| Blog series by HokieKen | updated 02-25-2019 04:01 PM | 7 parts | 8306 reads | 102 comments total |
Part 1: A new pretty :-)
Recently I decided it would be beneficial to have a rabbet plane in the shop. I don’t generally buy tools unless I know they’ll get used. I’ve had several times recently I’ve had to set up the router table or a dado stack in the table saw to cut a single rabbet and thought “there has to be a more efficient way”. So I had almost settled on buying a rabbet plane but then decided to poke my head into the Stanley #45 thread here on Lumberjocks and see if may...
Part 2: General Cleanup
It was evident that the rust present on this plane was mostly just surface rust. And I didn’t really want to do a rust conversion because that would have left me with dull and mottled coloring. So I decided to skip any pre-soaking and went straight to work with a brass wheel in my bench grinder and a couple of wire wheels on my dremel. I started with the big pieces: Naturally, I disassembled the plane as far as I could. I’m not going to post all of my pics here bu...
Part 3: Awwww, don't be blue.
KelleyCrafts suggested that maybe this plane would look good if it were blued. I thought that was a great idea! Blued steel looks nice usually and it provides good corrosion prevention. So I gave it a shot last night using the “No 45” section as a test bed. Here you can see where I applied the blueing solution. I let the solution sit like this for about 30 seconds: After 30 seconds, I rinsed the area with cold water to remove the solution then blew it dry with compress...
Part 4: New Tote and Knob
I didn’t have a lot of time to spend with the #45 this weekend but I did carve out a couple of hours to make a new tote and handle :-) The original handle broke on me when I tried to drill out the pins that held it on. It was dry and cracked anyway so I would probably have replaced it regardless. And I just didn’t like the original knob at all. It’s just a ball: I did the tote first. There is a web in the cast body that the tote has to hug and flanges at top and bott...
Part 5: Just some little bits...
First, I’ll toss this in here. I should have included it with the other wood pieces in the last entry but I forgot. I kept the original Rosewood piece for the fence. It was kinda “gunky” and a little dried out but otherwise in good, solid shape. I used a plane and flattened out the faces which also exposed fresh wood then squared up the sides. Sanded up to 320 and it looked pretty good. I probably would have made a new fence to match the tote/knob but the piece of ...
Part 6: In the home stretch :-)
I had a little bit of cleanup left to do. I put a couple of coats of Tru-Oil on the knob and tote. I also had the cam rest from CL810 that I hadn’t cleaned up yet. Before. After. Then there was the slitter which I hadn’t payed any attention to yet. I cleaned it up on some wet dry paper to remove some surface corrosion. It was pretty dull so out came the diamond plates. I quickly realized there was a lot of work to do on that little sucker and that it wasn’t a...
Part 7: Does it Really Work???
Well, I guess we know IT works. The plane has been around for over a century. The question was, could I make it work? I haven’t had any time to spend on this guy the past few weeks. All I have left to do is sharpen up the irons. But, I was making a small chisel stand to go on my workbench this past weekend and I needed to plow a groove in a piece of Cherry for the base. I was about to clear off the router table and set it up when it dawned on me that this was exactly the kind of...
