Thread: Crack in Stanley no 3

Its easy enough to buy. I wouldn't try to repair it.

If you can't find a replacement it would be a simple repair, I don't think you would have any problems lapping the sole, I have repaired four or five no. 4's for people over the years

If it was mine I would braze it. The braze is easy to file.

It's a lovely old USA Stanley. But with a repair it has little or no collector value. I don't know what the online auctions are like over there, but over here (NZ) I don't think a replacement base of the same 'type' would show up for possibly years.

None-the-less, repaired it could make a good user. I'd braze it, and see whether it distorts much.

I have a Record No.05 with a similar repair and it's a regular user. Same for a Marples No.M7 (though it doesn't get used as much). On the other side of the coin, I've bought some repaired planes that are so out of alignment they're good only for spares.

Good luck.

Cheers, Vann.

Thanks for the responses.

I actually like to use it. It feels good in my hand. I had the crack first glued up with Gorilla Weld. It worked for a while. Got that tip from Youtube....

Question is how much collector value would a cracked base have?

On the other hand there is a base on eBay of one type earlier than this one. That could work. However, that one also has a tiny crack on one cheek. Just not going through and only on the top of the cheek.

Maybe I will just put this aside and wait until an other complete one comes along.

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Originally Posted by Cklett

...Question is how much collector value would a cracked base have?...

None really.

Cheers Vann.

There are quite a few #3s, mostly from England on Gumtree. I'm sure they are on ebay as well.

If you have already applied Gorilla Weld then buy a new base, trying clean that stuff off and out of the crack would be a nightmare

Thanks again for all your input and I was tossing it around.

As the base seems to be worthless with the crack I thought I have not much to loose anyway and decided to give it a go to braze it.

I had not ground the crack when I tried to glue it. So when I grind the V into it for brazing it will anyway disappear. Maybe it'll work. And of not I can still look for a different one.

I will let you know how it went.

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Finally I can close this story.
After I established that I would not loose anything by trying to fix this a friend of mine gave it a go.
But that is where it starts. He had to take it to Melbourne. He tried, but it did not work. Then he gave it to one of our manufacturer. He wanted to bring it back when he'd go there again next time....

And he never did because Covid hit. It wasn't urgent so we thought we wait till the lock downs are eased. And then the last outbreak in Victoria happened. That's when we decided to get the body posted back to me. It was sitting already fixed for weeks.

I am very grateful they took the effort to carry it to the post office and off course I paid for it. No worries.

I still had to file the excess brazing off and flatten the sole again. The brazing seems to have some small voids but the body was not distorted. They used TIG brazing. Flattening was easy and now it is back together and produces nice thin full width shavings. I went back in my tool cabinet ready to be grabbed anytime.





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Nice fix. Good to see it back at work.
Regards
John

I would say that’s a good save,
It’s a workhorse, we all have scars.

Cheers Matt.