Terry Hatfield
02-20-2005, 12:37 PM
Howdy everyone,
In a previous life I did classic car restoration. I've decided that these planes are a lot like cars, Corvettes especially. Some guys would come to me and say that they wanted nothing but the bare minimum done to their car to preserve the originality. Others would come to me and say they wanted the thing totally disasembled and every part replaced or restored to perfection whether it was actually correct for the car or not. I did many more of these "over restorations" than any thing else. These guys wanted their cars the look and perform perfectly and didn't care about the resale value because they had no intention of selling it. I feel the same way about this plane. It ain't going any where so why not make it look and perform as well as it possibly can???
This 604C was the plane in question here. I got many recommendations to leave it alone and just as many to take it to the next level.
Here is what it looked like when I got it.
<IMG SRC="http://www.terryhatfield.com/br4.JPG">
I took it all apart and discovered that some one had sanded the original japanning and painted over it. I used paint stripper to remove both layers. I taped all the machined surfaces and used engine paint to refurb the japanning. I've used this before and it is almost identical in appearance to the original and is pretty darn tough after it cures.
I stripped the finish off the wood and sanded and sanded and sanded. I applied several coats of Deft and rubbed that out with 0000 steel wool and wax this morning.
I used the 'ole 3M magic wheel to polish all the bare metal and the screws etc.... Some Brasso puts an even higher shine on the brass parts and works well on the other metal surfaces too.
I flattened all the machined surfaces on the frog and the receiver on the plane body. I lapped the chip breaker and robbed a LN A2 blade out of another #4 and reassembled the plane.
After it was all back together I lapped the sole. It was the closest to flat before lapping I have seen so far. Only a few minutes with 280 wet and dry on my chunk 'o granite and it was spot on. I got the frog adjusted for a super tight mouth and gave it a whirl. All I can say is WOW!!! This little plane performs fantastically!!! I was able to make curlies from hard maple that would barely move the needle of my calipers off of zero!!!
Here is the finished product.
<IMG SRC="http://www.terryhatfield.com/6043.JPG">
<IMG SRC="http://www.terryhatfield.com/6045.JPG">
<IMG SRC="http://www.terryhatfield.com/6046.JPG">
<IMG SRC="http://www.terryhatfield.com/6044.JPG">
Did this plane look this good 100 years ago when it was made? Nope. Have I killed the collectible value of this 100 year old plane by over restoring it??? Perhaps, but that is something that I personally don't care about. It is one fine user smoother and I won't give it's collectible value a second thought as I watch those perfect shavings peel off the wood because I have no intention of this plane ever belonging to anyone else.
Hope I didn't cause any purists to have to call 911. :eek: :D
Terry
In a previous life I did classic car restoration. I've decided that these planes are a lot like cars, Corvettes especially. Some guys would come to me and say that they wanted nothing but the bare minimum done to their car to preserve the originality. Others would come to me and say they wanted the thing totally disasembled and every part replaced or restored to perfection whether it was actually correct for the car or not. I did many more of these "over restorations" than any thing else. These guys wanted their cars the look and perform perfectly and didn't care about the resale value because they had no intention of selling it. I feel the same way about this plane. It ain't going any where so why not make it look and perform as well as it possibly can???
This 604C was the plane in question here. I got many recommendations to leave it alone and just as many to take it to the next level.
Here is what it looked like when I got it.
<IMG SRC="http://www.terryhatfield.com/br4.JPG">
I took it all apart and discovered that some one had sanded the original japanning and painted over it. I used paint stripper to remove both layers. I taped all the machined surfaces and used engine paint to refurb the japanning. I've used this before and it is almost identical in appearance to the original and is pretty darn tough after it cures.
I stripped the finish off the wood and sanded and sanded and sanded. I applied several coats of Deft and rubbed that out with 0000 steel wool and wax this morning.
I used the 'ole 3M magic wheel to polish all the bare metal and the screws etc.... Some Brasso puts an even higher shine on the brass parts and works well on the other metal surfaces too.
I flattened all the machined surfaces on the frog and the receiver on the plane body. I lapped the chip breaker and robbed a LN A2 blade out of another #4 and reassembled the plane.
After it was all back together I lapped the sole. It was the closest to flat before lapping I have seen so far. Only a few minutes with 280 wet and dry on my chunk 'o granite and it was spot on. I got the frog adjusted for a super tight mouth and gave it a whirl. All I can say is WOW!!! This little plane performs fantastically!!! I was able to make curlies from hard maple that would barely move the needle of my calipers off of zero!!!
Here is the finished product.
<IMG SRC="http://www.terryhatfield.com/6043.JPG">
<IMG SRC="http://www.terryhatfield.com/6045.JPG">
<IMG SRC="http://www.terryhatfield.com/6046.JPG">
<IMG SRC="http://www.terryhatfield.com/6044.JPG">
Did this plane look this good 100 years ago when it was made? Nope. Have I killed the collectible value of this 100 year old plane by over restoring it??? Perhaps, but that is something that I personally don't care about. It is one fine user smoother and I won't give it's collectible value a second thought as I watch those perfect shavings peel off the wood because I have no intention of this plane ever belonging to anyone else.
Hope I didn't cause any purists to have to call 911. :eek: :D
Terry