Need Opinions...no, not sharpening...bedrock 605 1/2

I came into an early Stanley 605 1/2 in rough shape via a trade with a friend who owns a junk/antiques shop. The body has a major piece missing from the side and the lever cap is all but worthless, only about half left. The frog is undamaged, a little rust. It appears to have the original blade. The knob looks alright, the tote is split in half and missing the horn on top. So... thought of going two different routes. One is that I could buy another sole/plane body (passed on one last night on the bay for about $40) and another lever cap and make my own wooden hardware and have a very nice restored plane. Downside: to get a body and lever cap looks like it would cost nearly what a whole plane in user shape would. Should I just part it out or is it worth rebuilding? Also something to figure into the equation: I have a Bailey 5 1/2 (type 10) waiting to be cleaned up. Is there enough value in a restored bedrock to justify the expense of buying the parts? Ok, time for you opinions. And thanks.
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I can only speak to the comparison of Bedrocks to Baileys. I have old Bailey planes and old Bedrock planes. If they are well
tuned, while I favor the Bedrock design, I really don't see any difference in performance.

Richard,

Sometimes you see a damaged Bedrock that is OK, but has a broken frog. Those sometimes sell reasonably cheaply, if you could buy one of those for a low price you would be in good shape. You will just have to wait it out.

The most expensive part, generally, that is still good on your plane is the frog. That is why you can hope for a 605 1/2 that has a broken frog, and you see that often enough that sooner or later I think one will come up. When one does they often go fairly cheaply.

I follow Bedrocks on that auction site to an extent, and the two non-605 sizes that often sell for the lowest money are the 606 and the 605 1/2, so if you wait long enough you may do fine.

Generally speaking, buying individual parts, price wise, is such that it only takes a few parts to be more that what it would cost to buy a whole nother plane of that auction site. On the + side, 605 1/2 parts should be less expensive that parts from the more popular bedrocks.

Stew

Stew

Thanks for your opinion. I will try to keep an eye out for one in the future.

You may be better off selling it for parts and putting the money towards one in better shape, sorry to say.

Don't forget there are two very different Bedrock bases. The parts are not interchangeable. The round side Bedrocks do not bring as much in resell as the flat top Bedrocks, iirc.

jtk

Hi Richard,

By the way, I agree with what all of the other posters have said. The approach you take is really a matter of judgement, what you want, and how long you are willing to wait. There is no right and wrong on this.

I have made mistakes in this "buying old tools" business, and from what others have written in the past, I am sure I am not alone, and a lot of us have goofed in the same way I have. I should have mentioned that you may wait quite a while, as you never know when one is going to show up on the auction site. You might have to wait more than a year, or longer, and one may show up next week, you never know.

I have gotten to the point that I almost never buy a "bargain needing parts," as often if the plane needs several parts it will end up costing more than one that is in good shape to begin with. That said, I have some spare part on hand which resulted from flea market finds, one with broken parts or missing parts, but which had a price that was really a very good deal for the remaining parts. I would buy one of those, if I needed one part off of it, and have done exactly that in the past. Once I get the part off of that plane and use it to complete one of my other planes, then the rest of the parts are just gravy.

That said, you have to be careful at doing that, as it can become a never ending situation.

Another thing to beware of is that some sellers on that auction site ask way too much for a given part. In the case of some of those guys, they know what they have, and are just going to wait it out, they are looking for a buyer that has more money than time, and may have inherited a plane from their grandfather or dad that needs a given part, and are happy enough to have found the needed part that they will gladly give three times as much as the ordinary woodworker that just wants a user plane will give. I see that a lot. The parts in that category are ones that are pretty hard to find, like a lever cap from a type 3 Bedrock 608 or 602. These are typically not parts of a Bailey #5 or some other plane that there are zillions of out there.

The problem with that is when a seller who is not knowledgeable comes along with the same part, he may do a quick search, see what the other seller is asking, and will price the part accordingly. That seller does not know that the knowledgeable seller is willing to wait 2 years to sell the part. As a result he will eventually take a realistic offer after the part sets on the site a few months without many people even looking at it, because of the unrealistic price.

A second problem with the seller who is not knowledgeable, is he very likely does not know that a part off of a Bailey #5 is worth a great deal less than the same part off of a Bedrock 608, but he will price his part like the 608 part, and for some time may not be willing to take a fair offer. He eventually will be forced to take a reasonable offer, but it will likely be a while until he is forced to do that if he ever wants to sell the part.

Thus, there is no right or wrong answer on what you end up doing.

I have been the guy that needed parts for a relatively rare plane, at least very rare compared to the Stanley planes, an old Ohio 04 that was my grandfathers. It took on the order of 2 years of waiting, and I finally ended up buying a completely usable Ohio, and took the needed parts off of it to fix grandpa's plane. (It has his initials on it, so it is pretty valuable to me.) It ended up being an OK user, but not as good as a Bailey of the same vintage. So, you never know. (For what it's worth, the plane I bought for the parts didn't cost anywhere near what a Bailey of the same vintage and condition would cost, so it worked out well enough, but I think I saw 2 of the planes I needed show up in about a 2 year time period. Consequently I was going to pay significantly more that what I thought it should be worth, but didn't have to.)

I should have learned my lesson, but blundered on a plane I bought the other day, the price was right on it, but once it was in hand I realized it wasn't nearly right enough. It will eventually be a very good user, but will end up costing more than it should have, once I am done, and the price of the headaches it will probably cause is too high.

Stew

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stew Denton

Hi Richard,

By the way, I agree with what all of the other posters have said. The approach you take is really a matter of judgement, what you want, and how long you are willing to wait. There is no right and wrong on this.

I have made mistakes in this "buying old tools" business, and from what others have written in the past, I am sure I am not alone, and a lot of us have goofed in the same way I have. [edited]
Stew

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Been there, done that, turned one of the lemons to lemonade by turning it into a scrub plane.

In days gone by my spare parts were often found by looking for the ugly dogs on the auction site. One #5 plane came in for less than $20 including the shipping, that was and remains to this day a good user. The plane for which the parts were wanted was sold instead. It didn't need parts, I wanted to change some parts for appearance. It was also a good user.

There are likely a lot of owners of an early #605-1/2 looking for a good frog. Maybe they will give up looking and sell or you can list yours and make someone else happy.

I needed a frog for a #8 and it took a while, but now it is sitting on the plane, unattached, waiting for me to get one of those round tuits. It also needs its tote repaired.

jtk

Stew,
Thanks for your input. I was assuming just about everything you said was the case. My situation was a good one: I was trading some planes that I received for free (nothing of any real value) for a transitional smoothing plane. I saw the 605 1/2 sitting there and got my friend to throw it in the trade since it was broken. I figured I could at least sell of the frog and the blade if nothing else. Thanks for taking the time for such a long response. I have benefited greatly from all the advice I have gotten in this forum!