A Plough plane reborn

[steven c newman]

A few years back, found an old plough plane at a garage sale...$15......missing the iron and wedge...tried to fix it back up...got in too big of a hurry...
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This is what came home with me. Cobbled a wedge, replaced the one arm that was broken where it attached to the fence. Iron came from a handle-less 1/4" chisel....was able to use it a bit
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But, the fence and the iron had issues holding a setting.....to the point the plane went "airbourne" and landed off in a corner...somewhere...:mad::rolleyes:

Fast forward to last week.....During the Spring Cleaning of the shop, came upon the old plane...
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That is a Stanley #4, for scale...Handle was lost...some of the other parts needed reworked..
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Screws were shot. Fence had a split ( that finally broke off) wedges were too worn, or just plain too small...
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Sole was NOT flat, side to side. Got that fixed, sharpened the iron, cleaned the rust off the skate. . Wedge was fired. Found some Walnut scraps, made a few new wedges.
Arms are locked in place by by a wedge. Wedge is tapered as is the slot it slides in. To tighten, you slide the wedge by tapping the wide, square end. to loosen, you tapped the rounded end.
New wedges needed to be a bit longer, with the square end a tad wider. Wedge for the iron needed a different profile, and the pointy end shaped to match the iron.
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I also found this chunk of Maple during the clean up. 1-1/2" thick....should be able to cut a handle out?
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Bandsaw roughed out the blank....which left the fence..
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Had a slab of Ash...marked it out to get the fence out of the best section, and cut for length....will need to plough a rebate...
That will be in Part 2.....stay tuned..:D

[steven c newman]

Ok, part 2....Have a belt sander called The Dragster....it has a very small front roller, that can get into small spaces....used it and a palmsander to shape and smooth the handle
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It is fat along the bottom edge due to it having to fit into a mortise. Mortise used to be a dovetail affair...didn't find any trace of it. Took awhile of sanding and fitting..
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Fits!...Can't rely on just glue, though. Added a counter-sunk #10 screw, at an angle to help hold the handle in place. fence blank needed a rebate, and some other plane work..
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Wards #78 for the rebate, Millers Falls #14 to joint an edge or two, and smooth the other faces. Wedges were "roughed out"
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Small wedges and their longer replacements, New wedge for the iron is in place.
Had to fix a split where a screw attached to the arm...screw was about shot, anyway
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Back then, they didn't put a point on a screw...Cleaned the split, after it had fallen apart, and added a spot of glue, and some clamps..
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Spent a lot of time, fine tuning the two wedges for the arms. Arms are also tapered, slightly. trick was to allow the arms to slide past a wedge, and yet be able to lock the arm in place. Fine tuned with a plane.
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Fence was drilled and the holes countersunk for a pair of #10 screws.
Allowed the glue to cure, then gave the new parts, and the old parts a coat of Golden Oak stain, then a coat of Amber Shellac..

Part 3? Well, maybe show off the reborn plough plane...stay tuned..

[steven c newman]

Part 3. Once the "finish" was dry enough to do a little plane work...set the fence to make a groove 1/4" in from the edge of a board...
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And made a few trips down a Pine scrap...watching shavings curl and spiral out the side..
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There isn't any "depth stop" to set, once it bottoms out, you're done...
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Underside. Finish scrapped off the bottom of the arms, when I was adjusting them...
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To loosen the wedges, you drive those rounded ends into the side of the plane.
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Left side..Maple handle, Ash fence, Beech body. Walnut arms.

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Right side. I left the skate on the body, screws wouldn't budge, anyway. Area in front of the iron is shaped to turn the shavings out to the right, as there isn't any place to go on the left.
This at one time, was part of a set. Used to make the groove in a Tongue & Groove Joint. Next, I need to find the match plane for this plane....made in Cincinnati OH, mid 1860s

Thanks for looking in....