Plane Restoration

sansoo22 said:

Marsh M5 (Day 01)

After doing so many restorations lately I figured I'd take the time to create a blog series that hits the highlights of my process. The best way I can think of to do that is break it down by each day's worth of work at a time and describe what was done that day.

So here we go. This plug ugly bastard is a Marsh M5 I got from ebay for a whopping $35 including shipping. If I'm any good at what I do it will look like its worth a lot more when I'm done.

I know everyone reading this is envious of this magnificent ebay treasure.

Step 1: Take it a apart
Seriously that's all there is to step one. The only thing to remember is don't force any parts with threads. If they won't come off get some Kroil penetrating oil or P.B. Blaster. Don't worry if it gets on the wood parts…those are disgusting already. For this particular ugly duckling the rear depth adjuster was gunked up with lots of grime. It took quite a bit of PB Blaster and working it back and forth before it came off cleanly. That's still a better alternative than stripping the brass threads and trying to find a new adjuster knob on a Marsh.

Step 2: Clean your parts - No its not your bath time yet…we are cleaning plane parts
I use just regular old soap and water with a soft bristle nylon brush for this part. Yes they may flash rust but who cares they are going into a rust bath later anyway.

Looking a tiny bit better already.

Step: 3 Inspect your pars - not your parts…eyes up ya weirdo
What you're looking for is anything bent or broken. Bent we can fix but broken you have to source. On this old dirty bastard the lateral adjuster is bent as well as the frog depth adjustment fork. I will address those in another entry once they are clean. Also I can't quite make out the iron but it looks like a Miller Falls and not an H.C. Marsh. Once its clean we will find out for sure.

Step 4: Evaporust spa treatment
I don't have a pic of this step because its just a tub with some Evaporust in it and the plane gets fully submerged in it. Let me say that again…FULLY SUBMERGED...unless you want the acids to etch lines in the side of the plane body for you. By the way those lines won't ever come out…ask me how I know. Also if you have young kids or pets be responsible and get a tub with a latching lid. Big box stores have the knock off brand tubs stupid cheap.

Step 5: Sand the handles - We all love sanding right?
Not much to show on this step. The tote is going to suck to sand. If its an older style tote where they were more selective about grain patterns its going to be a bear to follow it. Most of the time it angles across the side and back but sometimes its crotch grain and the back side of the tote has a V shape in the grain. I always start with 120 grit and do two passes with it before I drop lower. Anything lower than 120 can leave scratches that are tough to take out. Sometimes its necessary if the finish is being a jerk.

I clean the tote with denatured alcohol between each sanding. One it helps break up any existing finish and it will remove any contaminants you don't see that could show up in your finish later.

Here the tote is done up to 220 grit and you can see my make shift bolt and spacers for the knob. This is loaded into my cordless and used to sand the knob.

Here is the other side of the tote still at 220 and the knob taken to 400 grit. The tote has a chip we need to fix or I would have taken it to 400 as well.

Step 6: Fix handles
I try to stay away from things with broken handles because I'm lazy and don't like dealing with it. If I was gluing a tote back together I would do that at step 5. But thankfully we just have a chip to fill on this tote.

This is a decent size chip but we will see how my super glue fill process looks once finish is applied

And here it is filled. Make sure to overfill any chips as the glue will shrink. With this size it will most likely take a second coat.

Now set that tote off somewhere away from dust and dirt to dry. If you used the glue in the pic don't try huffing…it has no smell.

Step 7: Clean the iron
The acids in evaporust can attack the hardened part of the iron so I never let it sit overnight with the rest of the plane. And in the summer time with the humidity in the mid west its either finish it on day one or spray it with CRC 3-36 and finish it later. Today I opted to do it the same day.

After a quick once over with 220 grit we can clearly see it is indeed a Miller Falls iron.

Now we have a judgement call to make. Is the pitting in the iron enough to warrant dropping down to 100 grit or can we live with it? I chose to drop down to 100 to remove more of the pitting since this iron may get sold if I can find a suitable H.C. Marsh to replace it with.

So the process for the iron is pretty simple. Steel has a grain to it just like wood so make sure to check the direction of the grain. On this iron it is vertical, so I sand with 100 grit in as vertical of motion as possible, then double my initial grit and go to 200. I repeat the same vertical sanding and then double it again at 400 and finally finish it with 800.

Now the tricky part - Buffing the iron. For Stanley Irons I use jeweler's rouge because it leaves more of a luster than a shine. For Miller Falls irons I like to use green compound to get a better shine. Miller Falls seem classier so I shine them up another degree.

If you have a buffer and aren't sure how to use one I suggest a trip to YouTube since a picture won't do it justice. Just be warned these irons can get a bit toasty. If you don't have a buffer then I suggest converting an old bench grinder. My "buffer" is an old Delta 5" grinder but works wonders for me.

Step 8: - Wax anything metal you completed today
Mid-west humidity laughs at unprotected metal things so I have to wax anything I finish same day even in the winter time. I like to use a micro-crystalline wax that is petroleum based versus any carnuba based waxes. My wax of choice is Renaissance.

Here is a finished Miller Falls iron…look at it all nice and shiny

Step 9: Protect your parts - Put the jock strap down…i know its lumber jocks but we're talking plane parts

I like these rubbermaid clear tubs. They are a tad pricey at around $12 each but they have nice seal to help keep out dust and a size 3 and 4 can fit in them body and all.

So that's it for the first day of plane restoration work. The next entry will be hardware and the initial stripping of the japanning from the body and tote.

Click to expand...

sansoo22 said:

Marsh M5 (Day 01)

After doing so many restorations lately I figured I'd take the time to create a blog series that hits the highlights of my process. The best way I can think of to do that is break it down by each day's worth of work at a time and describe what was done that day.

So here we go. This plug ugly bastard is a Marsh M5 I got from ebay for a whopping $35 including shipping. If I'm any good at what I do it will look like its worth a lot more when I'm done.

I know everyone reading this is envious of this magnificent ebay treasure.

Step 1: Take it a apart
Seriously that's all there is to step one. The only thing to remember is don't force any parts with threads. If they won't come off get some Kroil penetrating oil or P.B. Blaster. Don't worry if it gets on the wood parts…those are disgusting already. For this particular ugly duckling the rear depth adjuster was gunked up with lots of grime. It took quite a bit of PB Blaster and working it back and forth before it came off cleanly. That's still a better alternative than stripping the brass threads and trying to find a new adjuster knob on a Marsh.

Step 2: Clean your parts - No its not your bath time yet…we are cleaning plane parts
I use just regular old soap and water with a soft bristle nylon brush for this part. Yes they may flash rust but who cares they are going into a rust bath later anyway.

Looking a tiny bit better already.

Step: 3 Inspect your pars - not your parts…eyes up ya weirdo
What you're looking for is anything bent or broken. Bent we can fix but broken you have to source. On this old dirty bastard the lateral adjuster is bent as well as the frog depth adjustment fork. I will address those in another entry once they are clean. Also I can't quite make out the iron but it looks like a Miller Falls and not an H.C. Marsh. Once its clean we will find out for sure.

Step 4: Evaporust spa treatment
I don't have a pic of this step because its just a tub with some Evaporust in it and the plane gets fully submerged in it. Let me say that again…FULLY SUBMERGED...unless you want the acids to etch lines in the side of the plane body for you. By the way those lines won't ever come out…ask me how I know. Also if you have young kids or pets be responsible and get a tub with a latching lid. Big box stores have the knock off brand tubs stupid cheap.

Step 5: Sand the handles - We all love sanding right?
Not much to show on this step. The tote is going to suck to sand. If its an older style tote where they were more selective about grain patterns its going to be a bear to follow it. Most of the time it angles across the side and back but sometimes its crotch grain and the back side of the tote has a V shape in the grain. I always start with 120 grit and do two passes with it before I drop lower. Anything lower than 120 can leave scratches that are tough to take out. Sometimes its necessary if the finish is being a jerk.

I clean the tote with denatured alcohol between each sanding. One it helps break up any existing finish and it will remove any contaminants you don't see that could show up in your finish later.

Here the tote is done up to 220 grit and you can see my make shift bolt and spacers for the knob. This is loaded into my cordless and used to sand the knob.

Here is the other side of the tote still at 220 and the knob taken to 400 grit. The tote has a chip we need to fix or I would have taken it to 400 as well.

Step 6: Fix handles
I try to stay away from things with broken handles because I'm lazy and don't like dealing with it. If I was gluing a tote back together I would do that at step 5. But thankfully we just have a chip to fill on this tote.

This is a decent size chip but we will see how my super glue fill process looks once finish is applied

And here it is filled. Make sure to overfill any chips as the glue will shrink. With this size it will most likely take a second coat.

Now set that tote off somewhere away from dust and dirt to dry. If you used the glue in the pic don't try huffing…it has no smell.

Step 7: Clean the iron
The acids in evaporust can attack the hardened part of the iron so I never let it sit overnight with the rest of the plane. And in the summer time with the humidity in the mid west its either finish it on day one or spray it with CRC 3-36 and finish it later. Today I opted to do it the same day.

After a quick once over with 220 grit we can clearly see it is indeed a Miller Falls iron.

Now we have a judgement call to make. Is the pitting in the iron enough to warrant dropping down to 100 grit or can we live with it? I chose to drop down to 100 to remove more of the pitting since this iron may get sold if I can find a suitable H.C. Marsh to replace it with.

So the process for the iron is pretty simple. Steel has a grain to it just like wood so make sure to check the direction of the grain. On this iron it is vertical, so I sand with 100 grit in as vertical of motion as possible, then double my initial grit and go to 200. I repeat the same vertical sanding and then double it again at 400 and finally finish it with 800.

Now the tricky part - Buffing the iron. For Stanley Irons I use jeweler's rouge because it leaves more of a luster than a shine. For Miller Falls irons I like to use green compound to get a better shine. Miller Falls seem classier so I shine them up another degree.

If you have a buffer and aren't sure how to use one I suggest a trip to YouTube since a picture won't do it justice. Just be warned these irons can get a bit toasty. If you don't have a buffer then I suggest converting an old bench grinder. My "buffer" is an old Delta 5" grinder but works wonders for me.

Step 8: - Wax anything metal you completed today
Mid-west humidity laughs at unprotected metal things so I have to wax anything I finish same day even in the winter time. I like to use a micro-crystalline wax that is petroleum based versus any carnuba based waxes. My wax of choice is Renaissance.

Here is a finished Miller Falls iron…look at it all nice and shiny

Step 9: Protect your parts - Put the jock strap down…i know its lumber jocks but we're talking plane parts

I like these rubbermaid clear tubs. They are a tad pricey at around $12 each but they have nice seal to help keep out dust and a size 3 and 4 can fit in them body and all.

So that's it for the first day of plane restoration work. The next entry will be hardware and the initial stripping of the japanning from the body and tote.

Click to expand...

sansoo22 said:

Marsh M5 (Day 04)

I have quite a bit more work done on the Marsh I just haven't had a chance to post it all yet. I'm doing my best to try and keep track of each days worth of work. My old boxer passed away on Saturday and it kind of upended my life for a few days. That old man was with me for 13 yrs. At age 40 that's nearly a third of my life. His demeanor was always one of caring and patience. It was a constant in my life I came to rely on and once its gone it leaves a very large hole.

I believe the last entry left off with getting the first coat of finish on the handles and getting the cast iron parts back into the rust bath.

Step 1: More finish on the handles
I like to start each day/session by working on the finish for the handles since those take a full day in the summer humidity to dry. I use 0000 steal wool after each coat as necessary to remove nibs off the finish. Here is a pic of the first coat after being wiped with the steal wool.

You can see we have some uneven finish here. I attribute this to the drying effect of the denatured alcohol used to clean the handles between sanding. Nothing to worry about. Just means another wipe on coat of poly is needed. I put that on now and set my handles off somewhere safe to dry

Step 2: Clean your parts - So much cleaning
I don't have an image for this step because its been covered but remove plane parts from rust bath and clean with soap and water.

Step 3: Flatten the body
I don't do anything fancy here. I've seen people use granite tiles, glass plates, even glass plates with precision machined aluminum surfaces on top that were 3 ft long before. I use just a simple large granite surface plate I bought on sale at Wood Craft.

My initial setup is a single sheet of 60 grit paper and a small clamp to hold it down. A number 5 size plane can be worked diagonally on a single sheet.

For a bit of controversial lapping I don't load the frog back into the body. I've heard it explained that the frog tensions the plane and prevents an warping but I don't see how and no one besides a physicist who is also a metallurgist is going to be able to convince me otherwise. The frog is held in by 2 screws that are only torqued down tight enough to keep it from moving. On Stanley's, type 9 and earlier, the front of the frog didnt even make contact with the mouth. So in my opinion loading the frog back in the body does nothing but make lapping a giant pain in the ass.

In order to check the sole I first use a Milwaukee Inkzall marker. I used to keep Sharpies around but they dont like metal dust or dirt. On a corrugated plane like the M5 I mark big thick black lines on both sides of the mouth and then a few arcs at the toe and heel

Here is how I grip the body when lapping. I try to use my palm to keep pressure over the mouth. I'm not using a ton of force here either. I start with a coarse grit so that it does all the work.

Now remember I'm actually going to sand at a diagonal. It was just hard to get a pic at that angle.

After around 8 to 12 passes on the coarse paper I will recheck where the marker lines.

We can see the marker lines are completely gone from around the mouth but we didn't even touch the toe or heel. This means we have a bit of a belly to smooth out. On a number 5 it probably doesn't matter but we can get flatter so why not go for it.

Now I change my setup to remove the belly from the plane. I switch to using two sheets of paper with some painters tape to hold them down. I know there are lots of things you can use like roles of paper but this method works well for me. You just have to make sure the two sheets are aligned correctly with no bumps at the joint. A slight gap wont hurt at all but an overlap would be very bad.

Now you have some work to do. It can take a while to get the sole flat. I will work it from both directions. Mouth towards me and mouth away from me keeping two hands on the body at all times. If you want it to look its best when completed you want as straight of strokes as possible.

And after about 10 or 15 minutes worth of work we have a bed that is shiny from almost head to toe.

Here is a close up of the toe. You can see it's not perfect but that last tiny bit isn't going to hurt anything. I have yet to come across a situation where I'm trying to register my plane on a piece of lumber using only the first 1/4" of the sole.

And the heel came out nearly perfect with just a tiny dark spot left at the edge

Now that we have done the sole its on to the sides. When doing these I have a specific grip I like to use. I hold onto the cheek with one finger pointing forward and keep my elbow tucked and in line with my shoulder. Much like using a hand saw. This keeps even pressure and prevents getting out of square.

The other advantage to this grip is if the sides aren't square I can just lean pressure of my hand to one side of the other to take heavier passes where needed to square it up.

After you get your grip down sand away and make sure to check for square OFTEN. I use a Starrett tool makers square to get as accurate as possible but any good small square will do.

After I've established flat and square on 60 grit, I step up to 120, 220, and finally 400. You may end up with a few low spots on the cheeks after using the surface plate. Every plane is different and if I get low spots I will touch those up by hand.

Here is the M5 taken up to 400. Still some dirt and grime to remove but we can do that later.

Now would be a good time to go wash up because your hands probably look like this

Step 4: Fettle the frog
This frog actually doesn't need any work. Some restorers go thru the hassle of removing tool marks from the frog just because they don't like the look. To me the frog is the most important part of the plane so I don't mess with it if I don't have to.

What I like to do is load it in my bench vise face up. If you have a small straight edge you can check if for flat that way. What I use is a spare iron that registers very flat on my surface plate. I place that on top of the frog and tap all for corner and both sides around the center point. If there is any rock in the iron I know the frog isn't flat and I know where to address that.

Step 5: Clean your parts AGAIN!
This is the final cleaning before we paint. I was battling severe humidity the day I did this so I got flash rusting on the surface of the plane and frog. Might not have happened if I wasn't stopping every 10 minutes for pics but hey I can deal with it. So first part of final cleaning is WD40 and a wire brush to get the flash rusting off.

Following this I use brake parts cleaner until no more brown, grey, green, or really any ugly color comes off on my blue shop towel. It can take awhile but the cleaner it is the better.

Step 6: Protect your parts
After everything is super clean I like to wax the sole and cheeks of the bed just to protect them during painting. I don't need anything try to rust under the painters tape. I've only had it happen one time but it sucked so this is a precaution I take. No pics of this step. I just apply a light coat of Renaissance wax.

Step 7: Tape your parts
Now that everything is clean we need to tape off the areas we don't want painted. The body and yoke are easy but the frog will suck. Don't be surprised if you go through a couple razor blades taping the frog. Rough cast iron and sharp don't mix.

Body

Frog and Yoke

One thing I didn't get a pic of is adding some scrap hardware to all the bolt holes, except the frog depth adjuster hole, in the body. The last thing you want is paint in the mounting holes.

Step 8: Final cleaning - HOORAY!!!
I can never get the hang of doing fine detailed taping with gloves on so I know I touched some surfaces I want paint on at some point during the taping step. Since we don't want any finger oils on those soon to be painted parts I glove up and wipe all my parts down with acetone. Avoid your paint because acetone eats adhesive.

Step 9: Paint your parts
I don't have any pics of this step. My lighting in my paint area is not very good and images always come out bad. If you have ever spray painted anything before with some success you will be fine. The color I use for planes is Dupli-Color Ceramic Ford Semi-Gloss Engine enamel. The Dupli-Color paint code is DE1635.

Just remember to start with light coats and build up gradually. You can always add more paint but taking any off means taking it all off and starting this process from Strip Your parts. I've been there before and trust me its not fun.

Click to expand...

sansoo22 said:

Marsh M5 (Day 05)

If all goes according to plan this should be the final day and the plane can be assembled at the end. But since I'm writing a blog about this plane it did have an issue. That's just how the universe works sometimes. I will cover what happened and the steps to resolve below.

One thing I know I missed from my last entry about paint is wait a full 24 hours after the last coat before handling the plane. I don't care what the spray can instructions say on it I wait 24 hours because that is what experience has taught me to do.

This is what your painted parts should look like after building with a handful or so of thin to medium coats of paint.

Step 1: CAREFULLY remove the tape
I stress carefully in this step because the paint is not fully cured yet. We will bake it once the tape is removed. If you used high temp painters tape you could actually skip this step. I don't have anywhere local to pick up high temp tape so I carefully remove the tape. You want to avoid using razor blades in this step unless its necessary to lift a corner of the tape so you can slowly peel it off.

Once tape is removed the plane is starting to look like pretty again

You may have noticed the top edges of the body are still black. I don't tape these off before painting because that is a hassle. And I don't remove that until after I bake the plane. It makes quite a bit of a mess and we don't want any paint flakes baking on to surface by accident.

Step 2: Bake your parts
This is the step that turns the ceramic engine enamel into a high durability finish in my opinion. I don't have pics of this because its pretty straight forward.

- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. If you have a newer oven that only goes to 200 check for a "Warm" setting. That should be around 140 which will also work.
- Place your plane parts on a cookie sheet covered in foil and put that on the center rack of your oven.
- Let the plane cook for one full hour. My oven is too narrow for the cookie sheet to go in side ways so after 30 minutes I rotate it to ensure even heat on all parts.
- Let the plane cool down to room temperature. This part is important. We don't want it to still be warm when we bake it the second time.
- After the plane has cooled preheat the oven to 200 degrees
- Cook plane for one more full hour at 200 degrees rotating the cookie sheet if necessary.

There you have it you just baked a plane. Experience has taught me that 200 right off the bat can be too high of temp and I have had the paint wrinkle on me. I'm also using a very old oven so a newer oven that heats more evenly may not have this issue.

Step 3: Final clean up
After the plane has fully cooled is when I take a razor blade and scrape off the paint from any places I don't want it. This is almost always the front lip of the body and top lip of the sides. Also double check all the mating surfaces on the plane body and the frog for over spray. I don't have an images of this step but its pretty straight forward. One of the razor blades you have left from when you taped the plane can be used for this step. Then throw that blade away cuz you thoroughly thrashed it.

If you have an air compressor use it to blow off any loose paint when you're done scraping.

Step 4: Wax your parts
I used Renaissance wax for all of my planes. It is a petroleum based wax with other fancy science word additives. Carnuba based waxes can contain acidic substances and we want none of that. If using a micro-crystalline wax like Renaissance or EJ Wheatons DO NOT wait for the wax to "set up" like you would with a normal paste wax. I wax a surface and then wipe it back off. The whole plane may take on a cloudy look at this point which is fine. Once all surfaces are waxed come back with a micro fiber clothe and buff the whole thing.

And here is what it should look like after baking, scraping, and waxing

I could have used another light coat or two on this plane. Baking does cause a small amount of shrinkage to the finish. It would naturally happen over time as it fully cures but baking does that part quicker. Its a hard call to make during the painting process. If you get too thick and it doesn't shrink enough it looks really bad because you lose the crispness of the stamped lettering.

Step 5: Assemble the plane!
This part is pretty easy. Use a screw driver that PROPERLY FITS the threads. I use my Husky 1/4 flat head for this. We just spent time cleaning up all the screws and we don't need to muck one up now. Seriously I can't stress enough how important it is to have a screw driver with a good fit.

I use good old fashioned 3-in-1 oil on all of the threads. I even put a drop in all of the threaded holes on the body and the frog. Some people use paraffin wax which works as well but I prefer the ease of 3-in-1 oil.

The only thing I'm going to show for this step is lining up the frog with the mouth of the plane to be co-planer. This is a number 5 so I doubt I will ever move it but this is how I initially setup up all planes regardless of the size.

Side note: In my personal opinion Marsh had a superior frog design to Stanley. It's locked in on both sides with butt load of metal meat for the iron to ride against. I wish Stanley would have copied this design when they bought Marsh back in 1924 but they didn't and shortly after that Marsh ceased to exist.

Step 6: STUPID TOTE
I don't have any pics here but as described in the intro a small part of the tote did not like the finish I applied. It happens on like 1 our of every 5 totes. The wood is very old and we have no idea what its been subjected to over it's 100 yrs of service.

To remedy the issue I sanded some of the finish off with 600 grit automotive sanding sponge. Then smoothed that out with 800 grit wet sand paper. Finally I re-sprayed the bad spot with a thick coat of poly and the rest of the tote with a thin coat. I'm now going to let that sit for a full 48 hours before touching it.

If the tote finish ever fully cures I will see you back here in two days for final assembly and testing of the plane.

Click to expand...

sansoo22 said:

Marsh M5 (Day 05)

If all goes according to plan this should be the final day and the plane can be assembled at the end. But since I'm writing a blog about this plane it did have an issue. That's just how the universe works sometimes. I will cover what happened and the steps to resolve below.

One thing I know I missed from my last entry about paint is wait a full 24 hours after the last coat before handling the plane. I don't care what the spray can instructions say on it I wait 24 hours because that is what experience has taught me to do.

This is what your painted parts should look like after building with a handful or so of thin to medium coats of paint.

Step 1: CAREFULLY remove the tape
I stress carefully in this step because the paint is not fully cured yet. We will bake it once the tape is removed. If you used high temp painters tape you could actually skip this step. I don't have anywhere local to pick up high temp tape so I carefully remove the tape. You want to avoid using razor blades in this step unless its necessary to lift a corner of the tape so you can slowly peel it off.

Once tape is removed the plane is starting to look like pretty again

You may have noticed the top edges of the body are still black. I don't tape these off before painting because that is a hassle. And I don't remove that until after I bake the plane. It makes quite a bit of a mess and we don't want any paint flakes baking on to surface by accident.

Step 2: Bake your parts
This is the step that turns the ceramic engine enamel into a high durability finish in my opinion. I don't have pics of this because its pretty straight forward.

- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. If you have a newer oven that only goes to 200 check for a "Warm" setting. That should be around 140 which will also work.
- Place your plane parts on a cookie sheet covered in foil and put that on the center rack of your oven.
- Let the plane cook for one full hour. My oven is too narrow for the cookie sheet to go in side ways so after 30 minutes I rotate it to ensure even heat on all parts.
- Let the plane cool down to room temperature. This part is important. We don't want it to still be warm when we bake it the second time.
- After the plane has cooled preheat the oven to 200 degrees
- Cook plane for one more full hour at 200 degrees rotating the cookie sheet if necessary.

There you have it you just baked a plane. Experience has taught me that 200 right off the bat can be too high of temp and I have had the paint wrinkle on me. I'm also using a very old oven so a newer oven that heats more evenly may not have this issue.

Step 3: Final clean up
After the plane has fully cooled is when I take a razor blade and scrape off the paint from any places I don't want it. This is almost always the front lip of the body and top lip of the sides. Also double check all the mating surfaces on the plane body and the frog for over spray. I don't have an images of this step but its pretty straight forward. One of the razor blades you have left from when you taped the plane can be used for this step. Then throw that blade away cuz you thoroughly thrashed it.

If you have an air compressor use it to blow off any loose paint when you're done scraping.

Step 4: Wax your parts
I used Renaissance wax for all of my planes. It is a petroleum based wax with other fancy science word additives. Carnuba based waxes can contain acidic substances and we want none of that. If using a micro-crystalline wax like Renaissance or EJ Wheatons DO NOT wait for the wax to "set up" like you would with a normal paste wax. I wax a surface and then wipe it back off. The whole plane may take on a cloudy look at this point which is fine. Once all surfaces are waxed come back with a micro fiber clothe and buff the whole thing.

And here is what it should look like after baking, scraping, and waxing

I could have used another light coat or two on this plane. Baking does cause a small amount of shrinkage to the finish. It would naturally happen over time as it fully cures but baking does that part quicker. Its a hard call to make during the painting process. If you get too thick and it doesn't shrink enough it looks really bad because you lose the crispness of the stamped lettering.

Step 5: Assemble the plane!
This part is pretty easy. Use a screw driver that PROPERLY FITS the threads. I use my Husky 1/4 flat head for this. We just spent time cleaning up all the screws and we don't need to muck one up now. Seriously I can't stress enough how important it is to have a screw driver with a good fit.

I use good old fashioned 3-in-1 oil on all of the threads. I even put a drop in all of the threaded holes on the body and the frog. Some people use paraffin wax which works as well but I prefer the ease of 3-in-1 oil.

The only thing I'm going to show for this step is lining up the frog with the mouth of the plane to be co-planer. This is a number 5 so I doubt I will ever move it but this is how I initially setup up all planes regardless of the size.

Side note: In my personal opinion Marsh had a superior frog design to Stanley. It's locked in on both sides with butt load of metal meat for the iron to ride against. I wish Stanley would have copied this design when they bought Marsh back in 1924 but they didn't and shortly after that Marsh ceased to exist.

Step 6: STUPID TOTE
I don't have any pics here but as described in the intro a small part of the tote did not like the finish I applied. It happens on like 1 our of every 5 totes. The wood is very old and we have no idea what its been subjected to over it's 100 yrs of service.

To remedy the issue I sanded some of the finish off with 600 grit automotive sanding sponge. Then smoothed that out with 800 grit wet sand paper. Finally I re-sprayed the bad spot with a thick coat of poly and the rest of the tote with a thin coat. I'm now going to let that sit for a full 48 hours before touching it.

If the tote finish ever fully cures I will see you back here in two days for final assembly and testing of the plane.

Click to expand...

1. Does baking the enamel have a strong smell in the oven? My wife will hate it and I still can't smell anything (after-effects of Covid) so if the smell is strong, I'll probably skip it. Or maybe do it on my gas grill at low heat? And to clarify, you bake it 24 hours after the final coat?
2. When you remove the paint from the top edges, do you do it immediately after baking or wait for it to cure further? Or does it matter? And do you just scrape it off with a razor blade or do you have some secret sauce?

sansoo22 said:

Marsh M5 (Day 05)

If all goes according to plan this should be the final day and the plane can be assembled at the end. But since I'm writing a blog about this plane it did have an issue. That's just how the universe works sometimes. I will cover what happened and the steps to resolve below.

One thing I know I missed from my last entry about paint is wait a full 24 hours after the last coat before handling the plane. I don't care what the spray can instructions say on it I wait 24 hours because that is what experience has taught me to do.

This is what your painted parts should look like after building with a handful or so of thin to medium coats of paint.

Step 1: CAREFULLY remove the tape
I stress carefully in this step because the paint is not fully cured yet. We will bake it once the tape is removed. If you used high temp painters tape you could actually skip this step. I don't have anywhere local to pick up high temp tape so I carefully remove the tape. You want to avoid using razor blades in this step unless its necessary to lift a corner of the tape so you can slowly peel it off.

Once tape is removed the plane is starting to look like pretty again

You may have noticed the top edges of the body are still black. I don't tape these off before painting because that is a hassle. And I don't remove that until after I bake the plane. It makes quite a bit of a mess and we don't want any paint flakes baking on to surface by accident.

Step 2: Bake your parts
This is the step that turns the ceramic engine enamel into a high durability finish in my opinion. I don't have pics of this because its pretty straight forward.

- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. If you have a newer oven that only goes to 200 check for a "Warm" setting. That should be around 140 which will also work.
- Place your plane parts on a cookie sheet covered in foil and put that on the center rack of your oven.
- Let the plane cook for one full hour. My oven is too narrow for the cookie sheet to go in side ways so after 30 minutes I rotate it to ensure even heat on all parts.
- Let the plane cool down to room temperature. This part is important. We don't want it to still be warm when we bake it the second time.
- After the plane has cooled preheat the oven to 200 degrees
- Cook plane for one more full hour at 200 degrees rotating the cookie sheet if necessary.

There you have it you just baked a plane. Experience has taught me that 200 right off the bat can be too high of temp and I have had the paint wrinkle on me. I'm also using a very old oven so a newer oven that heats more evenly may not have this issue.

Step 3: Final clean up
After the plane has fully cooled is when I take a razor blade and scrape off the paint from any places I don't want it. This is almost always the front lip of the body and top lip of the sides. Also double check all the mating surfaces on the plane body and the frog for over spray. I don't have an images of this step but its pretty straight forward. One of the razor blades you have left from when you taped the plane can be used for this step. Then throw that blade away cuz you thoroughly thrashed it.

If you have an air compressor use it to blow off any loose paint when you're done scraping.

Step 4: Wax your parts
I used Renaissance wax for all of my planes. It is a petroleum based wax with other fancy science word additives. Carnuba based waxes can contain acidic substances and we want none of that. If using a micro-crystalline wax like Renaissance or EJ Wheatons DO NOT wait for the wax to "set up" like you would with a normal paste wax. I wax a surface and then wipe it back off. The whole plane may take on a cloudy look at this point which is fine. Once all surfaces are waxed come back with a micro fiber clothe and buff the whole thing.

And here is what it should look like after baking, scraping, and waxing

I could have used another light coat or two on this plane. Baking does cause a small amount of shrinkage to the finish. It would naturally happen over time as it fully cures but baking does that part quicker. Its a hard call to make during the painting process. If you get too thick and it doesn't shrink enough it looks really bad because you lose the crispness of the stamped lettering.

Step 5: Assemble the plane!
This part is pretty easy. Use a screw driver that PROPERLY FITS the threads. I use my Husky 1/4 flat head for this. We just spent time cleaning up all the screws and we don't need to muck one up now. Seriously I can't stress enough how important it is to have a screw driver with a good fit.

I use good old fashioned 3-in-1 oil on all of the threads. I even put a drop in all of the threaded holes on the body and the frog. Some people use paraffin wax which works as well but I prefer the ease of 3-in-1 oil.

The only thing I'm going to show for this step is lining up the frog with the mouth of the plane to be co-planer. This is a number 5 so I doubt I will ever move it but this is how I initially setup up all planes regardless of the size.

Side note: In my personal opinion Marsh had a superior frog design to Stanley. It's locked in on both sides with butt load of metal meat for the iron to ride against. I wish Stanley would have copied this design when they bought Marsh back in 1924 but they didn't and shortly after that Marsh ceased to exist.

Step 6: STUPID TOTE
I don't have any pics here but as described in the intro a small part of the tote did not like the finish I applied. It happens on like 1 our of every 5 totes. The wood is very old and we have no idea what its been subjected to over it's 100 yrs of service.

To remedy the issue I sanded some of the finish off with 600 grit automotive sanding sponge. Then smoothed that out with 800 grit wet sand paper. Finally I re-sprayed the bad spot with a thick coat of poly and the rest of the tote with a thin coat. I'm now going to let that sit for a full 48 hours before touching it.

If the tote finish ever fully cures I will see you back here in two days for final assembly and testing of the plane.

Click to expand...

sansoo22 said:

Marsh M5 (Day 06)

The final day of getting the plane ready to go. For starters let's do a review of the day 1 image as to remember what this rusty bastard looked like before we started.

This is a sad plane

And with a little bit of work we make a happy plane

Step 1: Wax on Wax off
Once the handles have had time to dry I like to give them a good coat of wax. For rosewood and other dark wood handles I prefer MinWax Special dark

Look at it shine…

We do the same with the tote but unfortunately it still has a few tiny blemishes in the tip of the horn. First is the 120 grit choice for sanding the fill spot. That was too rough and left some white marks. The second is some very small areas that would not take the finish. I have no idea what causes this but I get one tote or knob out of a dozen or so that just has a problem. I chalk it up to being 100 yrs old and not knowing what all gunk has gotten on them over that time span.

Still looks better than what we started with so I call it a win

Step 2: Testing
Normally I wouldn't do this step because we are all clean and shiny right now. This testing is going to require cleaning the sole and waxing it again. However fellow LJ HookieKen brought to my attention an issue he had where lapping without assembling the plane did warp the sole once it was all back together. I believe the culprit in his case was the leading edge of the frog not being machined parallel with the sole. So where they made contact left uneven pressure.

So to test I thoroughly cleaned my surface plate and laid down a new sheet of 320 grit paper. Next we mark the mouth of the plane with a couple black lines on both sides.

You should take the iron out for this but I decided to go full boar and leave it in but fully retracted. This has the plane fully tensioned as it would be in use.

No irons were harmed in this testing

Finally I run the plane diagonally across my 320 grit for a total of a dozen passes with it fully assembled and using the tote and knob just as I would if I was making curls.

And here is our result

A tiny black bar in front of the mouth. This says to me that i missed this when I was first lapping the sole. I can't think of any pressure being put on the plane when its fully assembled that would cause any warping in front of the mouth.

If this was a smoother instead of a jack I would break out some lower grit paper and take that hollow out. Being a jack plane I'm honestly not to worried about that. If it causes me issue when taking shavings I will address it then.

Step 3: Sharpen the iron
I'm not going to go into detail here. There are literally TONS of videos and blogs out there about rehabbing and sharpening plane irons. I have my own method that is a mix of the Cosman and Sellers sharpening techniques. What works best for one person may not work for the next. It seems every hand tool user has their own way of handling irons that works best for them. I say do some research from well known craftsman and come up with a method that works best for you.

Step 4: Make some curls
The first thing I do is find a nice board to take some edge passes with. This lets me get a feel for the plane as well as get the iron dialed in nice and straight. Paul Sellers has a great video on this but basically you want to take a pass on the left and right side of the iron. If they aren't even move the lateral adjuster toward the side that took a heavier shaving and repeat. Once both sides are even you know you are nice and straight.

Here is our board

And here are the resulting shavings.

With the oak having that heavy of grain lines I think that's the best we will get. The edge is straight, square, and glass smooth. Its fun to get those transparent shavings but in my experience not all wood will do that for you.

Now that we have our iron square and its taking nice shavings lets do the face

And here are the shavings from the face

That long shaving right in front of the knob is nearly full length of the test board and getting close to full width. I am satisfied she is dialed in.

Now it's time to play!

Or get carried away as I often do with a new plane

Take note of the strop in this pic. I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this horse butt strop from Tools for Working Wood. I use the rough side and it works so well I can use it to touch up an iron before heading back to the stones. That is a pretty big time saver and extends my working time with an iron by a good 30 to 40 precent.

So there you have it my process for restoring a rusty old plane. I want to give a special thanks to HookieKen and KYToolSmith for giving me some pointers I can incorporate into my process for the next plane I restore. As with all things in life continuously searching for ways to make improvements will almost certainly lead to better results and a more enjoyable experience.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. Thanks for those that made it this far. I hope I was able to share some information you may not have seen before.

Click to expand...

sansoo22 said:

Marsh M5 (Day 06)

The final day of getting the plane ready to go. For starters let's do a review of the day 1 image as to remember what this rusty bastard looked like before we started.

This is a sad plane

And with a little bit of work we make a happy plane

Step 1: Wax on Wax off
Once the handles have had time to dry I like to give them a good coat of wax. For rosewood and other dark wood handles I prefer MinWax Special dark

Look at it shine…

We do the same with the tote but unfortunately it still has a few tiny blemishes in the tip of the horn. First is the 120 grit choice for sanding the fill spot. That was too rough and left some white marks. The second is some very small areas that would not take the finish. I have no idea what causes this but I get one tote or knob out of a dozen or so that just has a problem. I chalk it up to being 100 yrs old and not knowing what all gunk has gotten on them over that time span.

Still looks better than what we started with so I call it a win

Step 2: Testing
Normally I wouldn't do this step because we are all clean and shiny right now. This testing is going to require cleaning the sole and waxing it again. However fellow LJ HookieKen brought to my attention an issue he had where lapping without assembling the plane did warp the sole once it was all back together. I believe the culprit in his case was the leading edge of the frog not being machined parallel with the sole. So where they made contact left uneven pressure.

So to test I thoroughly cleaned my surface plate and laid down a new sheet of 320 grit paper. Next we mark the mouth of the plane with a couple black lines on both sides.

You should take the iron out for this but I decided to go full boar and leave it in but fully retracted. This has the plane fully tensioned as it would be in use.

No irons were harmed in this testing

Finally I run the plane diagonally across my 320 grit for a total of a dozen passes with it fully assembled and using the tote and knob just as I would if I was making curls.

And here is our result

A tiny black bar in front of the mouth. This says to me that i missed this when I was first lapping the sole. I can't think of any pressure being put on the plane when its fully assembled that would cause any warping in front of the mouth.

If this was a smoother instead of a jack I would break out some lower grit paper and take that hollow out. Being a jack plane I'm honestly not to worried about that. If it causes me issue when taking shavings I will address it then.

Step 3: Sharpen the iron
I'm not going to go into detail here. There are literally TONS of videos and blogs out there about rehabbing and sharpening plane irons. I have my own method that is a mix of the Cosman and Sellers sharpening techniques. What works best for one person may not work for the next. It seems every hand tool user has their own way of handling irons that works best for them. I say do some research from well known craftsman and come up with a method that works best for you.

Step 4: Make some curls
The first thing I do is find a nice board to take some edge passes with. This lets me get a feel for the plane as well as get the iron dialed in nice and straight. Paul Sellers has a great video on this but basically you want to take a pass on the left and right side of the iron. If they aren't even move the lateral adjuster toward the side that took a heavier shaving and repeat. Once both sides are even you know you are nice and straight.

Here is our board

And here are the resulting shavings.

With the oak having that heavy of grain lines I think that's the best we will get. The edge is straight, square, and glass smooth. Its fun to get those transparent shavings but in my experience not all wood will do that for you.

Now that we have our iron square and its taking nice shavings lets do the face

And here are the shavings from the face

That long shaving right in front of the knob is nearly full length of the test board and getting close to full width. I am satisfied she is dialed in.

Now it's time to play!

Or get carried away as I often do with a new plane

Take note of the strop in this pic. I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this horse butt strop from Tools for Working Wood. I use the rough side and it works so well I can use it to touch up an iron before heading back to the stones. That is a pretty big time saver and extends my working time with an iron by a good 30 to 40 precent.

So there you have it my process for restoring a rusty old plane. I want to give a special thanks to HookieKen and KYToolSmith for giving me some pointers I can incorporate into my process for the next plane I restore. As with all things in life continuously searching for ways to make improvements will almost certainly lead to better results and a more enjoyable experience.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. Thanks for those that made it this far. I hope I was able to share some information you may not have seen before.

Click to expand...

sansoo22 said:

Marsh M5 (Day 06)

The final day of getting the plane ready to go. For starters let's do a review of the day 1 image as to remember what this rusty bastard looked like before we started.

This is a sad plane

And with a little bit of work we make a happy plane

Step 1: Wax on Wax off
Once the handles have had time to dry I like to give them a good coat of wax. For rosewood and other dark wood handles I prefer MinWax Special dark

Look at it shine…

We do the same with the tote but unfortunately it still has a few tiny blemishes in the tip of the horn. First is the 120 grit choice for sanding the fill spot. That was too rough and left some white marks. The second is some very small areas that would not take the finish. I have no idea what causes this but I get one tote or knob out of a dozen or so that just has a problem. I chalk it up to being 100 yrs old and not knowing what all gunk has gotten on them over that time span.

Still looks better than what we started with so I call it a win

Step 2: Testing
Normally I wouldn't do this step because we are all clean and shiny right now. This testing is going to require cleaning the sole and waxing it again. However fellow LJ HookieKen brought to my attention an issue he had where lapping without assembling the plane did warp the sole once it was all back together. I believe the culprit in his case was the leading edge of the frog not being machined parallel with the sole. So where they made contact left uneven pressure.

So to test I thoroughly cleaned my surface plate and laid down a new sheet of 320 grit paper. Next we mark the mouth of the plane with a couple black lines on both sides.

You should take the iron out for this but I decided to go full boar and leave it in but fully retracted. This has the plane fully tensioned as it would be in use.

No irons were harmed in this testing

Finally I run the plane diagonally across my 320 grit for a total of a dozen passes with it fully assembled and using the tote and knob just as I would if I was making curls.

And here is our result

A tiny black bar in front of the mouth. This says to me that i missed this when I was first lapping the sole. I can't think of any pressure being put on the plane when its fully assembled that would cause any warping in front of the mouth.

If this was a smoother instead of a jack I would break out some lower grit paper and take that hollow out. Being a jack plane I'm honestly not to worried about that. If it causes me issue when taking shavings I will address it then.

Step 3: Sharpen the iron
I'm not going to go into detail here. There are literally TONS of videos and blogs out there about rehabbing and sharpening plane irons. I have my own method that is a mix of the Cosman and Sellers sharpening techniques. What works best for one person may not work for the next. It seems every hand tool user has their own way of handling irons that works best for them. I say do some research from well known craftsman and come up with a method that works best for you.

Step 4: Make some curls
The first thing I do is find a nice board to take some edge passes with. This lets me get a feel for the plane as well as get the iron dialed in nice and straight. Paul Sellers has a great video on this but basically you want to take a pass on the left and right side of the iron. If they aren't even move the lateral adjuster toward the side that took a heavier shaving and repeat. Once both sides are even you know you are nice and straight.

Here is our board

And here are the resulting shavings.

With the oak having that heavy of grain lines I think that's the best we will get. The edge is straight, square, and glass smooth. Its fun to get those transparent shavings but in my experience not all wood will do that for you.

Now that we have our iron square and its taking nice shavings lets do the face

And here are the shavings from the face

That long shaving right in front of the knob is nearly full length of the test board and getting close to full width. I am satisfied she is dialed in.

Now it's time to play!

Or get carried away as I often do with a new plane

Take note of the strop in this pic. I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this horse butt strop from Tools for Working Wood. I use the rough side and it works so well I can use it to touch up an iron before heading back to the stones. That is a pretty big time saver and extends my working time with an iron by a good 30 to 40 precent.

So there you have it my process for restoring a rusty old plane. I want to give a special thanks to HookieKen and KYToolSmith for giving me some pointers I can incorporate into my process for the next plane I restore. As with all things in life continuously searching for ways to make improvements will almost certainly lead to better results and a more enjoyable experience.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. Thanks for those that made it this far. I hope I was able to share some information you may not have seen before.

Click to expand...

sansoo22 said:

Marsh M5 (Day 06)

The final day of getting the plane ready to go. For starters let's do a review of the day 1 image as to remember what this rusty bastard looked like before we started.

This is a sad plane

And with a little bit of work we make a happy plane

Step 1: Wax on Wax off
Once the handles have had time to dry I like to give them a good coat of wax. For rosewood and other dark wood handles I prefer MinWax Special dark

Look at it shine…

We do the same with the tote but unfortunately it still has a few tiny blemishes in the tip of the horn. First is the 120 grit choice for sanding the fill spot. That was too rough and left some white marks. The second is some very small areas that would not take the finish. I have no idea what causes this but I get one tote or knob out of a dozen or so that just has a problem. I chalk it up to being 100 yrs old and not knowing what all gunk has gotten on them over that time span.

Still looks better than what we started with so I call it a win

Step 2: Testing
Normally I wouldn't do this step because we are all clean and shiny right now. This testing is going to require cleaning the sole and waxing it again. However fellow LJ HookieKen brought to my attention an issue he had where lapping without assembling the plane did warp the sole once it was all back together. I believe the culprit in his case was the leading edge of the frog not being machined parallel with the sole. So where they made contact left uneven pressure.

So to test I thoroughly cleaned my surface plate and laid down a new sheet of 320 grit paper. Next we mark the mouth of the plane with a couple black lines on both sides.

You should take the iron out for this but I decided to go full boar and leave it in but fully retracted. This has the plane fully tensioned as it would be in use.

No irons were harmed in this testing

Finally I run the plane diagonally across my 320 grit for a total of a dozen passes with it fully assembled and using the tote and knob just as I would if I was making curls.

And here is our result

A tiny black bar in front of the mouth. This says to me that i missed this when I was first lapping the sole. I can't think of any pressure being put on the plane when its fully assembled that would cause any warping in front of the mouth.

If this was a smoother instead of a jack I would break out some lower grit paper and take that hollow out. Being a jack plane I'm honestly not to worried about that. If it causes me issue when taking shavings I will address it then.

Step 3: Sharpen the iron
I'm not going to go into detail here. There are literally TONS of videos and blogs out there about rehabbing and sharpening plane irons. I have my own method that is a mix of the Cosman and Sellers sharpening techniques. What works best for one person may not work for the next. It seems every hand tool user has their own way of handling irons that works best for them. I say do some research from well known craftsman and come up with a method that works best for you.

Step 4: Make some curls
The first thing I do is find a nice board to take some edge passes with. This lets me get a feel for the plane as well as get the iron dialed in nice and straight. Paul Sellers has a great video on this but basically you want to take a pass on the left and right side of the iron. If they aren't even move the lateral adjuster toward the side that took a heavier shaving and repeat. Once both sides are even you know you are nice and straight.

Here is our board

And here are the resulting shavings.

With the oak having that heavy of grain lines I think that's the best we will get. The edge is straight, square, and glass smooth. Its fun to get those transparent shavings but in my experience not all wood will do that for you.

Now that we have our iron square and its taking nice shavings lets do the face

And here are the shavings from the face

That long shaving right in front of the knob is nearly full length of the test board and getting close to full width. I am satisfied she is dialed in.

Now it's time to play!

Or get carried away as I often do with a new plane

Take note of the strop in this pic. I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this horse butt strop from Tools for Working Wood. I use the rough side and it works so well I can use it to touch up an iron before heading back to the stones. That is a pretty big time saver and extends my working time with an iron by a good 30 to 40 precent.

So there you have it my process for restoring a rusty old plane. I want to give a special thanks to HookieKen and KYToolSmith for giving me some pointers I can incorporate into my process for the next plane I restore. As with all things in life continuously searching for ways to make improvements will almost certainly lead to better results and a more enjoyable experience.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. Thanks for those that made it this far. I hope I was able to share some information you may not have seen before.

Click to expand...