repurposeing

[Tom Bussey]

There have been, and I am sure there will be again, times when I wished I had a chisel plane. As far as I know my only choices for one was Lee Valley or Lie Nielsen. And those are over $100.

Now I had cut the front of from a regular angle Dunlap block plane before and it works well for cutting glue off from glued up panels so I could send them through the drum sander and somewhat functioned as a chisel plane but I always thought a low angle block plane would work better. Well it is very cold outside and my shop has been put to bed for the winter, and I thought now is a good time as any to do it, so I used my Dremel tool with a cut off wheel and cut the front off from one of my block planes. I shaped it a bit on my disc sander. And the pictures is of what is left.

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Some of my other repurposing items are chisels found at a flea market for a dollar or less, reground into dovetail chisels. I did a 1/2 dovetail chisel that I posted a while ago and lately I started on a quarter inch dove tail chisel. One needs to be a lot more carful with the quarter inch chisel. Not done yet but I will get there. Now none of these tools look nearly as nice as the ones from the big boys but flea market prices are a lot easier on my budget.

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[David Eisenhauer]

Nice work Tom. I am interested in seeing any more "repurposing" photos you come up with. I have a beater block plane that I can see is begging for repurposing.

[Frederick Skelly]

+1 Tom - more examples of repurposing would be appreciated!
Fred

[Mark Gibney]

I would never have thought to do that with a block plane. Looks great. Do you like how it works?

[Pat Barry]

I like to remove the glue BEFORE it gets so hard that I need to use a tool to remove it.

[David Eisenhauer]

The cut down plane should work just fine on "rubberized" glue squeeze out from where I am looking.

[George Conklin]

Brilliant!
+3 on seeing more of your repurposing ideas.
Thanks for sharing:).

[Jerry Olexa]

Good effort!!! Always like to reuse things for a different purpose....well done!!!

[Bill McNiel]

I really like the chisel plane, creativity well executed.

[Tom Bussey]

I like to get my glue before it hardens also, but sometimes life just gets in the way and things don't always work out as planed. I didn't think that a standard angle cut off block plane worked real well as a chisel plane and hence I found that it worked well on a glued panel or in a tight area is all. If I sharpen the low angle block at a 22.5 angle My cutting angle should match the cutting angle of the original Stanley's and the LN. For most applications it should function as well as they do. But because of the way the sides are it will not be able to get right in a corner but at $135 difference in price I can live with it. Hay, if I only use it once a year I come out ahead.

As I said my shop has been put to bed for the winter, our high got up to zero today. So I haven't really had a chance to try it out yet but I will get to it

[Jim Koepke]

As I said my shop has been put to bed for the winter, our high got up to zero today.

Yeah, if my shop got that cold my time would also be spent doing something else. As it is when it is down in the mid 20s (rarely) going to the movies seems a better choice than freezing my bahoogies off.

jtk

[Stew Denton]

Hi Tom,

It looks great, good job! +4 on the photos of some of your other repurposed items.

Stew

[Tom Bussey]

I posted, Building Grandsons Christmas Present, earlier on this forum. It should be only a few pages back. I did however manage to show my grand son, who is 12, how to assemble his workbench when we had our family Christmas a couple of weeks ago. I didn't put it all together but I thought he had the idea.

I did get it to my son's house and assembled it in the garage about 5 days later. Zak was not at home at the time. Today my grandson's stepmother, Donna, sent me a picture of what has happened to it so far. He disassembled it and they took it into the house and he re-assembled it in the dining room and covered it with a table cloth and used it as a buffet table. Go figure.

Donna asked me to build another one a little larger for her to use as a dinning room table so I guess you know where the idea came from. My wife also said if anything ever happens to me she wanted to use my workbench for the kitchen table. So maybe I am on to something new repurposing, workbenches into dinning room tables.

Now I will have to drive about 40 miles to get a couple of pictures of that. I was asked for more repurposing ideas but this one I didn't think of.

[Jim Koepke]

So maybe I am on to something new repurposing, workbenches into dinning room tables.

Restaurants have used old woodworking benches for tables. Some have used them for wine service stations. There recently was some trend in decorating to put old benches in folks homes for a hall table or dining service.

jtk

[Carl Baker]

I love that idea... I have enough damaged block planes and parts that I will likely give this a shot.
On a related note, a few years back I got into an estate sale where I just grabbed everything I could get my hands on tool wise. No 71 router, two 82 scrapers, a 113 compass plane (gifted to my dad since he has more time to figure out what to do with such things), a 57 core box plane (which I traded to another sale-goer for two atkins back saws and a mortise chisel)... see how I worked in that tool gloat?

Anyway the final item was a 5 1/4 bench plane that has the toe cut off similar to what you did with your block plane. Its in great condition otherwise, and I have no idea why it was done, but sincerely hope it was the result of damage. At present, I can figure out no good use for it. The angle is too steep to use effectivly with the toe gone (whereas the low angle of your block wouldn't have that issue). It just sits on a dusty shelf waiting for a purpose... Any thoughts?

[Jim Koepke]

Anyway the final item was a 5 1/4 bench plane that has the toe cut off similar to what you did with your block plane. Its in great condition otherwise, and I have no idea why it was done, but sincerely hope it was the result of damage. At present, I can figure out no good use for it. The angle is too steep to use effectivly with the toe gone (whereas the low angle of your block wouldn't have that issue). It just sits on a dusty shelf waiting for a purpose... Any thoughts?

You could make a low angle frog out of a hardwood for it and use it like a chisel plane. You would likely have to use it bevel up and do away with the cap iron.

jtk

[Carl Baker]

You could make a low angle frog out of a hardwood for it and use it like a chisel plane. You would likely have to use it bevel up and do away with the cap iron. jtk
That's idea... infill chisel plane! There are some other priorities at the moment, but when I embark on that one, I will share progress / process pics. Thanks!

[lowell holmes]

Restaurants have used old woodworking benches for tables. Some have used them for wine service stations. There recently was some trend in decorating to put old benches in folks homes for a hall table or dining service.

jtk

I can't imagine that. :) I would not want my maple work bench soiled.

[Jim Koepke]

I can't imagine that. :) I would not want my maple work bench soiled.

These were all well used and well worn benches. My recollection is they were in a business up in Seattle.

A person in an antique shop in Oakland, CA with a few old work benches told me people like to use them for wine bars in their homes.

Imagine making a bench and then wearing it out and selling it to some millennial for more than it costs for materials to build a new one. That sounds like a win to me.

jtk