Thread: Yet another plane restoration

Originally Posted by Pac man

No worries.

I use a tricky dicky power supply.

I like the look of this Pac man. It still needs to be hooked up to a car battery though?

TT

Originally Posted by Pac man

You can buy bulk citric acid powder from the Traditional Tools group at their meetings or events for much cheaper than the supermarket.

If you have a local butcher, cheesemaker etc ask them where they buy their supplies

All sorts of things in bulk

Neil

Originally Posted by Twisted Tenon

I like the look of this Pac man. It still needs to be hooked up to a car battery though?

TT

Hi Twisted,

It plugs into 240v and puts out the voltage as per the selector on the front. No car battery required.Output voltages are 3V, 4.5V, 6V, 7.5V, 9V, 12V. Leads are included but i bought longer ones and bigger alligator clamps. Neat little unit. The leads go into the sockets on the front of the unit.

Hey Andrew79 where are u up to now?

Paul

Originally Posted by Pac man

Hey Andrew79 where are u up to now?

My day job gets in the way of my woodwork most of the time, so I don't expect to get anything further done until the weekend. The next step is to give the metal parts a sand to clean up any leftover rust and grime, then possibly hit them all with the buffing wheel if I get energetic.

I'm thinking about stripping all the remaining chrome off the lever cap and polishing it up, which matches my #6 (which appears to be from the period where Stanley built them that way). I can't restore the chrome so why not make it presentable another way?. This isn't something I'd do for a collectors restore, but all these will end up as users, so pretty isn't as important as functional.

After that, the blade gets a sharpen and the handles a light sanding and a coat of varnish, which then gets polished off with 1200 grit to make them look and feel nicely worn in again.

Originally Posted by andrewr79

I'm thinking about stripping all the remaining chrome off the lever cap and polishing it up, which matches my #6 (which appears to be from the period where Stanley built them that way). I can't restore the chrome so why not make it presentable another way?. This isn't something I'd do for a collectors restore, but all these will end up as users, so pretty isn't as important as functional.

I did that - works fine, but you won't get much of polish on the bare metal.

If you want a chrome-like finish and you enjoy doing restorations, you could always try electroless nickel which will polish nicely and protect against rust. It isn't as tricky to do as electroplating as you don't get electrode shadowing problems if your setup isn't right

The electroless process should also greatly reduce the chance of hydrogen embritlement (which generally won't be a problem in anything but spring steel anyway)

Electroless Nickel Kit

Jane Kits : electro: nickel plating kits, zinc plating kits, copper plating kits, gold plating kits ($40 for a litre)

Results from a bit more work - blew up my sander halfway through so lost a fair bit of time.

One of the best investments you can make for rehabbing old tools is one of these wheels(bottom of page). They are excellent.

I use the 2S Fine finish wheel it's 6" X 2" & it saves hours & hours of work

I got to get me one of those!

Ok since the cheapest I can find one is $125, I don't got to get me one of those!

Nice results though MajorPanic

Originally Posted by andrewr79

Ok since the cheapest I can find one is $125, I don't got to get me one of those!

Nice results though MajorPanic

How much an hour do you think you should be paid?...... doing crappy work?? Remember this is YOUR time not someone elses.

$125 is worth every cent! Especially after you've used one

$250 would probably be cheap!

Originally Posted by MajorPanic

How much an hour do you think you should be paid?...... doing crappy work?? Remember this is YOUR time not someone elses.

Sadly I don't think my other half would appreciate me paying myself for making old bits of metal shiny!. Will keep it in mind for future shopping sprees though