trash'n'treasure market, but still a useful one if I can get it back into shape.

I definitely need to replace the blade (and that's about all I want to spend on it) as it's horrendously pitted. The rest of the metal is straight and flat where it needs to be, but is also pretty pitted as well. If it was worth getting replated etc for resale I would probably do it, but the cost would FAR outweigh it's market value. As long as it can do it's job, I'll be happy if it looks like crud



Robin: Yep. I was going to give it a good brushing on the bench grinder or with a Dremel. Esp. in the tight spots and on the threaded areas.

It's mostly just a "fun" restoration so all up it won't matter if I completely shag a free/cheap plane, as long as I learn something in the process

I do electrolysis first and lap after, but I don't think it matters. I believe that MP laps first so that his re-painted surfaces are kept neat.

Lapping is not on my list of entertainment, so I do as little as possible, and since the plane is a bit of a junker, I'd lap to get the minimum done (toe, mouth, heel), and then experiment with liquid metal glue if needed.
IMO I'm better off spending extra time on the frog/mouth/frog bed/etc than over lapping the sole.

Rexmill 101 (Google) contains a link to a David Charlesworth article on flattening

when I use MPs process I go with the electrolysis then the flattening.

If the plane needs correction have you considered draw filing with a mill file then lapping?

If you decide to lap, and have a lot of material to remove, be very careful to ensure that the sides remain perpendicular to the base......

It is very easy to put more pressure on one side than the other, and end up with the side wings seriously out of whack. You then have a plane which might be fine for regular work, but no use at all for shooting.

Don't ask me how I know this.....

Originally Posted by RedShirtGuy

......My only concern about this "groove" is that it's possible to rock the plane if you're ("I'm") not careful.

Hmm, rocking tells you that sole is seriously out of flat, and will need serious attention for sure, if you want any reasonable performance out of it. At a minimum, you need the 3 areas I mentioned, co-planer. By 'rocking' do you mean side to side, or fore/aft? If the former, that's very hard to correct by lapping, you tend to make it worse rather than better, unless extremely vigilant. Getting the entire sole flat on an old plane can be a monumental chore. While it's commonly said that you can tolerate a bit of a dish between toe & front of mouth, I like to have the entire front section flat (pits won't matter, as long as they aren't confluent) for best performance. Otherwise it's near-impossible to keep the start of the stroke level, and you end up with a camber on the end of any board you plane. The heel needs a goodly flat area too, but the area between there & the back of the mouth is the least important part - by the time the plane is registering on this area, the blade has passed the end of the board & isn't cutting any more.

If it would require too much metal removal to flatten it properly, then converting it for scrubbing as Quark suggests could be the way to go. If you don't already have something like that, you might be pleasantly surprised at how handy a large-mouthed, heavily-cambered plane can be for knocking large amounts of unwanted wood off rough stock. These are not refined tools - just about any old clunker can be made to do a good job.

Cheers,

It may be that this one has ceased to be a plane, and has become a "plane-shaped lump of metal".....

The sort of thing Bunnies sell.

Good idea to convert it into a scrub plane though. Despite efforts to get their numbers up though breeding programs, scrub planes are still relatively rare in the wild. They need all the help they can get.