In the Millers Falls bench plane line, I have two Type 1s myself, a #9 and a #22. I also have a #8, another #9, a #10, #14, #18, and another #22 that are other than Type 1.
In the Millers Falls bench plane line, I have two Type 1s myself, a #9 and a #22. I also have a #8, another #9, a #10, #14, #18, and another #22 that are other than Type 1.
That 22 is a nice find there, saw a 24 on ebay within the last year, if I remember correctly the winning bid was around $900, too rich for me.
Tom is definitely right about this. As my Dad told me more than half a century ago, "When it comes to woodworking tools, sharp fixes a lot of ugly."
OP I suggest that you sharpen up your #8 and see if it really needs to be flattened. You might get a pleasant surprise. However, I do understand about knowing that something is not perfect and that little doubt in your mind that it could work better if it was corrected. It can drive us OCD types crazy
Allen
I can attest to the fact that filing is a skill. Back in the late '70's and 80's I builkt a lot of muzzle loading rifles - from scratch, meaning lock, stock and barrel. That entails a LOT of filing. The most challenging was draw filing the flats on octagonal barrels. I also draw filed planing forms for planing the taper on bamboo for making bamboo fly rods - lots of work.
Advice: First, buy GOOD files; it makes the chore easier, despite the price. Second, slow down and constantly check your work.
This is an important step, especially when removing metal. It is also important to know if and/or what metal one needs to remove.Second, slow down and constantly check your work.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Ralph has said that he has a high spot right be hind his throat opening. If it is really high, the plane rocks when the pressure is switched from the toe to the heel. This caused the chipto brake and the edge to not be straight and a straight edge is why he wants to use a jointer in the first place. A sharp blade can't fix this problem and if someone tries to lap it they just make the high spot worse because it rocks.
This is why I am assuming that Ralph has sent his plane to me to do. Hopefully he will post about his out come when he gets it back.
Tom
Last edited by Don Kingston; 10-07-2019 at 9:23 AM.
Evaluate the sole for twist first, which isn't always easy. The bump behind the mouth could be the least of your concerns.
Warped? Nah...more like worn. How many decades of dragging the plane back, after each stroke, while keeping the toe on the boards? If the operators over that same amount of time, always pushed their planes at a slight skew? tends to add up after a while, don't it? Wood bodied planes do warp....they are made of wood, and they wear faster. Heat MIGHT warp the iron bodies, but...I don't think anyone would heat up a plane.....unless they grind a sole....or braze a break.....then things might warp...worse than when you started with...
That is where my big hunka granite was acquired:
Granite on Horse.jpg
This one is about 4' long.
Check locally for monument makers.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Very recently I ‘lapped’ the bottom of two planes, a post war Stanley #4 and a brand new Lie Nielsen hinge plane. Both were in a cardboard box on the floor going out to a job site when a Tornado touched down nearby and the rain was so hard I had 3” of muddy water in my whole shop. It was several days before I discovered this and both planes had considerable rust on the bottom and sides.
I removed the worst of the rust with an oil stone, then washed them and switched to a good size CBN plate, coarse to start then fine. Watching the shades of grey on the bottom teaches you how hard it is to do this evenly, even in a figure of 8 and swapping end for end often as my engineer father taught me. After that I used my Shapton water stones up to 5000. The area behind the mouth on the Stanley was clearly very slightly lower than the rest of the bottom. The Lie Nielsen was somewhat less rusty and faster to fix, shiny is now grey.
Not the same lapping challenge as the OP but teaches you how hard it is to do well.
My new hobby: cleaning up 1400 sq feet of dried mud under and around tools, emptying plastic tool cases of water and throwing away boxes.
Perhaps you can rust off your high spot Ralph?
Last edited by William Fretwell; 10-10-2019 at 2:15 PM. Reason: Add humour
You can do a lot with very little! You can do a little more with a lot!
Take off the high spots first, colour in the sole and make sure to leave the edges until the very last...i.e
Don't use an abrasive longer or wider than the plane is, otherwise you will make it convex if your lapping it
on a surface plate.
The ink is very helpful as it will tell you that your getting too close to the edges.
You only need a few licks at the very end with full width/length abrasive, don't go too far as you will ruin all of your work.
Don't follow any video instructions that won't demonstrate the test at the end with feelers.
You won't find a video of lapping done correctly as far as I know, but maybe someday someone will do one.
Tom