Stanley No.4, Type 20....rehab

[steven c newman]

So...lets see, picked this plane up Saturday...
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Sitting there in the middle..yellow logo and all...tore it down last night...
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Yeah....and decided to clean and rehab it today.....took a whopping....90 minutes...
Handles were stripped of their flaky black paint, then refinished...all hardware was cleaned up. iron was too, then the back was flattened, the bevel sharpened up ( had a few chips missing) chipbreaker mated to the iron. Frog was cleaned up....sides and sole too..."Two-Finger Test" for sole flatness turned out ...flat...just needed cleaned off. And...a pine test track was soon set up..
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Took a few tries, to get the settings just right...
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And to where it can do the "see through shaving"
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Seems to be working..
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Handles look a bit better, without the flaky black paint...
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Even works decently on Ash...
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Stanley N0. 4, Type 20, Made in USA.....

(once I started to plane the boards,, it was kind of hard to stop...it was even FUN!)

[Frederick Skelly]

Saved another one! Looks good and performs even better.
Could you please explain what is a ""Two-Finger Test" for sole flatness"?

Thanks,
Fred

[steven c newman]

Index finger from each hand....one on each end of a plane's base. With the plane sitting on a flat surface, press down with each finger...trying to see IF the base will rock...then do it again on the diagonals...again trying to get it to rock....this Stanley did not even move....

Works for about any length of plane. I do the check first....no sense in trying to flatten something that already is ...flat...

no straight edges, no feeler gauges...just 2 fingers....simple and quick as can be...

[lowell holmes]

Black automotive paint does a good job on rusty planes. Remove the rust, prime and paint.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Could you please explain what is a ""Two-Finger Test" for sole flatness"?

Funny, you beat me to it and we already have an answer :D

That sure was fast Steve, only 90 minutes for the total rehab? Amazing. Seems to work pretty well also.

[Stew Denton]

Steven,

+1 on what Andrew wrote, amazingly quick time to get a "garage sale" type plane back into great working shape and thus rescue it from continue rust away in obscurity.

Nice job.

Stew

[steven c newman]

Thanks....still haven't decided on that yellow logo......have a type 20, Made in England that has a red logo.....Hmmm....I seem to remember that the Two-Tone Stanleys use a yellow logo....but, they also used a brown painted base.....this one is NOT a Two-tone plane.....iron has the clipped corner Stanley box logo, and Made in USA....

[Richard Hutchings]

Plane restoring always leads to joyfully planing away until my arms are tired. Nice job on that one.

[Thomas Wilson]

Thanks....still haven't decided on that yellow logo......have a type 20, Made in England that has a red logo.....Hmmm....I seem to remember that the Two-Tone Stanleys use a yellow logo....but, they also used a brown painted base.....this one is NOT a Two-tone plane.....iron has the clipped corner Stanley box logo, and Made in USA....
Hey Stephen. Do you use a buffing wheel for final clean up rust and brightening? Or just Scotch Brite pads? TW

[steven c newman]

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Have replaced the white wheel with a 6" Brass wire wheel.....use the wire wheel first, final is a few passes with the cloth wheel...there are also new brass wire brushes for my drill press...
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The small cone one can get into the cramped spaces...

[Thomas Wilson]

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Have replaced the white wheel with a 6" Brass wire wheel.....use the wire wheel first, final is a few passes with the cloth wheel...there are also new brass wire brushes for my drill press...
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The small cone one can get into the cramped spaces...
Thanks. I want to fix up some planes my grandfather fixed up.