Rescuing a Record No3 - updated with final product

[Blackswanwood]

I spotted this in the window of a second hand shop in London just before lockdown ...

It cost £5 and was "rediscovered" while searching for something at the end of last week having been shoved in a box of odds and sods at the back of a cupboard.

I've dated it as having been manufactured between 1976 and 1988 with a bit of help over on Woodhaven2. It's been made in England but isn't really a great advert for British Workmanship with a wonky frog and some rough casting. I don't know why Record used that varnish/lacquer as it always cracks ...

At some point it has had some sticky goo spilt on it. I'm pretty sure this wasn't to try and protect against rust but in any case there is no pitting and just a bit of surface rust.

I don't like the split steel y lever (probably a cost cutting measure?) but in fairness it works fine.

First job was remove the gunk ...

The surface rust cleaned off quite easily with 600 grit wet and dry. There are a few chips in the enamel paint ...

... which I touched up first with primer.

You may have spotted in an earlier picture that the rear handle had a crack in it. It broke when I looked at it.

The cause of the wobbly frog was self evident - where it sits on the plane body had some rough casting which I tidied up with a mill file.

I was careful to take the minimum of material off and also checked that the underside of the frog was flat. It now sits square.

A bit of "brassoing" was called for ...

Continued in next post ...

 

[Blackswanwood]

The handle was glued. It's also been strengthened with a dowel - sorry I didn't take a picture of that as I was distracted by the need to humanely dispose of a squirrel. Here's the glue up though (before I wiped the excess glue off) ...

I then put a new bevel on the iron. I know it's possible to do it with a dished piece of kerbstone and some unicorn tears but I did it my way ...

Having recreated the bevel on the Tormek I finished off with Japanese Waterstones using a Veritas guide ...

The bevel has a slight camber. Other sharpening methods achieve the same results and use the one that suits you. I enjoy doing it this way but then maintain the edge with a diamond plate. Genuine request - please start another thread if you want to extol the virtue of your chosen sharpening process.

The primer has now been covered with Roundel Blue enamel paint ...

... and the handles given a new lease of life ...

Next stage will be to flatten the face of the frog, assemble and then flatten the sole.

 

[Blackswanwood]

I missed a step which was to check the pads in front of the mouth were flat/level so got this sorted next ...

The sole was flattened using abrasive on a sheet of plate glass. I worked through from 120 to 600 grit.

To make it easier to see where any high or low points were I used a Sharpie to put some lines on the sole.

The plane was reassembled before flattening and I used this trick that I picked up from Chris Tribe to stop the abrasive sheets becoming clogged up with filings ...

The end result is a plane that makes very respectable shavings ...

... and doesn't look too shabby ...

The bare metal parts have had a coat of machine wax and the handles will get a few more coats of hard wax over the next few days.

 

[Sideways]

Nice !
One to be proud of, and a useful tutorial for the rest of us. Thanks

 

[worker]

Nice job! Where did you pick this up from in London? I'll be going there soon and wouldn't mind picking up a few bits for restoration as well

 

[Blackswanwood]

Nice job! Where did you pick this up from in London? I'll be going there soon and wouldn't mind picking up a few bits for restoration as well

It was totally random - the shop was mainly selling mobile phones. I was travelling back from a meeting in Needham and there was an incident that screwed up the Tube. I decided to get the bus and the shop was next to the bus stop. The bloke in the shop had no idea what it was!

 

[Chisteve]

Nice work - planes always come up well with a little work

Well done