Can I salvage this?

[John Miliunas]

I've been trying to clean up a couple planes LOML managed to keep, which belonged to her grandpa. One of them is a #6, Wards Master. I cleaned & I cleaned and everything appeared to be in really decent shape. Until, that is, I cleaned up the sole a bit more. There are two cracks on either side of the slot opening, closest to the frog. They aren't "wide open" kind of cracks, but there, nonetheless. I was thinking that maybe I could grind them down a bit, leaving a divot and then fill in with my small wire-feed welder. Then file, grind and flatten. Sound like a plan or should I relegate this piece to door-stop use? :cool:

[Terry Quiram]

John

I guess it depends on how attached you are to it and do you intend to use it? Personally I wouldn't repair just clean it and put it on a shelf in the shop.

Terry

[Andrew Fairbank]

Hi John,

These cracks are fairly deep and extend into the frog bearing pads, most probably, so it would be difficult to fix successfully. You need to fill the whole crack, not bridge the surface, to successfully repair it.

As well, cast iron is notoriously difficult to weld.

With regards to tuning, Roger Nixon posted some pictures of the basics for me (http://www.traditionaltools.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=98) , go in tandem with that web link I gave you earlier.

Cheers,

Andrew

[John Miliunas]

Me thinks Terry said it right and you reaffirmed it, Andrew. Cast iron is a real bear to weld and when you take into account that I'm a far cry from a skilled welder.....Well, I think you can imagine the rest. I did look at that other link and, believe it or not, I was already using that method of checking for hollow spots on the soles. Use it for sharpening my blades, too. I originally took it as a tip for sharpening turning chisels. Worked so well there, I figured it should work great on "flat" surfaces, too. Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Think I'll reassemble it, put some wax on it to keep the rust at bay and just stick on the shelf. Hopefully, one of these years, I'll have a shop big enough where I can have a display cabinet with some of these older Neander tools. :cool: