Down the slippery slope...

[Ken Kirkley]

So a little about me, I am a fairly good handyman, but haven't done what you would call fine woodworking. I have been out of work the last 9 months, so have been tinkering in the shop making a few things here and there, mostly with my power tools.

So I find I am in need of a jointer and a planer, being that I am out of work, can't buy them and am feeling really frustrated not being able to build the things I want. So I start researching hand tools. Find that the ones I have while cheap, I enjoy using once I learned proper technique and sharpening. So I decide, I need more planes so I can properly joint and size wood.

I now have two 'new' planes - A Stanley Bailey #6 and a Stanley #5, lots of work ahead of me to get them usable, but at least I have the time. Bought both of these for $20, so feel like I got an okay deal. The handles on both have been repaired and the #5 has some chips out of the cast iron on one side, but overall seem to be in okay condition. Need to figure out how to flatten the corrugated sole though. Also want to try and date these as well. Pic below. Advice welcome.

[David Cefai]

Do you see any difficulty in flattening the corrugated sole? I have one on my do list and intend to lap it on sandpaper like I do the flat soles.

[David Keller NC]

Jim Koepke will have to date them for you - he's the resident expert. You can also date them through various websites on Stanley planes.

Regarding flattening of a corrugated sole - you can do it in exactly the same manner as a non-corrugated sole. You need a flat, unyielding surface to do it and some wet-dry or aluminum oxide sandpaper. Most of us use a machined power tool table to lap planes - typically a jointer. Since you don't have one of those, you can substitute a piece of granite countertop, or better yet, a machinist's surface plate. The surface plate needs to be long enough to work on - preferably at least twice the length of the plane. Buying one of those new is going to be pricey, so look for used equipment dealers/auctions in your area. Surface plates aren't used nearly as much as they were 40 years ago, and you can often get one cheaply.

However, it might not be necessary to flatten the soles of the planes you have. If you've access to a good machinist's strightedge and a set of feeler gauges (those are dirt cheap at an automotive parts store), you can simply check the sole of the plane against the straightedge and use the feeler gauges to determine how far out they are.

Anything more than 1 thousandth or so out of flat on the convex side of things should probably be lapped out, as the plane will tend to dive and stall in the work. If the sole is concave but within a thousandth or so, it will work just fine, and no further effort is required.

[James Scheffler]

One of the cheapest and most readily available lapping surfaces is simple plate glass. Buy at least 3/8" thick. A 24" piece (long enough for the No. 6) should be less than $20. Some people will say to make sure that the glass is "float glass." (That refers to a manufacturing process by which the molten glass is extruded onto a liquid surface, resulting in perfectly flat glass). I called some glass shops a few years ago and they told me that pretty much all glass these days is float glass. Still, it couldn't hurt to ask.

I think theoretically 3/8" glass can flex a tiny amount. If you put the glass on a fairly flat table or work bench, you should have no worries about it being flat enough. I've never noticed an issue with that.

I use Elmers spray adhesive to stick the sandpaper to the glass, mainly because that's what the store had when I bought it. It works fine, but some people may recommend other products.

Jim

[Ken Kirkley]

Thanks for the comments. Have started to remove the rust over the weekend and will start to lap the sole on the #6 this week. I am using marble tile as the sanding surface.

One question I have, how important is it to repair the side walls where there are chip outs?

[James Scheffler]

Thanks for the comments. Have started to remove the rust over the weekend and will start to lap the sole on the #6 this week. I am using marble tile as the sanding surface.

One question I have, how important is it to repair the side walls where there are chip outs?

I don't see any problem at all. At least, the ones I can see in your pictures shouldn't hurt the function of the planes at all. There's plenty of sidewall left for stability on a shooting board. If the edges are jagged then you can file them smooth.

Jim

[David Keller NC]

Thanks for the comments. Have started to remove the rust over the weekend and will start to lap the sole on the #6 this week. I am using marble tile as the sanding surface.

One question I have, how important is it to repair the side walls where there are chip outs?

It isn't, and you can't. At least not without welding experience and nickel rods, or settling for brazing (which doesn't aesthetically match, though it's plenty strong enough). The plane will work perfectly well with the existing chips, so long as there's no cracks down through the sole.

[Bill Houghton]

Need to figure out how to flatten the corrugated sole though.

Flattening a corrugated sole should be no different from a smooth sole - if it's out of flat enough, I suppose your corrugations may differ in width from one area to another - but that will make utterly no functional difference, and anyone who noticed it and got all critical shouldn't be invited back to the shop.

BUT: how out of flat is it? Does it make a difference to how it works? I'd clean it up first - any number of ways to do that - and try it out before spending hours aiming for dead flat.