Flattening the sole on a $9.95 Plane

[David Weaver]

There's one thing where a flat sole is really handy, a jointer to joint edges, especially longer edges. A matched edge will fit dead nuts every time with good technique, without having to take matched boards out of clamps, vises, etc to check them, and without having to put a lot of pressure on them.

It's nice to have a smooth plane flat around the mouth area so you have contact ahead of the iron, the front and back do not need to be dead on coplanar.

AS fun as it is to always say "no expert ever needs a flat sole", what is true is that a plane that is hollow along its length will be a pain in the rear end. You can check for that pretty easily, but if you pick up enough used planes, you'll eventually find one like that or with a twist, and lapping it will make your life easier.

Otherwise, lapping the coarse planes is generally a waste of time, but having one dead flat long plane is nice if you're working from rough stock and don't own a jointer. Not necessary, but nice.

[Bill Houghton]

How out of flat is it, and what problems have been created by its out of flatness (if any)?

I have yet to flatten the sole on any of my planes, including the No. 8 battleship, and they've worked fine. I will confess that I gave away one plane that was out of flat right in front of the mouth, but giving it away (to someone who wanted the idea of a plane more than he wanted a working tool) was a lot more efficient than hours spent flattening it.

[David Weaver]

I'm not sure it's an issue of problems so much as it is better use if a bottom is closer to flat, like an ease issue.

If you're match planing two boards for a panel and you finish with stop shavings and then one through shaving you can literally put boards down on a flat surface and glue them as a rub joint with no clamps.

That means no checking with a straight edge, no need to clamp with magazine clamping pressures, no edges that are falling away on those joints.

if the question is then, should someone send a vintage jointer to be surface ground? To me, that's a waste of money, and it removes some of the casted material that there's no reason to remove unless you're trying to do something really really specific. But if a plane has a notable problem, like concavity, it's pretty easy to fix it with a lap. It doesn't need to be fixed within a thousandth, it just needs to be fixed so it functions right. Is it easier to get a no pressure rub joint with a plane that's dead dead flat? Sure. Can you do it with other planes if you check the joint? Of course. I'd just rather not have to check. An LN #7 makes all of the jointing tasks really easy.

I wouldn't be afraid of a plane that had some relief in front of the mouth if it was due to wear, as long as it wasn't relief because the entire bottom wasn't concave (I would expect a discount for it, though). I had an old 8 that was worn hollow in front of the mouth before I learned to use a double iron and it still proved capable in use, it was otherwise very flat. Someone had just been using it for some abusive task, and the chipbreaker literally wore through in the middle. I think that whoever had it decided at that time, they'd discard it.

[Jim Koepke]

My thought on this is if a plane really needs work on the sole being flattened it will be evident in use.

Too many assume they shouldn't use a plane until it has been first taken apart and had the bottom run over some sand paper. In many cases they are likely to make a good plane worse.

Why fix something that isn't broken?

jtk

[steven c newman]

All this talking about this little plane needing flattening, made me go and check mine. Had it for awhile. Laid a square on the sole, to check across in three places: toe, mouth, and heel areas. No daylight showing under the square. Hmmm, ok. laid the ruler part of the square along the sole's length. No light showing at the mouth, the heel, and the toe areas. A VERY thin light was showing elsewhere. Seems to be workable to me. SDC15007.jpgSDC15005.jpgSDC15006.jpgOf course, mine is set up as a small scrub plane.

[Rich Kelly]

Got a couple of counter top sink cut outs from a guy next door. He works in construction (electrician) he got them from a job site (free) said they were doing 2 hundred units. He had a couple of small stacks said he only got a few so SHMBO could have a stone path. Just an idea for a flat surface source.