This post is a bit of a hodgepodge, just an update of what has been going on recently. First of all: The Biltong Slicer. I delivered it to my friend and it is fair to say that he was tickled pink. He says that he doesn’t want to use it because it’s too beautiful. That might be an overstatement on his part… Continue reading “Bits and pieces”
Well, here we are. All the parts ready to reassemble. I’m reasonably happy with the way it turned out, but if anyone has any advice on how I could have done better, please let me know in the comments. I’ve got several other planes that could do with an overhaul, so any tips and tricks would be appreciated.
The iron and cap-iron cleaned up pretty well. There wasn’t a great deal of rust, just some patina, and that can stay as it does no harm.
The screws, washers and fittings of the plane are also in need of a bit of TLC. The steel components had a fair amount of surface rust, as well as a build up of wood dust and grease, especially in the threaded areas. I put them in a bath of white spirit to loosen things up a bit, and I used a small wire brush to clear out the debris. Continue reading “Plane restoration #5 – Bits and pieces”
I began by soaking the plane body and frog in a bath of white spirit for half an hour or so, just to get rid of any oil and grease and loosen all the crud that had built up in the nooks and crannies.
To help things along I scrubbed them with a wire brush, and rinsed them off with some clean white spirit. I then patted them down with a paper towel and let the residue evaporate for a few minutes. Continue reading “Plane restoration #4 – Plane body and frog”
Well, here we are all disassembled and ready to go. This is the plan of attack:
This first thing to do when you want to flatten the sole of a plane is to check whether it needs flattening at all. There are two reasons that you might choose not to flatten the sole 1. It is too far gone to be worth bothering with 2. It is perfectly flat enough for your purposes.
I employ two tests to before deciding what to do. First, I make sure the iron is fully retracted and I lay the plane sole down on a flat surface (in this case a ceramic tile that I’ve checked with a straight edge). I then use a 5 thou (.127 mm) feeler gauge and se if I can slide it underneath the plane at any point. If I can, then I probably won’t go any further with flattening, I’d consider turning it into a scrub plane, for really rough work (something that I might do with one of my #4s or my#5½).
Continue reading “Plane restoration #2 – Flattening the sole”
Here is what we’re up against. It doesn’t look too bad is this picture, but things aren’t quite so rosy when you take a closer look. Continue reading “Plane restoration #1 – Here goes…”
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