Flattening the sole of my new smoothing plane

[bugbear]

I've neer lked so-called-lapping:

1) Your reference surface needs to be much more accurate than the accuracy you want on your plane. It also needs to allow a working stroke of around twice the tool length. Most people's surface fail to meet this requirment.

2) (woodworkers' ) Lapping has a distinct tendancy to dub the ends. Whilst rubbing a tool on a flat, uniformly abrasive surface cannot make the tool hollow, it can easily make it convex, just as a flat plane can make a wooden workpiece convex.

3) Abrasive sheets tend to wear more in the middle, leading to (more!) dubbing at the sides and ends.

Here, from my long defunct webpage, is my description of how best to flatten your plane, should you want to:

Here's my orginal;

http://web.archive.org/web/200905291005 ... atten.html

Here's my "shiny and new"

http://web.archive.org/web/200901141057 ... heory.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200901141455 ... ctice.html

(mind you, according to a Paul Sellers video, flattening is easy - around 60 seconds on 80 grit. Seems
a little dubious to me)

BugBear

 

[terrymck]

Send it back

 

[L2wis]

Just had the feeler gauges under two of my straight edges and I believe there is only a gap of just under 0.15mm now. I will check out the link above.

 

[worn thumbs]

The coarse diamond plate is a good way to get the material off.I used mine to flatten the sole of my block plane after I had worn it hollow trimming Formica.I also find it beneficial to use paraffin as a lubricant-not just for this job but on oilstones generally and nobody that I have persuaded to try such a thing has ever gone back to using oil.In fact you could use nothing finer than a coarse diamond plate for the entire process as polishing the sole to a high level will mean you have more metal in contact with your wood and consequently more friction.

You are right to feel aggrieved at the amount of preparation you are having to do,a new plane should need no more than final sharpening and maybe a little adjustment of the frog.You need to complain to Record and at a high enough level to avoid a PR person giving you a load of excuses to mollify you.The problem tends to be that tool companies these days have moved away from being run by technical people and are run by beancounters.You need to convince the beancounter at Record that unless he allocates a few more beans to eradicating this sort of problem he will be seeing a much smaller quantity of beans flowing into his coffers.Including links to this and similar threads might reinforce the point.

 

[woodbrains]

Hello,

This is where the suble difference between quality control and quality assurance becomes apparent. I don't doubt that the plane passed all quality control test when it left the factory, so complaint to whoever the company's spokesperson is, will not have any effect on rectifying the problem. To my mind, the only way to give quality assurance, in this instance, would be a change in manufacturing process. (Stress releiving / seasoning the iron casting) which isn't going to happen. The freshly machined castings will pass the QC testing, so the company attains all the standards it needs to, within the parameters it works. The rep at the company will not be able to offer any solutions. At best, they might replace the plane, for another, fresh, flattening project! (hammer) if you could get some money back to spend elsewhere.....

The only solution is to never buy a new Record/Irwin plane again and hope the plane you do have, does not move any more, after you have flattened it.

Mike.

 

[Jacob]

Your work space is totally inadequate, no wonder you were struggling - and with too fine paper.
You need a large wide area so that you can flood it with fluid and perhaps have two sheets in a row. If they are wet enough they lie down dead flat. You work in a puddle.
With two sheets you can do each end of a long plane (if it's concave) leaving a gap in between them.
It needs to be strong enough so that you can put a lot of force into it so a thin piece of glass is no good. I use the bed of my planer. A length of thick melamine of formica faced worktop might do it, or a large granite slab.
You need to be in a place where spillage of swarfy fluid won't matter - it's a messy process and you need a lot of old cloths for wiping up.
You keep your wet n dry between boards when not in use so that they stay flat

.


...

 

[L2wis]

Thanks again for the advise and support on this chaps, I'll be sure to email record letting them know of my disappointment.

As to flattening progress I've got it so my 0.10 feeler pinches, the 0.05mm slides straight through still but maybe that'll be good enough.

I daresay my hand is going to reach for the old flat talco more than the record, if this happens I'll convert the record to a scrub and by then it'll be carboot time so a nice old Stanley will be added to the collection.

I'll see how things pan out, maybe in a week I'll have some more motivation to go at it again.

And if it goes back massively out of flat I'll be throwing the bloody thing down the tip.

 

[MIGNAL]

The method you are using is long winded and pretty hopeless. You would have been better served with small sanding blocks and very coarse grit. These allow one to focus on the verry high points, at least until things start to get much more 'flat'. It's not that far removed from the old fashioned way of using a metal scraper. It's only when I get things very close that I might resort to using a flattening board. In fact many times I use the sanding blocks to create deliberate hollows, similar to the way that wooden Japanese Plane soles are shaped. There's no reason why metal planes can't be shaped in the same manner. The one to really avoid is the hollow immediately ahead of the blade. A hollow, say 1 cm ahead, is perfectly fine.

 

[Corneel]

Or grab a file.

 

[Trafalgar]

Mignal is absolutely correct.

Scrape or sand the high spots with very coarse grit sandpaper in a holder or wrapped around a block. You need to treat the high spots before going to the lapping table. Get it pretty close to truth then lap for the coup-de-grace.

If you use sandpaper then sand in a circular motion at the two high ends switching ends and paper frequently. Check progress every ten to fifteen minutes with a decent straight edge - the rule from a quality combo square is good enough at this stage of the process.

It would also be smart to use a set of small winding sticks to see if the sole is also twisted or you can lay a rule on the diagonals to check. If there is a fairly significant amount of twist I would abandon the project altogether and get a different plane, harvesting the one you have for the parts that are in good working order.

You can also test for twist at your lapping set up by holding the plane lightly in the middle with full lever cap tension but with the blade withdrawn. Move the plane across the paper for a bit being very careful to keep a light amount of pressure, mid-ship (move the plane with one hand holding it in the middle at the highest point of the cheeks). If two opposite corners come up polished the sole is twisted. The smaller the area of polish at opposite corners, the more twist present. If the polish comes up evenly at the ends (or at two spots at the ends but in the center of the sole) and not on opposite corners the sole is not twisted, only concave. Make sure your efforts afterward do not put twist into the sole where none was present at the outset.

If concave, the immediate high spots are likely right underneath the front knob and where the back screw of the rear tote screws into the sole but use your rule to make sure you know exactly where the two highest spots are before you start sanding.

 

[bugbear]

The method you are using is long winded and pretty hopeless. You would have been better served with small sanding blocks and very coarse grit. These allow one to focus on the verry high points, at least until things start to get much more 'flat'. It's not that far removed from the old fashioned way of using a metal scraper. It's only when I get things very close that I might resort to using a flattening board. In fact many times I use the sanding blocks to create deliberate hollows, similar to the way that wooden Japanese Plane soles are shaped. There's no reason why metal planes can't be shaped in the same manner. The one to really avoid is the hollow immediately ahead of the blade. A hollow, say 1 cm ahead, is perfectly fine.

'Ere! You been reading my web page!? (linked above )

BugBear

 

[Mr T]

I test for flatness using a piece of 10mm float glass and feeler gauges. You can usually tell when it's getting flat as you can feel some suction when you lift the plane off the glass.

For flattening I use 60 grit Aluminium oxide paper on a 1 mtre long piece of 10 mm float glass. I stick it with craft mount adhesive, a lot less messy than water. Check the abrasive is flat using a good straight edge and feeler guages and shim it with strips of paper if it's not flat. We use this system on my beginners and basic skills courses and have flattened some very out of wack planes on it.

I used to use 60 grit W&D then used some AO when I ran out of W&D and found it worked better. Use a magnet in a yogurt pot to remove the iron filings. This set up may require an initial outlay on the glass and adhesive, but I think it's worth it in the long run if you plan to refurbish more planes.

Chris

 

[woodfarmer]

you could skim it in a lathe.

if you have access to a lathe

 

[MIGNAL]

The method you are using is long winded and pretty hopeless. You would have been better served with small sanding blocks and very coarse grit. These allow one to focus on the verry high points, at least until things start to get much more 'flat'. It's not that far removed from the old fashioned way of using a metal scraper. It's only when I get things very close that I might resort to using a flattening board. In fact many times I use the sanding blocks to create deliberate hollows, similar to the way that wooden Japanese Plane soles are shaped. There's no reason why metal planes can't be shaped in the same manner. The one to really avoid is the hollow immediately ahead of the blade. A hollow, say 1 cm ahead, is perfectly fine.

'Ere! You been reading my web page!? (linked above )

BugBear

Nope. You've been reading a very old post of mine on this very forum! :wink: But actually the concept is pretty obvious if one gives it a bit of thought.

 

[David C]

I'm not sure there is any benefit in creating absolute engineering flatness?

The method Chris describes is almost identical to my own.

The crucial elements are the long abrasive surface, a flat enough surface to put the glass on and a precision straightedge to check the set up with.

With care I find the results on a 5 1/2 to be flat with very slight rounding near the edges. Less than 1 thou" when last tested.

This is one of the things we do on my tool tuning course.

Planes treated like this work extremely well !

David Charlesworth

 

[paulm]

you could skim it in a lathe.

if you have access to a lathe

That would be interesting to see !

Cheers, Paul

 

[woodfarmer]

you could skim it in a lathe.

if you have access to a lathe

That would be interesting to see !

Cheers, Paul

I have skimmed quite a few car/truck cylinder heads in my lathe. trick is to mount it at the ends so the bulk swings free, NOT clamp it down because that will just "bend it straight" and you wil;l; just skim it bent (springs back when unclamped).

 

[RogerP]

Although I've skimmed stuff with the lathe I think in this case I'd prefer to mill it....

.... but do you think perhaps we're going a little OTT?

 

[bugbear]

The method you are using is long winded and pretty hopeless. You would have been better served with small sanding blocks and very coarse grit. These allow one to focus on the verry high points, at least until things start to get much more 'flat'. It's not that far removed from the old fashioned way of using a metal scraper. It's only when I get things very close that I might resort to using a flattening board. In fact many times I use the sanding blocks to create deliberate hollows, similar to the way that wooden Japanese Plane soles are shaped. There's no reason why metal planes can't be shaped in the same manner. The one to really avoid is the hollow immediately ahead of the blade. A hollow, say 1 cm ahead, is perfectly fine.

'Ere! You been reading my web page!? (linked above )

BugBear

Nope. You've been reading a very old post of mine on this very forum! :wink: But actually the concept is pretty obvious if one gives it a bit of thought.

Probably parallel evolution - that page on my website is 2002, and you didn't join this forum until 2005!

But it is just a varation on classic engineering scraping practice, using coarser metal cutting tools.A real fitter
would "just" file flat, but that's a tricky skill.

BugBear

 

[paulm]

you could skim it in a lathe.

if you have access to a lathe

That would be interesting to see !

Cheers, Paul

I have skimmed quite a few car/truck cylinder heads in my lathe. trick is to mount it at the ends so the bulk swings free, NOT clamp it down because that will just "bend it straight" and you wil;l; just skim it bent (springs back when unclamped).

You live and learn !

Cheers, Paul