Hairline crack on the cheek of a 5 1/2 woden plane. (Metal plane)
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- This topic has 15 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 3 years, 5 months ago by Marty.
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Dear Forum,
As per subject, I bought a 5 1/2 plane and the case has an airline crack, about 2 1/2 inches long, running on the side of the plane, from the top of the cheeck to about 1/2 from the bottom part (sole) of the plane. I still did not restored neither try the plane. It looks like the crack does not affect the normal operation of the tool, but I was thinking of getting the crack soldered just for a safe measure. Anybody got the same experience ? Would the high temperature of the soldering affect the nervature of the plane ? Any recommendations ?
Cheers and Happy New Year.
Max.
4 January 2017 at 7:46 pm #143799Any idea, how deep the crack is?
Any high temperature will change the internal structure of the steel, so it needs further heat treatment(s) to recover its original properties. As a side effect of this not quite simple treatment, you will have to recover all surfaces, perhaps even recut a few threads. So the big question really is, if the plane is worth it. You probably can’t do much of this at home or in an amateur wood-workshop either, so it might cost money.
I might be wrong on details, but the basic direction should be correct. So my recommendation is to either use the plane as it is and watch the crack, or get a new one.
Good luck with whatever you decide.
Dieter
Dear Dieter and Robin,
Thank you for your kind answer.
Yesterday, out of luckiness, I found the attached pics on ebay uk. I will try to use the plane as it is and, if any problem will arise, I might give it a go.
To me it looks like a good idea. I might try to epoxy the “patch” and/or riveting it.Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.7 January 2017 at 12:39 am #143955If you know someone that can braze it I would give that a try. I am not sure epoxy or solder would hold.
15 January 2017 at 9:43 am #200699Are you sure of that, Debra, this isn’t wood. And, how big a hole would be needed?
Dieter
Not 100% sure. But this is done on cymbals when they crack. If a crack isn’t drilled, it will spread. Even after drilling, a cracked cymbal will still make an ugly buzzing sound unless it’s brazed/soldered. Obviously a plane body will not (generally) be subjected to the same kind of vibration as a cymbal. Still the metal moves and cracks don’t heal by themselves.
16 January 2017 at 6:32 pm #273230Ok, brass (I suppose) and steel are probably not that different in this respect. And a plane body probably receives heavier shocks, for example when driven into a hard knot.
Actually, I think, I have seen cymbals with slots on the sides (by design), that ended in round holes. Now I know why, I never thought about it. I have also seen it on other metal parts, for example covers with narrow ventilation slots that are bent, lamp cover rims etc. etc. Now, that I think aobut it, you might be absolutely right.
Dieter
22 January 2017 at 6:36 pm #308589Stop hole – yes.
Brazing – yes – needs someone experienced at the controls, needs preheat, slow cooling of the whole body, and so on. May or may not need any re-machining but the goal would be to do the repair so machining was unnecessary
Electric welding – yes – see comments for brazing
Patch plate – why not – there are some specific two-part adhesives that are strong in shear (used to attach aircraft skins and such) which would augment/support the mechanical attachment.
Just ATMO,
Rick G.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by Richard Guggemos.
The material in the plane body is cast iron and cast iron is notoriously hard to weld. Very few experienced welders can handle cast iron on such a thin walled casting, and they will charge well over what the plane is worth to repair it. The crack already goes all the way through one of the cheeks of the plane so drilling holes will not stop its progress. If it’s not a plane with any special history for you (ie grandad’s plane), then just fix up the patch with mechanical fastenings. However the third screenshot shows that the toe of the plane is already slightly out of alignment with the heel. In that case sharpen it as a coarse jack or a scrub plane and open up the mouth to get bigger shavings through.
Cheers
Mark21 March 2017 at 12:46 am #310344I have a little experience with this. A while back I picked up a TYPE 9 #7 plane (1902-1907) at my local junk dealer for $5 USD. It has a crack in the cheek just like rotaryw’s.
I Bought it for the low knob and the old style frog, which I planned to put into my #6 from the end of the Sweetheart era.
But I thought I’d see if I could save the plane, and I figured if I failed, at least I’d learn something and still have the parts I bought the plane for.
So I called my welder from when I ran jobs and he said he’d braze the cast iron for ‘free’ if I bought the rod. Sounded cool.
Well, the rod was 56% silver rod from Harris that the welder spec’ and I found three sticks for $30.80.
After I stripped the repair area and tore down the plane, he heated the cast piece to 400 F and brazed the crack, the repair sat surrounded by perlite to slowly cool for a day and then I ground, filed, and lapped the sides and bottom of the plane, which involved about 5 hours of work and maybe $15 of sanding strips. My total is now at about $45.80
And the welder didn’t tackle a small chip behind the mouth, which I am fine with. He said it risked warping the bed more. I may try some sort of epoxy filler if I find something not too ugly. A low temp bismuth solder is another alternative. It melts at about the boiling point of water.
The plane cuts great. When put on a test granite, I can’t get a .001 feeler gauge under the plane.
I’m still looking for a low knob and frog for the #6. Here are some pictures:
Yes, the crack is on the cheek you are looking at.
Inside. I did put some black on the repair.
Bottom with chip.
I hope that lets you know what you may get into. I’m retired, so my time was just fun ( did I mention my welder’s shop is an hour away and it took three trips?)
I’m happy with the result.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by Larry Geib.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by Larry Geib.
Dear Mark and dear Lorenzo,
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer to my post.
The pictures of the plane were taken online from e-bay, they do not depict my 5 1/2 Woden plane.
The cheek of my plane is not nearly as badly cracked as the one in the pics above. At the present time my 5 1/2 is still sitting abandoned in my shop and will not see many cares for a long time since I am still pretty busy with tailoring the shop to my needs and, in the sparse and scarce free time I have, I prefer, for the time being, to spend my time realizing some projects.
Nevertheless, I will eventually tackle that sweet Woden plane too. It has still some life into it, even if some previous owner largely abused/misused it.
I am still on active duty, Lorenzo, therefore can’t wait to retire myself and get the occasion to go around and find a decent welder, which might be able to do as a nice job with brazing as the one you was very passionately doing with your plane.
I wish you both a nice day and thanks again for answering.
Max.
A very interesting topic indeed. I have a few old planes with small hairline cracks right at the corners of the mouths. The cracks don’t really effect how they cut, but I do worry about them eventually getting worse at some point even though I can easily replace both. I hadn’t heard of bismuth solder until reading about it somewhere in the thread. (sorry I forget who mentioned it) so I decided to open a new tab to find out what it is, basically lead free alternative to lead based solder with a very low melting point of around 138C. (about 240F) That’s just a bit warmer than boiling water.. How that might stand up to the forces of wood knots, etc.?? Anyone care to take a guess?
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