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Thread: When patience pays dividends

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2019
    Location
    Northeast WI
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    571

    When patience pays dividends

    I missed out on a Stanley 5-1/2 last year and it kind of has haunted me ever since. Not that I truly needed one, but it was the only one I've ever seen locally.

    Today I stopped in my usual haunt and low and behold there is a Type 11 5-1/2 with a price tag of $19.

    IMG_20210429_173715150.jpgIMG_20210429_173720787.jpgIMG_20210429_173737950.jpgIMG_20210429_173743873.jpg

    I don't think the front knob is original, and the horn is broken from the tote, but being it's only the second one I've ever seen I wasn't going to leave it there.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    Fairbanks AK
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    I am glad I grabbed the only one ever seen for sale up here. I have mine setup up as my foreplane, blades can interchange to #6 and #7 if you aren't jumping accross too many type numbers. I don't have a #7. My 6 is quite a bit younger than my 5 1/2 with a different mouth opening, so I don't interchange, I leave my 6 set up as a panel plane, like a jointer plane but for smaller panels if the source I read that on is credible.

    Anyroad, with an 8-9 inch (about) radius crown on the iron, my 5 1/2 is a lovely tool for getting rough stock down to business. You have some restoration ahead of you, but for $19 I would have bought it if you had left it on the shelf for me to find. Good luck.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Texas Hill Country
    Posts
    705
    Congrats! Nice when patience finally pays off in such a dramatic way. $19!!! Did you buy a lottery ticket on the way home with the plane? ;0)

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    Edmond, Oklahoma
    Posts
    1,749
    Jason,

    Ya did good! It looks like you have a restoration project ahead though.

    In your case, the iron in your 5 1/2 will not interchange with the irons of the #6. #7. and # 4 1/2. Those three take a 2 3/8" iron, and your 5 1/2 takes a 2 1/4" iron. In the late 1930s Stanley changed the #5 1/2 to take a 2 3/8" iron like the #6, #7, and #4 1/2.

    Stew

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Longview WA
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    There is already one in my shop and this one would have come home with me at that price, great find.

    Before 1939 the #5-1/2 used a 2-1/4" blade. That might work on a #4-1/2, #6 or #7

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    Fairbanks AK
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    Jim, Stew, thank for clearing up the type numbers on the blade interchanging v- not interchanging.

    OP, wait for your wife to leave on a shopping trip before you rinse the naval jelly off in whichever bath tub you choose. Points for cleaning a bathtub while she was at target for six hours good, doghouse for leaving leaving phosphoric acid residue in one of the bathtubs bad.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2019
    Location
    Northeast WI
    Posts
    571
    Quote Originally Posted by Scott Winners View Post
    Jim, Stew, thank for clearing up the type numbers on the blade interchanging v- not interchanging.

    OP, wait for your wife to leave on a shopping trip before you rinse the naval jelly off in whichever bath tub you choose. Points for cleaning a bathtub while she was at target for six hours good, doghouse for leaving leaving phosphoric acid residue in one of the bathtubs bad.
    Sounds like you know from experience!

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