First plane
Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Tools and Tool Maintenance/Restoration / First plane
- This topic has 29 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 8 months ago by Chris.
-
AuthorPosts
-
The great adventure begins:
Nothing looks insurmountable at first glance. Lots of cleaning to do, sanding rust off. One handle is cracked through, but it looks clean enough to be able to epoxy it back together, at least temporarily until I get to a point of being able to make a new one.
Starting to get them cleaned up this week, and I’ve ordered my sharpening supplies so hopefully they will arrive sooner rather than later.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Chris.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Chris.
Naturally a few questions have come up that I don’t know the answer to. I’m looking around the great wide web, as I’m sure they’ve been asked before, but:
Can I spray black enamel over the body and frog without removing all of the old covering, as long as I mask the contact points? Is there any trick to getting sandpaper in to the grooves and recesses of the frog, or should I look at something like vinegar or electrolysis for pulling all that rust off?
7 August 2016 at 3:52 pm #139178I have never used it but I would try the citric acid method. Its non toxic and seems effective. Chris Schwartz has blogged about it and you can find out how online. Why bother re- doing the enamel? That only affects the looks. My (worthless) opinion just use it.
7 August 2016 at 5:27 pm #139179buy a gallon of vinegar at the grocery store and a shoe size plastic tote. put the metal parts in the tote, cover with vinegar and let them sit for a couple of hours. brush them off with a steel brush and if there is still rust put them back in again for another couple of hours. when your happy with the rust removal rinse the metal parts in water, wipe off with paper towels pour the vinegar back into the jug and save it for your next tool purchase. reassemble, sand the sole flat. I don’t repaint my tools they earned every nick and cut. give the metal a coat of wax, the wood a coat of BLO or mineral oil (buy it at a pharmacy) and enjoy them. if your plane is so bad you need to repaint it I would choose auto touch up paint in a color I liked, no need to go with black
- This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Eric Lundholm.
8 August 2016 at 9:45 am #139190Chris, we seem to be on parallel paths. I just bought two Stanley #4 planes from ebay and restored (one of) them and am now building the workbench. I also had very little prior knowledge of woodwork hand tools, but I think I’m hooked now.
You will probably get your bench finished before me because I suffer with my back and am afraid of aggravating it (I can feel twinges today after all the planing I did yesterday).
BTW, I would think that PVA glue would be a better bet than epoxy for gluing the wood handle.
Hi Steve – good luck!
Here’s a tip I just found out – if you use something like Krud Kleaner or whatever to remove the rust from your planes, don’t rinse them with water! I did that by mistake and now have a plane almost entirely covered with rust again – took 5 minutes, tops.
I’m going to have to try vinegar or something, see if it will eat that surface rust off, and then dry them quickly before re-painting.
Update:
[IMG]http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee431/ZhentNikon/Woodworking/20160812_122856_zpsjxu8sysv.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/ee431/ZhentNikon/Woodworking/20160812_122909_zpse4f4knjb.jpg[/IMG]It’s amazing how clean everything got with a little vinegar, WD-40, and some scrubbing! I’ve already received a No. 5 Bailey plane as well, but I’m holding off on disassembling it until these go back together.
There are some interesting differences between these two No. 4’s. The iron on one is much longer than the other, and the Y piece in the frog is a solid piece on one body and split into two separate pieces on the other [but it looks intentional, not broken]
The body stamped ‘Made in England’ is worn down to the iron in a lot of places, so I think it needs a hit of spray enamel to be safe. I’m taping off the contact points now, so they don’t get sprayed over.
Also, time to put the other one back together.
13 August 2016 at 11:54 pm #139357If you have problems watch Paul sellers video onyoutube on setting up a plane.
16 August 2016 at 10:29 pm #139383I use Vinegar to de-rust my planes or tools and there is wood working forum I belong to that has a Sell and Swap section. This is where I buy most of my tools and these are a great bunch of Guy’s and Gal’s who belong to it. I have not had good luck with E – Bay and got burnt a couple times so no more E – Bay for me.
Also I use regular Tite Bound 11 to glue wooden totes together I haven’t had any break yet. Just make sure you sand it up a little and it is a clean break with no chips missing. If it is uneven take a saw to both pieces and add a piece or saw just enough to have both piece so they are flat.
Also I use 3-1 oil and wax to protect all metal.
Steve
Hi,
For anyone buying on eBay, you might want to try Auction Sniper (http://www.auctionsniper.com/).
It’s a service that will bid on your behalf (typically) 7 seconds before the end of an auction.
You set it up with the maximum you would like to pay, and it bids that with 7 seconds to go. You only pay just above the next highest bid.
I’ve used it a lot. While it doesn’t guarantee you will win (you can still be outbid), I find I generally win using it. I’ve bought a number of planes and other items using it.
They charge 1% of the final price up to a maximum of $9.95.
The other advantage (apart from winning 🙂 is that by not bidding until the end you don’t drive the price up.
Regards
Darren.
Thanks for the tips! I’m going to check out a few other places to get tools, as well as see if there is any local swap meets or areas where people may try and unload some older stuff that I can actually put my hands on before buying.
In other news, I am working on sharpening now. I think [hope?] this first pass will take much more time than in the future, as I get the primary bevel correct and work out some of the bigger dings and dents. This picture is after a good few hours of sharpening, from 250 all the way up to 4000 grit, just to see what I was working with.
If anyone has any tips, please let me know, otherwise I think it just needs a few more hours of work. I can definitely understand now why grinding wheels and sharpening gear like a Tormek are useful!
18 August 2016 at 1:09 am #139425For something like that , yes, a grinder would be my first choice. If a grinder is not available then start with 80 grit and get the thing to proper shape quickly. All the other grits should do nothing but remove previous scratches to make a sharper edge possible. Once you move on from 80 grit you should have an edge, abet a rough edge. Bob L.
Thanks Bob! I can definitely see the benefit. Here are a couple more photos of this first iron after another evening of grinding and sharpening away:
Meanwhile, the No. 5 has hit the vinegar bath for it’s own cleaning.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Chris.
Hi everyone,
I have a re-assembly question. I’ve cleaned up the No. 5 mentioned above and I’m starting to put it back together. I noticed when I was cleaning it that it has a MUCH longer plane iron than the No. 4 did. Now that I am putting it back together, I’m finding that I have to screw the adjuster in almost the entire way to get the plane iron to recess back into the mouth of the plane. Have I assembled something incorrectly / backwards? I don’t think grinding would even help, because I think it’s the length of the cap iron that would be impacted by the adjustment knob.
Thanks!
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.