But jokes asides, these past few days, being left alone, I did a constant marathon and pretty well done most of my 109 wooden planes. A few had no blades, had a few spare blades, made new matches.
All the moulding planes: H&R (28), Beaders (9) and all others had their body washed, then wax & Feed. Blades all de-rusted, lots of sharp ones (my users)
Found two more mildewed ones, now got three in quarantine.
On the bench planes, the most stucked blades, or I should say stuck, frozen solidly blades in their body got fixed for a good match. Not all, just the worse. The irons with the most mushrooms top, were fixed, got out my spare irons, and de-rusted them. Made new match with empty body and blade assembly. Their body got washed, Wax N Feed. Took notes of damages and further work required (find or make new parts) Some that had some body issues, were attended to.
Oh, and got her plant stand de-rusted and repainted also while I was at it :-)
All that say that there should be lots of iron (perhaps a bit rusty) in my blood right now, I quit !! :-)
Start de-rusting with a wire brush in my cordless, but it quickly dies
There has to be a better way.
Took it all apart
Rust paint and clear outdoor Varathane on the wood parts
This is what my poor trusty stainless steel brush looks like after seeing recently:
5 Hand drills, 10 Block planes, about 100 or so planes irons.
The small shanks moulding irons are murder on the brush :-)
I need a new jug of Evaporust and probably should start thinking about replacing my trusty brush :-)
This is the one I used to brush the items out of Evaporust under water in the sink.
If it comes out brown, still rusty, when it stop getting rusty brown item is done, pat dry and off to wire wheel. After closer inspection following wire wheel, may need some sanding or scraping to expose fresh rust under hardened black spot. Should be flat or pitted, nothing should be standing proud of the surface.
Keep brushing under water until it stops coming out muddy brown (rust)
Scrape hard spots with a razor, they will start bleeding brown rust.
Ready to go to wire wheel
Some rust spots shows up brown after a good wire wheel brushing
You have to break the surface of those rust spots sticking up.
Scrape, sand what have you, back to the wheel
then final soak in Evaporust should get it all
I am happy that I stopped all rust for now.
Obviously a hand forged chunk of blade.
I will need to grind a flat of on top in order to protect my plane hammer
Similarly, happy with this blade assembly
Last step is to give them a good hand buffed coat of Autosol to protect them
OK, I went a bit overboard on that one :-)
A bit of WD 40 in the screw bolt and re-assembled
Screw damages is attended to
Short work with a file. I like to use this parallelogram sized file ( Japanese saw file)
It let me put a ever so small chamfer of the top inside of the slot to ensure no damages lip is preventing screwdriver blade to sit fully. NO, I would not taper the slot.
Finish by blending surfaces under wire wheel.
Besides a shrinking body which could pinch the blade assembly pretty tight, rust can tenaciously attach itself to both metal and wood. Take a look at the side of that blade
See the hard black stuff on both sides. That is after soaking and wire wheel.
They are hard rust nodules and are staying put. Sanding the sides of the blade will fix that.
Mushroomed over blade ends should be addressed at this time also. They are an accident waiting to happen. Especially when they have been damaged to this point :-(
Big time damages on both sides.
Just waiting for a chunk to fly off when struck
Quick work on the grinder
Finish with a file, then back soaking, wire wheel, done
And lastly, wrapping up damages found, the tip of moulding plane's wedges are fragile.
When damaged they will cause the plane to Jam, because shavings will get trap
between the blade and wedge.
See the scratches at the tip?
That was caused by the lazy habit of using a sharp object to dislodges the jammed shavings.
Don't be so lazy and remove wedge to clear shavings then investigate
why they are jamming in the first place.
This one is damaged, the shavings will get trap under
I have no idea what caused this sort of damages ??
Broken tip. A sure fire to way to caused jams
Now a final word about restoring blades and wedges in moulding planes, especially.
If you go nutso cleaning the blade and sand it all shiny, you have reduced its thickness.
You are then changing the wedge position, it will go lower.
This in turn may force you to alter the tip of the wedge. A dangerous proposition if you do not know what you are doing. Those seemingly simple flat planes all play a role in how they support the blade, how they turn and redirect shavings and etc.
Sometimes, having the wedge go lower is a plus because it let you reshaped a broken tip, but you can do more damages than good.
Another simpler option is to glue a paper or cardboard shim on the frog surface, to make up for loss thickness. My vintage Japanese Dai had this done umpteen years ago and it still do the job.
Sometimes your only and better fix is to simply make a new wedge. If you ever do that you will quickly learn the intricacies of the wedge design. Either that or you will pull your hair out. You still got hair, right? :-)
Meanwhile, back in my cave, time to clean the plane till and start putting them back
Bob, with a big pile of planes and various parts awaiting to be re-united again.
I can now sleep tight knowing they will stop rusting :-)
Inventory isn't done until it has been verified by an outside source. I got tired just reading about what you did.
ReplyDeleteThe outside inspection will have to wait another day. I quit :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, i am a tad tired of wooden planes by now. But ill get over it soon enough :-)
Bob sipping a cold one admiring his pile of done planes
Thanks for all this info, Bob. You've shamed me into searching harder for the cause of jammed shavings when they happen. I get that often with my wooden planes - both bench planes and molding planes. And I promise not to use a sharp metal instrument to dislodge them ...
ReplyDeleteI was recommended a paint for metal that is awesome. It's Coronado Rust-Scat. I used the oil, which is a urethane resin on a cast iron umbrella base that was showing rust. The paint is direct to metal, so I wire brushed most of the rust and painted. It's been a few years and it still looks great. I never got anywhere near that with Rustoleum.
ReplyDeleteCoronado is a Ben Moore brand - you can get it there.
I use it on planes too.
Haha Matt glad I converted you :-) Your planes will thank you.
ReplyDeleteIf your wooden planes have an habit of jamming shavings, more than likely the wedge is the trouble. Not necessary the wedge itself but its mating surfaces.. Any damages at the pointy end and you are asking for jams. Look carefully, pay attention to the mating lines body / blade / wedge, they should be tight. If not look for rust inclusions on the body / wedge / blade
Bob, who thought I was done, but came across a couple blades that could not wait...so back making a mess in my cleaned bathroom, sigh
Thanks for the tip Steve.
ReplyDeleteNext time I'm in the city I'll look it up.
I just used whatever I had on hand. I dont expect it to last outside much more than a year or two, before ill have to look close to the paint again
Bob, taking a break from the wire wheel