A rusty sow's ear!

[AndyT]

Regular readers will know that there is a nice man in Oldham with a big nose and a cheeky grin... I say he's a nice man, but he's a bad man really as he keeps showing us nice tools and then offering some of them for sale!

I can only resist so long, and so I am now the owner of Mr P's rusty shoulder plane with the condition that I take some pictures of what I do with it.

So here are some.

As you can see, it's a user-made shoulder plane of riveted construction, with a few cosmetic challenges, such as rust and paint spots, but I think I can deal with them, and make some sort of silk purse from it, maybe, one day.


I couldn't resist making a start.

The main problem seems to be that the back has been hammered a bit too much. The maker gave it a screw to hammer on, but it seems to not be supported on anything, so years of hammering have forced the screw into the infill, wedging it apart and opening up the sides

Consequently, the sides are not flat:

So, the first job was to get the screw out. It was a socket screw but the socket must have been an imperial one and I only have metric allen keys. A torx bit looked like it fitted but just rounded off the socket, so that was no good.

I tried cutting a slot with a mini tool and a cutting disc

which worked, but the screw would only revolve, not unscrew. I drilled a small hole down it and pulled it out with a hardened woodscrew.

I could then see that, as I had thought, the screw only went into the infill. As well as wedging the plane apart, it was not quite central. I plugged the hole with a bit of wood and drilled a new hole more nearly in the centre.

Into this I shall fit a bigger screw which will bridge over onto the metal like this:

It's just pushed in for now, but I shall glue it in place.

The infill, as Mr P said, looks like plywood, but when I was cutting the screw (and so making it hot) it gave off a distinctive smell of old circuit boards. I think it might be a synthetic resin bonded plywood, made up of many thin veneers. As such, it's ideal for the purpose, so it's staying there!

The wedge is badly mashed, but I think I can cut it back to a decent shape.

Also, the blade is very thin - I think it must be from a bit of hacksaw blade.

It's also too short - there is nothing to hit behind the wedge:

so I shall be off to Bristol Design to look for a better iron.

That's all for now: more soon, or when I get the time!

 

[Mr_P]

Many thanks for taking this on and even better taking pictures of the process.

I am however feeling a bit guilty maybe I should of paid you to take it off my hands

Thanks again,
Carl

ps. In the market for a Dremel and that looks like a substantial wee beastie, any details ?

 

[AndyT]

Don't worry, it's not the first old tool to visit the South West for some healing therapy!

The minidrill is a brand-free model I bought by mail order back in the 80s - it's lasting well so far!

 

[GLFaria]

Very interesting, thank you for showing and explaining. This shows that even with moderate resources and materials one can build working tools.

 

[G S Haydon]

The patron saint of lost causes . Joking aside I'm sure you'll breathe some new life into it.

 

[jimi43]

I going to really really enjoy this one!

Good first footings! 8)

Cheers mate

Jimi

 

[bugbear]

The infill, as Mr P said, looks like plywood, but when I was cutting the screw (and so making it hot) it gave off a distinctive smell of old circuit boards. I think it might be a synthetic resin bonded plywood, made up of many thin veneers. As such, it's ideal for the purpose, so it's staying there!

Tufnol or similar, I imagine. A sort of engineering form of fibre reinforced resin. Much used for laboratory equipment, manufacturing jigs etc.

Tuff, chemically inert and stable.

Edit: Bit more info:

http://www.eplas.com.au/3129050/eplas-e ... nvas-b.htm

BugBear

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

Will be watching with much interest! Thanks for taking on this job, as well as documenting the process - will give some of us more inspiration to take on "first glance" basket cases!

 

[AndyT]

Ok, I've found time to make a bit more progress.

The original maker seems to have had a very simple approach to rivets. This one is clearly too short, but also shows that it was never widened out - it seems to be just a plain pin of uniform diameter. I tapped it out with a nail; it was not holding on very tight.

Its opposite number at the top corner was a bit more resistant, and needed drilling out. The originals were 1/8" diameter (3.2mm) so drilling out with a 3mm drill meant I could centre punch for the drill just by eye. With both rivets removed, I pinched the body of the plane in the vice, to take up the distortion caused by a previous user hammering on the screw.

I had some mild steel rod to hand, but it was only in 3mm or 4mm. The 3mm size would be too loose to work and the holes are too near the edge to drill them out bigger. So I found a nail only slightly thicker, popped it into the lathe and ran a file against it for a few seconds, until it looked like this:

(I should add that my metalworking lathe is a treadle powered Barnes 4 1/2 - I would not feel so casual about things with a powerful electric one.)

The next step was to countersink the holes a little:

There is probably a formula for this, but I guessed at this much:

In a similar way, I guessed at this much extra metal on either side

then set about spreading the rivets into the countersinks, using a small ball pein hammer and the little anvil on the back of the vice.

With the two end rivets done, I filed off the surplus metal, trying to make the rivets disappear.

After that, there was a lot more filing, to remove most of the evidence of abuse. As this plane is not an antique treasure, I'm just trying to put it back into good working order and make it look a bit nicer.

The mini drill with a tiny drum sander was good for the internal curves

but most of the work was by hand, the simple way, going through 80, 150 and 320 grits, used wet.

I didn't go higher than 320 grit, having seen comments from others about a mirror finish not being helpful on a shoulder plane, though I couldn't resist using a bit of Autosol on the reasonably scratch free sides.

The infill has come up nicely - thanks for the link BB, I'm sure it's something like the stuff you linked to, but maybe based on veneer rather than canvas.

The last thing I did was to clean up the replacement strike button (on the lathe again) and epoxy it in place. It is just wide enough that any tapping will be transmitted to the steel sides, not to the infill. (I did also run some superglue down the crack before pinching up the end and re-riveting). So now that bit looks like this:

Coming soon: a replacement iron and tidying up the wedge!

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Looking good!

Using a nail as rivet stock was a very good idea - nails are usually made of a very mild grade of steel to enable the head to be formed without any intermediate annealing operations - cut the work-hardened head and point off, and the shank is still nice and soft, and peens nicely. It's probably a better bet than bright drawn rod, which especially in the smaller sizes, will have suffered work hardening in the drawing to size.

PS - Those little Record 3" 1-Ton vices are a really useful size as a metalwork vice for woodworkers, and not excessively expensive. Not in the same solidity league as a 'proper' fitter's vice, but very serviceable.

 

[AndyT]

Thanks CC - but I must add that using a nail for riveting was not my own inspiration - it was one of the many handy tips along the way that I learned from Richard T - in this post here.

And I agree about the vice - there was a time in the late 80s when Record suddenly dropped their prices so it would have been stupid not to buy one - I'm pretty sure that my vice was only about £20 new. (I bought some 'proper' sash cramps at the same time - tools to last several lifetimes.)

 

[bugbear]

then set about spreading the rivets into the countersinks, using a small ball pein hammer and the little anvil on the back of the vice.

For the more nervous, I seem to remember Ian Dalziel passing on a tip about using a reground
pin punch with a round head as a peining tool for dovetailed soles, and it would work just as well
for rivets in "sensitive" areas.

BugBear

 

[jimi43]

Superb bit of intense restoration there Prof!! Wonderful to see a tool that most would have simply binned, restored to such a high standard and an eminently useable too!

One tip...which I'm sure you knew anyway when creating a non-slip brushed effect on metal, is to lay the abrasive flat on a board with a straight edge and rub the plane up and down against that edge.

Go beyond the finest grit you want to near polished and then drop back to the coarser grit to finish.

This gives a fine surface ground look.

Great story and pics too Andy.

Cheers

Jim

 

[Racers]

I now use a tapered ream made from silver steel to gently taper the holes, you need much less hammering to swell the rivets. and they have no less holding power.

Pete

 

[AndyT]

I now use a tapered ream made from silver steel to gently taper the holes, you need much less hammering to swell the rivets. and they have no less holding power.

Pete

Now that's a good idea! - Noted.

 

[carpenteire2009]

Lovely work, thanks for sharing!

 

[AndyT]

Ok, I have now been shopping, and bought a nice 5/8" shoulder plane iron from Bristol Design. This isn't the clearest of photos, but you might just be able to see that the shoulder plane irons are a "top shelf" item:

(This is some of the rest of the plane iron stock:

showing that it's well worth a visit or phone call.)

The iron I bought was actually cut down from a wider iron and needed a little bit of further fettling with an angle grinder. No pictures of the nasty noisy thing - sorry, but I ran out of hands! You can see it's a bit more meaty than the 'iron' supplied with the plane.

The thicker iron allowed me to trim back the battered wedge, losing almost all of the damage

and here it is posed on the bandsaw

The Tufnol cuts very nicely. To shape it, I used a mixture of files, a chisel, and abrasive papers.

Drawfiling worked well

and finishing off with 320 grit produced a nice clean surface

I tried Jimi's trick to get parallel lines on a brushed finish. This was 320 grit, resting on some cushioned vinyl flooring in an attempt to work the parts of the surface that are not flat to NASA standards.

My photos are not as good as Jimi's and I didn't attempt to smooth out below all the pitting, but it's an improvement on what was there before.

So, here it is finished, before

and after

At this point, I know the rules say I have to show it cutting some wood. I don't have any part finished mortice and tenon joints, but for the purposes of posed demonstrations, here it is cutting end grain oak on an offcut of engineered flooring:

and here it is cleaning up a rebate in some softwood.

I hope you will agree that it works and was worth saving!

 

[jimi43]

Oh Andy that is STUNNING!

I'm please that you managed to find a more fitting iron for this most excellent of restorations...it deserves it and certainly it has given the tool more teeth!

Superb!

=D> =D> =D>

Jimi

 

[Harbo]

Fantastic work - wish I lived nearer Bristol - I called in once but they were closed!

Rod

 

[G S Haydon]

Excellent job!