Thread: Soldering a short crack in plane body

Hmmm… tricky. The crack may well have been there for decades and is actually stable. My thoughts are to put the plane into service and see if the crack propagates any further… the problem there is the fact that the very end of the crack isn’t visible; you need Non-Destructive Examination processes such as very high magnification, dye-penetrant or magnetic particle to establish exactly where the crack ends.

If the crack is still “live” the only way to stop it propagating further is to drill a hole through the cheek at the very end; again you need to know where the end is. Repairing the crack is quite brutal; both cast iron welding or a braze repair require a “V” groove carving into the metal along the crack which is then filled.

If it was mine… well, I do have dye-pen equipment so I could find the end, mark its location and periodically check to see if it progresses or just drill the end regardless.

As Chief says, it’s a bit of a tricky one.
It’s a bit hard to tell where the crack actually ends. I have NDT ( non destructive testing) crack testers working alongside me on a daily basis at work, so I would get one of them to have a look at it for me, or I could just test it myself.
If I was going to try for a repair, I would clean both sides of the crack back to shiny metal, then I would soak the cracked area in thinners for a couple of days to get any oils out of the crack, I would probably put it in a toaster oven and get the whole casting up to about 90 degrees C, then quickly before it starts to cool, use an oxy-acetylene welding torch and a stick of silver solder, that stuff will wick in to the crack. Doing this will ruin your japaning, but seeing as it’s a user, that shouldn’t matter too much.
The other option is, mark the end of the crack with a sharp scriber, and just use the plane, and keep an eye on it. If it gets longer, deal with it then.

Brilliant guys. Thx for the input. I'll put a little scribe mark at what looks like the end and see if it progresses.

Originally Posted by The Spin Doctor

Brilliant guys. Thx for the input. I'll put a little scribe mark at what looks like the end and see if it progresses.

Yeah, that’s what I would do too.
I should add, that I have never repaired a cracked plane before, though I have repaired plenty of cracked hydraulic pipes using oxy-acetylene and silver solder.
If you do decide to repair it, maybe find a less valuable cracked plane and have a practice run on that first. And be warned it will leave a visible repair.

Id not be that concerned about it, keep an eye on it maybe but I doubt it will change over time unless it gets dropped again.

I have a couple of planes with a crack on the cheek and they have never changed.

If you try fix it, it will make it much more obvious and obtrusive/ugly than what it is now.

Originally Posted by Zsteve

Id not be that concerned about it, keep an eye on it maybe but I doubt it will change over time unless it gets dropped again.

I have a couple of planes with a crack on the cheek and they have never changed.

If you try fix it, it will make it much more obvious and obtrusive/ugly than what it is now.

Thx mate.

Ugly isn't an issue, it only needs to work well and that was my only concern that it might degrade the plane body's strength later.

I've had a 605 pimped out with an HSS blade for decades and no matter what I buy or have that's equivalent I always go back to the 605, it's just better than all of them in every way. Maybe I got lucky and have a one in a million but I certainly want to give the 604 a run.

Originally Posted by Zsteve

Id not be that concerned about it, keep an eye on it maybe but I doubt it will change over time unless it gets dropped again.

I have a couple of planes with a crack on the cheek and they have never changed.

If you try fix it, it will make it much more obvious and obtrusive/ugly than what it is now.

I had a plane with a similar but much longer crack that was heading for the mouth of the plane.
I didn't want to risk it going all the way in a simple drop or fall, as it was heading for the weakest part of the plane body.
I had it brazed, and it is still going strong.
Watch yours carefully - perhaps mark the end of the crack so that you can see if it travels.
Happy shavings in the meantime - Bedrocks are very nice tools
Tom

Applying a decent amount of heat to cast iron can cause all sorts of trouble if it’s not done properly. Cast iron has to be pre heated, welded/ silver soldered etc then cooled down very very slowly otherwise it will just crack again.