My Planes

**routermaniac** · 14th February 2005, 09:53 PM

In the last two months after been introduced to a Stanley plane by my father in law (big mistake on his part!) I began my own little crusade into hand tools land. The first thing I did is buy and restore 4 hand planes to their former glory.

I note most of these were bought from sunday markets or ebay and the total cost of the 4 planes was $160. Which is less than a new STanley #4 plane would normally cost.

All planes have been stripped and all parts polished including screws, etc. The handles which were originally painted (how could one do that to rosewood????) were stripped using scrapers, then sanded and stained, lastly they were coated with 3 coats of polyurethane.

The sides and soles were lapped on 180 wet and dry paper (many hours of work) and the jappaning retouched as necessary.

Blades were honed and polished to a mirror finish and the planes were then individually tuned as per good articles found on ebay. Unfortunately I didn't have a digital camera before, it would have been nice to have some before shots.... to give you an idea of the state these planes were in... the carter #7 had no metal visible

)

I would be interested in your thoughts... for me this exercise which although very laborious got me to appreciate the value and build quality of the old tools (being 30 I wasnt around when most of these were made).

So starting from the largest to the smallest...

#7 Carter
#5 1/2 (my favourite plane!)
#4 1/2 Stanley
#4 Stanley

**routermaniac** · 14th February 2005, 09:57 PM

oops I meant as per good articles found on the internet.

Also the last photo is of my wooden spokeshave whichz was purchased at the local market for $4. After a bit of tuning it works wonderfully and is quite a bit lighter than my stanley...

**MikeL** · 14th February 2005, 10:05 PM

Very Nice..

My Father in Law (God Rest His Soul), was a very fine cabinet maker, and he would have been very impressed..

**gnu52** · 14th February 2005, 10:08 PM

When you say you touched up the japanning do you mean with enamel, engine paint or japan? I have about 50 or so Stanleys staring at me here and in need of some degree of refinishing. Also did you use a ROS for polishing?

Nice looking job on your planes, I have trouble deciding weather or not to attempt full restorations but yours look very tidy. Bill

**Lucas** · 15th February 2005, 12:13 AM

Nice job
i have 6 or 7 planes to redo and was wondering what the web address was on the article on the internet

and what you used to redo the japanning ..... was it a Asphaltum power,linseed oil and turps mix then baked?

**routermaniac** · 15th February 2005, 05:22 PM

With regards to jappaning you are both corect the best way to do this to get as close to the original as possible is to use the mix of linseed oil, asphaltum, etc. For many reasons including a dislike to inhale noxious agents I chose not to do this.

Instead I finished with enamel. I first used a wire wheel to clean up all cracked jappaning and any rust spots. I then treated the bare metal with rust killer and left that to dry for 72 hrs. I then washed the whole thing down with metho and finished with black enamel, 2 coats with 96hrs in between.

If you are going to do this, there are a few rules...

1. do not do this to really old planes, they will deppreciate in value, most people like the original finish and do not like them looking new anyway

2. make sure you get all the rust and treat the metal properly otherwise you will regret it in the end.

I did not use a sander to polish the sides (did not trust myself). I fixed some industrial quality 180 wet and dry to a 19mm thick piece of mdf. I then patiently ground each side perfectly square. The 180 grit by the end of the process becomes more like 800 so you start the polishing on that. I finished it off with autosol metal polish (supercheap auto stocks this).

I would not have gone to all this trouble if I was not keeping the planes. Mind you it is significantly cheaper than buying 4 LN planes and I would argue after all the tuning, mine cut just as well!

With regards to websites I wiil have to do another search, lot my favourites last night when microsloth windows crashed

**Slavo** · 16th February 2005, 09:53 AM

looks like you might need a name change to "planemaniac"

**routermaniac** · 16th February 2005, 02:17 PM

good point

**bitingmidge** · 16th February 2005, 08:26 PM

OK Router/Plane/maniac!!

I can't help but notice that your new avatar is the delightful little Stanley #75.

Darned fool of a thing mine is (or is it me?). Came out of my Dad's kit and I thought it'd be useful for something... I need help!

I've cleaned it, honed the blade, put it back in the right way up (don't know how it worked previously!) but can't get it to make a clean cut.

I've waved the thing all over the place, shook it till I was back in the face, there's no danger of me ever become a hero of the dark side!!

How the heck does one set the blade, I'm guessing screw it finger tight and tap, but I need a smaller hammer??? (Once I figured it'd never be a shoulder plane that helped a bit!!)

Cheers,

P

**derekcohen** · 16th February 2005, 08:53 PM

P

Because it is considered a load of cr*p by most users! Cute as all getout to look at, tho.

Regards from Perth

Derek

**bitingmidge** · 16th February 2005, 09:05 PM

Originally Posted by derekcohen

P

Because it is considered a load of cr*p by most users! Cute as all getout to look at, tho.

Regards from Perth

Derek

And here was I thinking it was moi!! :eek: :eek:

I'll just polish it and stick it in the pool room cupboard then!

P (closet plane guy)

**routermaniac** · 16th February 2005, 09:12 PM

g'day bm

sort of agree with derek, heard a lot of BAD things about the 75 but bought one anyway last week as I thought I could make it do something useful, that is cleaning up tenons and rebates and dadoes...

was mucking around with it today and its not terrible but it isnt the easiest thing to tune as it is so rudimetary...

what I did is first flatten the sole, after setting the mouth to what I thought would be appropriate... now why am I qualifying that, because at least my little 75 the two pieces are not completely complementary, so adjusting the mouth leaves you with a plane that does not have a perfectly flat sole, which makes the adjustable mouth feature a load of rubbish... (I will evetually fix it properly)

Anyway, after you set the mouth to what you think is appropriate, release the front screw so the blade is now loose and put the plane on a flat piece of wood, mdf, etc.

While pushing down on the plane, slowly tap the blade so the edge of the blade just touches the wood. At that point slowly do up the front screw, keeping pressure on the body of the plane (otherwise the blade has a tendency to move down)...

Doing that I eventually got the little 75 to cleanly shave across the grain which is what I need when I am cleaning up dadoes.

Mind you, I dont think this is what this little plane was designed for

, but it certainly works and it is a great deal cheaper than buying a purpose made plane.

marios

**craigb** · 16th February 2005, 09:31 PM

Originally Posted by bitingmidge

I'll just polish it and stick it in the pool room cupboard then!

Why not stick it on your desk at work as a paperweight? Might as well get some use out of it

**Bruce Micheal** · 16th February 2005, 10:12 PM

Very nice job on the planes, well done. Something like those planes will last a life time and obviously appreciate in value. You never know, maybe your children in the future will get the same joy and use out of them as you are.

**bitingmidge** · 17th February 2005, 09:52 AM

Originally Posted by craigb

Why not stick it on your desk at work as a paperweight? Might as well get some use out of it

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