Need A Flat 4 Truing Up Planes...

[Derek Arita]

I'm trying to rehab some planes and find that I need a dead-flat 2'x2' surface to adhere the sand paper to for sanding the planes. I don't wish to use my table saw table.

[Chris Hachet]

Try an off cut piece of granite from a counter top supplier. For me, I use diamond stones, gets them flat enough for my purposes.

[David Gilbert]

My suggestion is to visit some of your local glass shops and see if they have any scrap that you can buy. Our club ran a plane reconditioning workshop and we bought several 36 x 6 x 1/2" pieces for something like $5 each. Since you don't really care about the color they were really cheap. We bought some sanding belts, cut them up, and then glued them down. I worked great to flatten the bottoms.

Good luck,
David

[Jim Koepke]

I'm trying to rehab some planes and find that I need a dead-flat 2'x2' surface to adhere the sand paper to for sanding the planes.

It is easier to ruin a plane's sole than it is to make it perfect.

My advice is to leave it as it is unless there is a clear reason for lapping the sole of a plane.

jtk

[Derek Arita]

So
It is easier to ruin a plane's sole than it is to make it perfect.

My advice is to leave it as it is unless there is a clear reason for lapping the sole of a plane.

jtk
I don't know much about planes, but I thought it was important to flatten the sole? No?

[Jim Koepke]

So
I don't know much about planes, but I thought it was important to flatten the sole? No?

In a word, no.

Most planes have a sole that is adequate for the job they do.

If there isn't a problem that can be traced to the sole not being flat, then there isn't a need to do anything to it.

Most of my planes are just how they arrived in my shop. A few that had heavy rust on the bottom were given a light treatment of sole cleaning on abrasive paper.

My advice is to clean the plane with brushes or rags. More so if you want to repaint it. Sharpen the blade, make sure the chip breaker is seating properly, reassemble, and give it a test on a piece of wood.

If there are problems, bring them up here and there will be many willing to help.

jtk

[Joe Bailey]

It is easier to ruin a plane's sole than it is to make it perfect.

My advice is to leave it as it is unless there is a clear reason for lapping the sole of a plane.

jtk

+1 to this.

[Judson Green]

It is easier to ruin a plane's sole than it is to make it perfect.

My advice is to leave it as it is unless there is a clear reason for lapping the sole of a plane.

jtk


+1 to this.

+1 more to that.

In general I only messed with em if there really out. Like a 5 I had was very badly concaved in the center along its entire length (must have only been used for edge work) and I went at it big file. I did flatten the sole of a 4, but that was before I knew better. A ton of work that's not really needed.

[Derek Arita]

Jim, thanks for the reply. Up where? I'm in the Sacramento area. Where is up here? Like I said, I've never handled a good working plane, so I have no reference of what I'm shooting for. I can only go by web stuff.

[Jim Matthews]

The most important bottleneck for proper plane function is a sharp blade.

After that, the clearance for the shaving to pass through the mouth.
It won't hurt your plane to check for flat by assembling the plane,
backing the blade into the body and putting a straightedge on it
while you try to spy a light source behind it.

Have you examined the sole by this method?

[Winton Applegate]

You may or may not need to work on the plane soles but there is more than one way to go about it.
Do nothing until you read this (http://www.finewoodworking.com/how-to/article/souping-up-the-block-plane.aspx).
It is one of the very best explanations of what a plane sole needs to do and how to quickly get it there; (even if you don't have a flat slab) and the article fills you in on all the other things you need to know about how a hand plane works. Other than the chip breaker; for that you can read some recent threads here on Sawmill.

And the Toshio Odate book (http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Woodworking-Tools-Tradition-Spirit/dp/0941936465/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1423201326&sr=1-1&keywords=toshio+odate) is great stuff. Not all of it applies to western planes but it tends to agree with the first article I linked to.

It is going to be hard to make junker planes work like well made planes if you have not experienced a well made plane.

You might want to save yourself some grief and a whole lot of time and just go here and buy some well made planes (http://www.leevalley.com/US/Wood/page.aspx?p=51870&cat=1,41182,41187&ap=1)that you can use out of the box.

As far as FINISH planes I have had to go at it on the sole as described in the book and FWW article to get decent results on competitor's brand new finish planes though every one of my Varitas planes I just use with out having to flatten or fettle and for less money than the competitor.
I sure can not complain about that.

[Daniel Rode]

I got this same advice early on. It has saved me a ton of time and unnecessary effort. It also taught me to think about why and how I was altering a tool before I started. What's it doing or not doing and what do I need to do to correct it? Often a vintage plane needs nothing more than cleaning, oiling and sharpening to work well.


It is easier to ruin a plane's sole than it is to make it perfect.

My advice is to leave it as it is unless there is a clear reason for lapping the sole of a plane.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

Jim, thanks for the reply. Up where? I'm in the Sacramento area. Where is up here? Like I said, I've never handled a good working plane, so I have no reference of what I'm shooting for. I can only go by web stuff.

Sorry, my wording could have been better.

My meaning was if there are problems, mention them here on SMC. A new thread/post about a specific problem will usually get others to help with solutions they have used in the past.

Otherwise, I usually welcome people to visit my shop if they are in the area. I used to live in the San Francisco area, now I am north/west of Portland, Oregon.

My beginnings of using planes was much like your own. The most important step was learning how to sharpen a blade. The next was how to adjust the blade in the plane to get a thin full width shaving. Once you get to that point the learning curve is headed down a slippery slope.

jtk

[lowell holmes]

Woodcraft has some granite slabs. I will buy one the next time I am close to their store.

[Phillip West]

Grizzly sells granite surface plates. you can get a 9" x 12" x 3" for about $30 and shipping isn't bad at all as they go by price for shipping not weight. Its good for all kinds of things. We have one in our "clean" knife making shop and it gets used all the time..

[David Ragan]

You may or may not need to work on the plane soles but there is more than one way to go about it.
Do nothing until you read this (http://www.finewoodworking.com/how-to/article/souping-up-the-block-plane.aspx).
.

Winston, that was a great article ("Souping up the block plane"). I would like to read some more on that, I think more understanding in this area would help me. Do you have other articles?

Thanks, David