Damaged the sole of 2 hand planes

[Mike Zilis]

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid mistake.

Before dinner tonight I used some wood filler to cover up the counter sunk screws I had put into a shelf I had built under my bench.

A couple hours later I went back to sand the filler down. This stuff was stubborn to sand off so I thought I'd make quick work of the job by using a hand plane to smooth the surfaces up. Everything went well for the first half of the job - I was using a small LV Apron Plane. I got to this one particular hump of filler and I couldn't get a shaving. So I advanced the iron a little to take a thicker shaving. Still no go. Ok - let's switch to my LN Low Angle Smoother. Same thing. So I turn over the smoother and see a couple of DEEP scratches in the sole. This is no good. I check the Apron Plane and yup, same DEEP scratches.

Turns out that this particular screw didn't get sunk much at all. The reason I couldn't get a shaving was because I was running my planes right into and over the screw head. The screw head was slightly canted so the wood filler was covering all but a teeny tiny bit of the screw head.

ARGH!

I just spent the last two hours with a granite plate and psa sandpaper taking the scratches out of the soles. Tomorrow I will turn my attention to the blades to grind the gouges out of the edges. Hopefully I'll have this pair of planes back in action tomorrow and a very simple but important lesson learned.

Mike

[Chris Griggs]

Oooooh Mike. That sucks. My sympathies. Just be thankful you only hit it with a smoother and apron plane. Imagine trying to sand those gouges out of a No. 7 or 8.

[john brenton]

with yours because my tools are cheap, but just the other day I grabbed some English Oak scrap I had and started planing away at what I either thought was mold, or some splatter from some staining I was doing the other day....I don't know what I was thinking really...but they certainly didn't look like a bunch of tiny little brads. They were. I have no idea how they got there but I too had to spend more than a few hours grinding and buffing that out. Sucks.


Stupid! Stupid! Stupid mistake.

Before dinner tonight I used some wood filler to cover up the counter sunk screws I had put into a shelf I had built under my bench.

A couple hours later I went back to sand the filler down. This stuff was stubborn to sand off so I thought I'd make quick work of the job by using a hand plane to smooth the surfaces up. Everything went well for the first half of the job - I was using a small LV Apron Plane. I got to this one particular hump of filler and I couldn't get a shaving. So I advanced the iron a little to take a thicker shaving. Still no go. Ok - let's switch to my LN Low Angle Smoother. Same thing. So I turn over the smoother and see a couple of DEEP scratches in the sole. This is no good. I check the Apron Plane and yup, same DEEP scratches.

Turns out that this particular screw didn't get sunk much at all. The reason I couldn't get a shaving was because I was running my planes right into and over the screw head. The screw head was slightly canted so the wood filler was covering all but a teeny tiny bit of the screw head.

ARGH!

I just spent the last two hours with a granite plate and psa sandpaper taking the scratches out of the soles. Tomorrow I will turn my attention to the blades to grind the gouges out of the edges. Hopefully I'll have this pair of planes back in action tomorrow and a very simple but important lesson learned.

Mike

[David Weaver]

There are a lot of old plane bottoms like that. I have zinged a few of mine when I'm not using them in the shop, just block planes, and a good buddy of mine did the same with a couple of his LNs using them remodeling his kitchen.

I wouldn't bother with lapping everything out next time. On premium planes, you're likely (or more like certainly) making the plane less flat than it was and a few light passes across sandpaper will take any burrs off the bottom that exist because of rough edges on the scratches.

No worries, it just shows that someone was actually using the planes.

[Mike Zilis]

David,

The scratches on both planes went right across the mouth so I thought lapping was required. But I'm relatively new to hand tools and probably should have posted some photos here first to get some feedback and suggestions.

-Mike

[David Weaver]

Yep, they always do (go right back through the mouth), and sort of diagonal across the sole. It's actually OK to leave that even at the mouth, so long as any burrs on the "ditch" are honed off.

I have lapped that much off of a plane, though, and it's likely even if the ends did get a little proud (which they will do after a long lapping session), it'll do just as well as it did before.

I wouldn't worry about it performance-wise either way, it's more the two hours of sweating that sucks (been there) and you can avoid.

[Rob Lee]

Yep, they always do (go right back through the mouth), and sort of diagonal across the sole. It's actually OK to leave that even at the mouth, so long as any burrs on the "ditch" are honed off.

I have lapped that much off of a plane, though, and it's likely even if the ends did get a little proud (which they will do after a long lapping session), it'll do just as well as it did before.

I wouldn't worry about it performance-wise either way, it's more the two hours of sweating that sucks (been there) and you can avoid.


Good advice!

Cheers -

Rob

(PS for Mike.... mistakes are only stupid the second time.... :) )

[harry strasil]

Rob

(PS for Mike.... mistakes are only stupid the second time.... )

The first time its called EXPERIENCE, Now you know what a very experienced WWer is!

[Mike Zilis]

The low angle smoother is now back in action. Nice even shavings in hard maple.

After work I'll get the Apron Plane back together. Then, we move on with lessons learned.

(I mean, I'm becoming a more experienced WW every day!)

-Mike

[george wilson]

Be careful how much you lap off of the LV block planes. On the first one I ever bought from them,the sliding part of the sole in front of the blade,would go hollow when I tightened the screw down to lock it in place. They had me send it back,and later told me that that particular plane had .010" too much ground off the sole and sliding sole. That isn't very much,but it made the difference!!

I had thought about just taking the sliding part off the plane,and putting a washer over the vertical screw attached to the sliding part. The washer would have to be filed down to just the right thickness. It would have filled the gap between the slider's casting,and the casting of the main body,preventing the sliding part from getting sucked hollow when being tightened. You could do that if you get your plane too thin.

[Mike Zilis]

Thanks George. That's very good to know. In this case, the LV Apron Plane doesn't have an adjustable mouth so I'm safe. But I also have their low angle block plane where this advice would certainly come in to play.

-Mike