Category: tool

No. 3 Stanley Rehab

Last week, Josh Clark put out his latest tools for sale list and there was a pretty sad lookin’ No. 3 Stanley up for sale.  I’d been lookin’ for a smaller plane and have been having a lot of fun rehabing planes.  In typical Josh fashion this “good user” showed up and was indeed a good user.

So here’s the before and after photos and a gallery of how I got there.  I installed a Ron Hock plane blade and chip breaker as well as a new handle from Hardware City Tools (Bill Rittner).  I have a couple of his handles on my Veritas planes.

This plane has some significant pitting at the toe and in a couple of places along the side.  But I just need a good user since I’m not a collector.

After

Continue reading “No. 3 Stanley Rehab”

Workin’ a bit more on the corrugated jointer

I worked on the corrugated jointer.  I decided to replace the blade to eliminated chatter and make for a better cut.  First, I needed to open the mouth just a tiny bit more to allow the thicker blade to fit through the mouth.

Surprise, surprise .. I found that the mouth was a bit crooked.  (Perhaps that’ll inspire a name for this plane – cock-eyed corgi?).

So I used my file to adjust and about a 1/32″ wider opening.

This was better.  But I had to do a little bit more work once the blade was in.

And now for nice shavings.

The blow by blow  from the beginning below.

Final Jointer plane pics and test run

So after some sanding on the bottom and sides to do a little flattening and rust removal, I worked on the frog.  Once I flattened the areas on the frog, I put sticky sandpaper on the newly flatten surfaces and flattened the mating surface on the plane base.

Here are a couple of shots of the whole plane after I worked on it.  I started at 100 grit, went down several grits down and did a final polish with some 600 wet dry I had laying around.

Then I did my first test run.   I got crumpled shavings and a lot of chatter on the first pass.

So I pulled out the blade and chip breaker to see if I could see light between them and sure enough, I still had some light peeking through.  I took the chip breaker, clamped it up in my honeing guide and made some more passes over the sand paper.

This time I got nice ribbon shavings and a lot less chatter.  I might need to work with the chip beaker some more to get all the chatter out .. we’ll see on I get my workbench back in operation.

I added a shot of the honing guide set to 35 degrees.  I used this to get an even edge to mate with the blade.

Here’s a good summary video if you don’t want to buy a dvd (thanks Tico Vogt!):

How To Tune-Up A Hand Plane

PS.  please feel free to make suggestions.  After all, that’s what all this blogging is about, right?

Cheating on my edges

No surprise, I have favorite tools.  This is one of them.  Its a Stanley No. 386 Jointer Gauge or Fence that I got off of eBay.

Some might think this is cheating, but I love it.  It positions my hands perfectly and makes jointing a edge a ton of  fun.  I don’t have to be obsessive about checking my edges and it helps me move my jack or jointer plane with easy. Most importantly, it gets a square edge ever time.

It also works nicely on end grain.

The only bad news is that its kinda hard to find and collectors like them, which can make them expensive.  If you’re willing to take one that missing a knob or otherwise not in perfect, but working condition, you can save some money.

 

 

 

 

Here’s where I found a few other options.
Hyperkitten – Center of the Table
ST. JAMES BAY TOOL CO. – under new products.
Fine Tool Journal