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Dennis Aspö
06-20-2014, 9:43 AM
I got this wooden plane on an online auction site, was a few euros so I felt like taking the chance. It is very long, 75cm or almost 30 inches. When it arrived earlier this week I cleaned it up with tung oil, steel wool and some sandpaper:
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5519/14262406848_f9e3d060c4_c.jpg

Iron:
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2909/14449011715_de055b27a8_c.jpg

First issue, cracked in the cheek. I have been thinking of gluing it tight but I am not sure a glue joint alone will suffice. Ideas I've had on this is drilling a deep hole and driving in a glue covered dowel to ensure it stays in place. Another idea I have is to simply predrill and sink a wooden screw into the plane to help hold the piece in place. Any of these sound plausible to you?
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5588/14262411908_34be5c33de_c.jpg

The last issue is this dutchman, pretty bad fix by the original owners. The plan is to remove it, but then what? The mouth is pretty big, can I just make a slightly larger one to make it smaller, or should I perhaps remove the whole area and fit a bigger dutchman over the mouth and all, then cut a new mouth from above with chisels? And no nails like this one has..
https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2934/14447893314_70ee83568e_c.jpg

David Weaver
06-20-2014, 9:46 AM
A large mouth shouldn't be an issue, but at the very least, I'd take the nails and screws out of that thing in front of the mouth and reglue it either with hide glue or epoxy and then true the bottom again.

As for the cheek, there's no great way to repair a cracked cheek. If I was trying to make a usable plane where appearance didn't matter, I'd glue and screw it with wood screws, and make sure there was enough relief for the iron and wedge so that pressure isn't applied laterally to it again.

Derek Cohen
06-20-2014, 9:51 AM
Hi Dennis

I'm afraid that you get the same answer from me here that I gave you before. Perhaps someone will disagree and offer a different thought.

I have doubts whether this plane is salvageable. The mouth has already been repaired once (or more times) and those look like nails not screws holding the Dutchman down. the dutchman probably needs to be removed and replaced as the mouth appears enormous. Is the sole flat?

The main problem, however, is the broken cheek. These are notoriously difficult to repair. The crack there will allow the side to flex, and the wedge (and therefore the blade) will not be held firmly. Striking the wedge will further stress the cheek. I suspect that this will be unrepairable since there is a knot in the corner that is one of the reasons why the cheek cracked.

You can try and epoxy it together. See if this holds. It may only do so for a while.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Jessica Pierce-LaRose
06-20-2014, 10:12 AM
What about just going for ugly-and-working, gluing the cheek with whatever seems like it might work, and then screwing some sort of strip of steel plate across the left-hand cheek there, across the whole length of the escapement, like a giant mending plate? Ugly as sin, but might work? It doesn't look like there's a whole lot of wood the way the crack is to just wood screw it down.

Dave Anderson NH
06-20-2014, 11:44 AM
I'm with Joshua if you really want to make the plane a user. A 20cm plate screwed in place along the cracked side at 3mm thick (if plywood) or 4-5mm thick if solid wood is going to be ugly as sin, but it should make the plane usable. Other than that, removing the Dutchman, the nails, and gluing in a new patch should do the trick. Often it is easier to true the sole after the repair, but in this case do it first. Alternately, true the sole to remove the rounded over edges of the plane and glue a complete new sole in place. As long as the joints are tight, you can resole it in 2 or 3 pieces using scarf joints with the outer thin edge facing the heel of the plane.

Tom M King
06-20-2014, 1:14 PM
That's a bad spot for a knot.

David Weaver
06-20-2014, 1:23 PM
I think quite a lot of those continental planes were user made. Earlier this year, I bought a 28" continental jointer that looked good in a less than great picture on ebay. When I got it, it was white oak instead of beech and parts of it were broken that weren't shown in pictures. AT the price I paid, it made less sense to fight about it and more sense to just throw it away.

I'm not advocating that for this plane if you want to make a user out of it, you can if you want and with proper use of the double iron it should work OK as long as it stays flat under tension (and the cheek isn't damaged that bad) that it shouldn't.

I guess I mention that only because of the knot. I have a plane that has a knot right in the cheek, too - it's a japanese plane where the dai must've been made from scrap. It hasn't cracked, though, someone used it heavily. That one, I bought just for the iron.

Zach Dillinger
06-20-2014, 1:29 PM
Hi Dennis

I'm afraid that you get the same answer from me here that I gave you before. Perhaps someone will disagree and offer a different thought.

I have doubts whether this plane is salvageable. The mouth has already been repaired once (or more times) and those look like nails not screws holding the Dutchman down. the dutchman probably needs to be removed and replaced as the mouth appears enormous. Is the sole flat?

The main problem, however, is the broken cheek. These are notoriously difficult to repair. The crack there will allow the side to flex, and the wedge (and therefore the blade) will not be held firmly. Striking the wedge will further stress the cheek. I suspect that this will be unrepairable since there is a knot in the corner that is one of the reasons why the cheek cracked.

You can try and epoxy it together. See if this holds. It may only do so for a while.

Regards from Perth

Derek

I completely agree with Derek. I think this one has earned a retirement.

bridger berdel
06-20-2014, 4:02 PM
if I were going to try repairing it here's what I would do. run a saw kerf down the crack to the bottom of it, then make a slip of wood that fits it nicely. glue that in with good clamping pressure. an old dirty crack is unlikely to allow glue to bond.

Dennis Aspö
06-21-2014, 1:09 AM
Thanks for the feedback, I have some idea now of where to take this thing, if I can't get it to work I'll put it in my future workshop as decoration.

don wilwol
06-21-2014, 6:17 AM
You could also rip the side (or sides to match) and make new sides as if you were making a traditional plane lamination style.

Derek Cohen
06-21-2014, 6:32 AM
Don, that's an excellent idea.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Bill Rhodus
06-21-2014, 6:34 AM
I've bought these just to get the iron and chipbreaker and yours looks to have plenty of life left. Use the iron and make a laminated Krenov type plane and put it to work. Very easy to make this type of plane, google it.

Alan Schwabacher
06-21-2014, 12:47 PM
If you don't mind using power tools to repair a hand tool, you could cut a couple of 1/4" x 1/4" grooves the length of the plane, and glue in straight grained hardwood replacement. I'd leave the top edge with the crack showing, and make the first groove just below that. Leave a little space, and cut the next groove.

A reason not to take off the entire side or to make a rabbet at the top left edge is that this would remove the ears that support the wedge, so you would effectively need to rebuild that entire side of the plane. Removing and replacing only the two grooves might keep both more of the appearance, and the function of the existing structure.

The reason I mention power tools is that a tablesaw or router would stress the remaining parts less as you cut the grooves, making it more likely the wedge-holding ears would survive.

As far as the sole goes, I would get those nails out of there and glue in a replacement. But don't worry about the size of the mouth, because this has a double iron.

Derek Cohen
06-21-2014, 1:12 PM
Alan, I would use a tablesaw or bandsaw to rip of the side with the crack within 1/8" of the bed, and then glue on a section the same thickness.

Either that or nail the plane to the wall and use it as a coat rack.

Dennis, this is your first plane. I'm afraid that we all have been where you are now - making a poor purchase because of limited experience. I hope this was not too expensive. Can you return it and get your money back? Truly, this plane is not worth the effort of restoring. You still have the blade to derust and it may be pitted beyond salvage. There are much easier planes available to learn on.

Regards from Perth

Derek

David Weaver
06-21-2014, 2:15 PM
I've restored planes as bad as that, and blades that are probably worse, but I have an array of tools to do it. If I felt like making that plane good again, I could do it in about two hours.

I'll leave it to the OP to decide what they want to do, and the reason I say that is because shipping a plane that large isn't cheap. It often costs more to ship it than it costs to buy it, and shipping it back doesn't yield much or anything, sometimes more than the cost of the plane to begin with.

It appears that it's beech and the crack in the cheek makes it unsaleable, but it's very hard to tell what's on the face of the iron without seeing it. Sometimes the pitting is very bad around the contact points, but not so bad if you grind off an eighth of an inch of blade. The longest I've spent restoring an iron is an hour, and guaranteed it was in worse shape than that one. Admittedly, I did it to see if I could get something usable out of it and it literally visually is thinner than it was when it started.

So if you want to make it a plane that can be used, you can if you have an idea of what you need to do. Even so, were I in your position, I would keep my eye on current auctions and look for another one for the long haul, because even if you can get the plane to work, it will but you if you're like the rest of us.

If in the end you decide to ditch the plane, and or the iron is deeply pitted, if the cap iron is usable, keep it and get the rust off of it. Very little of a cap iron has to be in good shape for it to work well, unlike an iron, and it's mild steel and might come in use, either the cap iron or the screw.

The plane appears to be beech and if you junk it, cut the handle off and cut it in half at the cheeks and cut off any remaining cheeks. You never know when you'll want a piece of stable dry beech, either to make a smoother out of the front or just for any reason. It's not always easy to find. I've got four planes right now that have good irons that are in a good bit better shape than that, and they are probably going to get sawn up because I don't have the steam to try to ship a $25 plane for $20 when the iron itself is worth as much as the entire plane.

Dennis Aspö
06-21-2014, 3:33 PM
This plane was 9 euros + 5 euros shipping, so I am not feeling put of here, I think I can get this plane working and am looking forward to the experience. I am probably going to rip of the sides and laminate new ones one as was suggested. My initial idea was just to do that but on more limited scale, but just ripping of the sides will be a lot easier.

Worst comes to worst I have an iron and some hardwood. I also have a swedish steel plane and a stanley bailery no.3 that I am restoring and they're both in nice shape, all picked up at 2nd hand stores for small change. I think my best buy was this Flott (https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5497/14274140497_45ce43dfd3_b.jpg) brace and bit for 8 euros.