Plane Restorations

**62woollybugger** · 4th October 2016, 09:27 PM

A while ago I picked up a couple of planes in need of restoration, a Record 4 1/2 from the markets & a Millers Falls No 18 which belonged to my mums father, who was killed in a tree felling accident when mum was only about 12 years old. I've worked out the Record is from 1956 Record Hand Tools & the Millers Falls is the first series from 1929 - 1936. Millers Falls bench plane type study

Planes.jpg

I stripped them down & used Evapo-Rust to clean up all the steel parts & a few lots of paint stripper on the bases. I was lucky that Supercheap had 25% off everything in store a few weeks ago, so I got the Evapo-Rust & spray cans of engine enamel on the cheap. The handles & knobs were sanded to 800 grit then finished with HBO. I'll give them a coat of wax in about a week, when the oil has had time to cure.

After flattening the soles, everything was masked up ready for painting. I think Grandad must have jointed a lot of boards with this plane, as it had a bad hollow right down the centre of the sole, which took a lot of work to remove.

Masked.jpg

I used Dupli-colour engine enamel in Ford dark blue for the Record with standard gloss black & red for the Millers Falls. After 3 coats of primer & 3 of top coat, I baked them in the BBQ at 130C for 1 1/2 hours.

The finished result.
MF-1.jpg MF-2.jpg Record-1.jpg Record-2.jpg

**goodvibes** · 4th October 2016, 10:23 PM

Nice work.

I'm not clear on the purpose of baking the engine enamel though. Care to explain?

I was under the impression that several very light coats followed by one "wet" coat is enough to give a strong and cosmetically attractive surface.

Do you believe that the bake takes you closer to the original?

**62woollybugger** · 4th October 2016, 10:42 PM

Originally Posted by goodvibes

Nice work.

I'm not clear on the purpose of baking the engine enamel though. Care to explain?

I was under the impression that several very light coats followed by one "wet" coat is enough to give a strong and cosmetically attractive surface.

Do you believe that the bake takes you closer to the original?

The engine enamel would normally get baked from the heat of the engine, which speeds up the curing process, which will take at least a week at normal temperatures. Also from what I have read on the interweb, baking will make it a bit more durable.

**IanW** · 5th October 2016, 08:43 AM

You've certainly spruced them up very nicely, WB. Should be a good pair of users, with the added bonus of family attachment - what could be better?

Cheers,

**QC Inspector** · 5th October 2016, 09:52 AM

On the subject of baking the paint.

In the past when I have painted metal parts, I heated the metal in the oven or left it in the hot sun for a few hours until it was almost to hot to pick up bare handed. Then I went outside and sprayed a light coat of primer on the parts and then sprayed on thin coats of of the paint. Because the part is hot the thin layers of paint dry from the inside out rather than the other way around as when baking after. The rattle can paint dried much harder than when not applied warm. You need to be aware that if the metal is too hot the paint and its solvents can go poof! Hence doing it outside. I haven't tried the method with newer water based low VOC paints but don't see any reason why it wouldn't work.

T'umbs on bringing the old tools to a new life.

Pete

**rob streeper** · 5th October 2016, 10:50 AM

Nice job on the planes.

The epoxy based rattle can paints respond well to baking at about 100 ^oC for a couple of hours. If you're going to sun-bake check the product to be sure it says 'non-photochemically reactive' or something similar, some paints don't take well to strong UV exposure while curing.

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