Infill plane, any ideas on make and restoration

[jimmyhenson]

A friend found this cleaning out his shed, any info would be appreciated. there is no makers name that i can see and the blade and handle are missing. Has anyone used hammerite rust remover?, its diluted 1:10, i'll use it on a bailey 41/2 first to try it out.
Thanks

 

[AndyT]

That looks fun - it looks like a piece of junk but lurking under the rust is probably a perfectly usable body and lever cap. I strongly recommend that you have a look at this current thread - https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/the-ukw-infill-project-t64219.html and build along with Jim! There will be a good deal more discussion and illustration of the essential details of fitting the wood to the iron.

I've not used Hammerite rust remover, only citric acid. Jim recommends Corrodip - have a search back through some of his old threads and you will see plenty of before and after examples from planes as beat-up looking as yours.

If you want to dip your plane to get the rust off, you will need to remove what wood is there at present - which I would avoid doing if possible. So you may be better off with a gel-type remover or just abrasives - it's surprising what a good result you can get with abrasives - see my recent thread here.

As for the make of the plane, it may have had a name once, or it could easily have been an anonymous casting finished off by its first owner.

Do take plenty of photos and show us all how it goes!

 

[bugbear]

That rust looks deep, I'm afraid.

I would deduce from this that the plane body is likely to be dovetailed steel, not a casting.

But I think the surface will prove to be badly pitted out when cleaned up.

BugBear

 

[jimi43]

I'm afraid BB is probably right there...

That is almost certainly a Scottish type infill panel plane similar to mine:

The only thing I can suggest is to mill the entire surface back to good steel.....now all you need to do is find someone with a milling machine who's bonkers!

Any suggestions guys? :mrgreen:

Jim

P.S. If you decide it's a write-off I'll buy the lever cap from you! At least don't throw it in the bin! 8)

 

[Richard T]

Disk sander with a table - don't know the technical term - you know what I mean. No good for the inside though, nor would be anything save Corrodip; and with infills removed, some hard, precise hand work. Taking the infills out would also mean finding the rivets and dealing with them, replacing them et al.

I would suspect that the corrosion on the inside would not be as bad where the infills have been keeping the air from the steel and thusly new infills would be not so bad to fit.

Does anyone else think that the sides look a tad too thin for a casting? Rust notwithstanding?? Just a thought.

 

[jimi43]

I would say it's dovetailed Richard as the corrosion is a different colour in dovetail-shaped marks all along the bottom edge...or am I seeing things?

Jim

 

[Richard T]

Hmmm ; dunno Jim - just looking at the thinness of those sides made me think it's a mighty thin walled casting. Could be dovetailed?

 

[AndyT]

But hang on a minute. If you forget about making it pretty, you can have a perfectly functional plane that is pitted to blazes all over, provided that the steel all comes to the same level on the 'peaks' - which would happen automatically with a bit of sanding. It's easy enough to kill the rust in the pits - I've found that old fashioned graphited penetrating oil is good for this - and a sealing over with either diluted boiled linseed oil or wax will stop any further decay.

The effect on the sole would be something akin to the many designs of corrugated or otherwise discontinuous surfaces designed to make planes easier to push.

It's only on the edge of a cutting iron that pitting really matters - and this plane does not have one yet!

 

[Richard T]

Andy T wrote - "you can have a perfectly functional plane that is pitted to blazes all over, provided that the steel all comes to the same level on the 'peaks' "

Absolutely. And with thin sides to start with it would be quite hairy to attempt to take it down to the lowest rust dip just for the sake of looks.

 

[Racers]

Hi,

Superglue stops the rust in the pits from coming back, I have a record 41/2 that I tried all sorts on before finding superglue works.

Pete