New here, and slowly repairing to working order the mountain of old tools in my 120 year old house leftover from three generations of handymen (though great-great-great? gramps was a career wheelwright and carriage maker).
Among the tools is a Stanley plane of undetermined type. In comparison to my #4 Smoother that I got for Christmas a few years ago, it is a little more finicky. For instance, the lateral adjustment lever moves the depth adlustment tab itself left to right whereas my #4’s lateral adjustment has a separate steel disk it moves left to right.
Like most of the tools in the house, this plane has seen alot of undue wear and tear. Orange enamel was spilled on the back of the body at some point and the blade, like most edges in the house, was very poorly honed. There are two big concerns right now:
The fact that the knob is missing, along with the threaded collar. Only a crater in the steel remains where the attachment point should be. My choices are to JB weld a pan headed wood screw vertically onto the body or drill a hole through the base and use a very large ground pan headed wood screw through the body into a new knob (I have some maple scraps from one of our trees set aside and well seasoned for the task). Either option may involve filling the crater with the welder.
I plan to use electrolysis to clean the rust up, but I can’t seem to remove the depth adjustment knob fromt he mechanism because the lateral adjustment moves the tab, effectively pinning the whole thing together if you try to unscrew it. I can’t run electrolysis with a brass knob in the mix.
Note I intend to use these tools, I’m no collector. It would seem wrong to fix up such old things, some of which were forged just to build the house, and not use them. What guidance can anyone provide?
Replies
My guess is that your #4 isn't a Stanley plane. The only Bailey pattern plane I know of that moves the depth adjustment tab of the depth adjusting yoke is a Birmingham plane. Birmingham planes have a rectangular part on the end of the lateral adjustment lever that has a rectangular hole that captures the depth adjustment tab. Incidentally, these were the first of the Bailey pattern planes with a lateral adjustment lever. Stanley forced Birmingham out of business with patent infringement law suits than took Birmingham developments, like the lateral adjustment lever, as their own.
Actually
I think you misunderstand: the #4 Stanley is indeed a Stanley plane, its got Stanley embossed over the lever cap, Stanley stamped into the blade, and #4 cast into the body. Half of the gift was the fact that it came in its original box with Stanley's original propaganda; one of the few gifts where I felt like my parents had really made it personal. The plane that is broken is another plane that was buried in the barn, though it is nearly identical in dimensions to the #4, so maybe I am misunderstanding you :P .
Wow, okay, that would explain the lever thing; it is fashioned exactly as you described.
Also makes me feel a little betterAlso makes me a little squeemish about the posibility that I screw up fixing it, though it is a shame that Stanley pulled Marconi-esque shananigans to cement their hold. Thanks for the info.Still looking for advice on how to fix the knob, and now I am curious: if Bailey is the style of the metal plane, where did the name come from?
I think people would need to see a photo of what's going on with the knob to give an answer.
Leonard Bailey developed the Bailey style plane. He sold his business to Stanley pretty early and went to work for them as a contractor designer. It was a rocky relationship with him leaving a few times. It's thought that Leonard Bailey was probably one of those involved in the Birmingham Plane Company. During one of his splits with Stanley he developed the Defiance Plane Company and produced another line of planes. He then sold the Defiance company to Stanley who, much later, used that name on a cheap line of planes. It's been a lot of years since I did any reading about Stanley stuff, this is all from memory but I think it's reasonably accurate.
Larry,
Great to see a message from you. I haven't been to Knots in quite a while. I stopped back today. Not much as changed. I have been at The Burl. It too has become pretty sparse. I have been spending far more time in the shop, and far less on line. A good thing. Have taken a course from Ben Hobbs and will be taking another soon. Have been thoroughly bitten by the Period Furniture bug.
Hope all is well with you. Glad to see that you are still helping those with questions.
Mel
I am not sure if I understand.
I am not sure what you are saying about the lateral movement lever and I am not real sure what you are saying about the knob.
I just refurbished an old Bailey #4 hand plane. Like stated in another post a picture would help.
Are you saying the front knob is broken? Be careful welding on cast iron. Cast iron does not take to being welded well in some cases and the welder should be well versed in welding cast iron. That said, Cast iron and weld swell when heated to welding temps. The weld will shrink a little but the cast will not. If welding cast make sure you use a rod for cast. The at only about 4000 different type of cast iron. :) Welding cast will likely cause the sole to warp. This is because of the stresses. If you have an oven that will go up to around 600 degrees F. try to soak the plane in the oven to warm it. weld it then soak it again. Let it air cool without a draft blowing on it. You may want to lay it on it's side while it cools using 3 dowels as spacers to allow even cooling. I would like to see a picture if you can get one on-line.
Necro
Okay, posting a few times then dissappearing for eight weeks was not my plan in the slightest, sorry to those who posted advice only to see the topic go nowhere. My last class kicked in and I was very busy making sure I'd pass so I didn't get into the barn all that much and didn't come here because of time and energy.
Anyway, yes, the Birmingham"s knob was broken off leaving only a deep 5/8" crater where the threaded collar is supposed to be. My father said the same things about cast iron, having worked in a heavy truck maintenance shop in ages past. Even skilled welding probably would have blown a hole in the sole anyway since there was a few hairs past 1/16" left at the bottom. So I decided to go with his suggestion of using JB Weld and a custom threaded collar which I fashioned out of a broken push mower wheel bolt.
The tote was perfectly fine on the Bermingham, save blistered varnish and three types of paint stains (red oil stain, black and orange enamels). Cleaned all of that off and sanded it to a smooth finish then stained it with some simple Minwax "Special Walnut" (not the poly-combo stuff, just stain) and a coat of BLO. Looks very good and feels sexy.
Made a new knob from red oak. Without a lathe, I had to make due with the band saw, a knife, and rasps, so it isn't perfectly symetrical. But it should get the job down until I come across a lathe or retrofit the old drill press parts in the back. The original tote is oak, I think, so it should match okay.
The rest of the parts are as clean as I can get them and I re-squared the sides a bit (whole casting was warped to the right a tad), save the slick of orange lacquer on the rear japanning. Not much I can do about unless I want to strip all the japanning off and it isn't intefering with the functionality of the plane.
After cutting my teeth on several tools, I decided I could finally tune up the Stanley #4 safely, which I did to much success. The folks got a very well-loved one, or at least one that was used carefully and cleaned fairly well before sale. I have to say, like many before me, that the transparent lacey shavings it peeled off the tulipwood board I tested on are some of the most satisfying scraps to behold.
Thanks for your guys' help earlier, it lead to some serious reading online about all the old tools around the house that I love so much.
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