my first plane - old stanley no.4

[Jacob]

Plane - just sharpen it and use it. No need to spend another penny - it'll work fine and see you out.
Saw - yes re-cut the teeth, splurge some linseed oil over it, keep it sharp - it'll work fine and see you out.

 

[Vann]

Strange that he should sell a plane as a "Stanley" with a "Record" body in a "Stanley" box...odd.

Somewhere out there is a newby with a "Record - Bailey" plane in the "Record box", thinking WTF.. #-o :lol:

Nice plane BTW. I've bought a couple of Records with Stanley lever-caps, but more common are Records with Stanley irons over here. I bumped into a woodwork teacher who showed me the school planes. There were a couple of Stanleys with Record SS lever-caps. He let me swap them for Stanley lever-caps :ho2 . Not that it makes any difference to the performance of the plane (as benchwayze says).

Someone that doesn't know what they want or are in serious danger of damaging a piece of unique history should ask concensus advice but in the end...it's their property....they own it and...they can damn well do what they want with it!

consensus Jimi? Consensus! I think you're on the wrong forum :mrgreen:

But yes I quite agree: ask for advice, then sort through the (non-consensual) advice you get to pick what suits you.

And for my tuppence worth... Get the plane working first, consider an up-grade later.

Cheers, Vann.

 

[knappers]

Sorry to hijack, but I just picked up this little no. 4 off the bay.. Should be quite nice with a little fettling I hope.
Paid £18, so not an absolute bargain, but still should be quite nice when done for the money.

Fits firmly into the beautiful as well as functional category I think.

Si

 

[Scouse]

Sorry to hijack, but I just picked up this little no. 4 off the bay.. Should be quite nice with a little fettling I hope.
Paid £18, so not an absolute bargain, but still should be quite nice when done for the money.

Fits firmly into the beautiful as well as functional category I think.

Si

Sorry to continue the hijack, I picked one up for a fiver, IIRC, at a boot sale, was a bit of a mess and on a Stanley body

It's shiny now, although the wood needs a clean, and on a Woden body, so I'm half way there, just looking for a donor WS body

You are right, though, they are beautiful looking planes.

El.

 

[Benchwayze]

Looks good.
Does the job good?

If so, at £18.00 it's still a bargain compared to the price/quality of some current, new Baileys.

Well I think so. True, that don't make it so, but I am prepared to take a risk! :mrgreen:

John

 

[knappers]

Had a bit of a play tonight...
Out of the box, hopeless.
Stabilised the handle, Lapped the sole some, ground back the primary - took ages as the blade had a concave bevel. Scary sharpened the secondary. Reground the end of the chip breaker, filed the mouth square and moved the frog forward quite a bit.
After all this it's not bad at all, not quite in the same league as my QS yet, but quite useable.
I dropped my QS blade in to try, but the Y lever is too short. I also tried the WS blade with the QS chip breaker, but the screw hole in the QS is too far down, meaning the screw head fouls the frog.
Overall quite happy with my first ever bit of plane resto and fettling.

Si.

 

[Benchwayze]

I don't think anyone is knocking Woden, but in case you are doubtful:


They made fine Vices, and cramps, and I have no reason to doubt any planes they made would be equal to any Record, which themselves are as good as any Stanley of British Manufacture.. Woden also made the simplest and most effective dowel jig for use on small frames. It's a pity they weren't around to make a metric version.

Check:

http://recordhandplanes.com/history.html

Regards
John

 

[Vann]

Sorry to continue the hijack, I picked one up for a fiver, IIRC, at a boot sale....

And to take the WS/Woden hijack further: I bought this WS No.4 last year along with a no-name No.4 masquerading as a Stanley. $10.00 the pair (~£5).

As you can see, it arrived missing: irons; lever-cap; lever-cap pivot screw and brass depth adjuster wheel (seems to have been trashed for anything brass).
I was reasonably impressed at the crisp solid castings on the WS and wondered if it might have a future (I only bought it out of curiosity). However the mouth is fairly large at 5.7mm.

Not long after I bought a Rapier 500 for parts (front knob broken off) which arrived also broken through at the mouth.

I fitted the Rapier irons, brass wheel, lever-cap screw and lever-cap to the WS to make a complete plane - albeit a frankenplane

Seen here with it’s big brother a WS A7. Ugly !

Cheers, Vann.

 

[Vann]

Earlier this year I picked up a box of spare parts that included a WS 2” wide lever-cap.

I’d bought a 2” Clifton iron some time ago to fit to a nice old Record, but being loathe to file the mouth of an old plane I hesitated.
Last weekend I tried the Clifton iron in the WS just to check the feasibility. It fits with no filing required, AND the yoke is long enough to still comfortably reach the lever cap (ex a Record).

So I fettled up the WS a little. My initial good impression is dampened a bit. The machining on the WS is quite rough. I don’t know if this is typical, or if this is a Friday afternoon plane. The body contact seat at the foot of the frog is uneven, and the rear seat has (had) paint on it. The face of the frog is also roughly machined.

Well I’ve checked the feasibility of this franken assembly. It could be a goer. Does it take nice shavings? No – not yet. The Clifton iron needs a hone. The body needs a session in the acid bath, a bit more fettling, and the sole checked for flatness. And that tote… :!:

There’s over 2 full turns of slack in the depth adjuster. The WS yoke and Rapier wheel seem to fit together reasonably well, so I think the slack is at the cap-iron slot. I might have to work on that.

Cheers, Vann.

 

[jimi43]

Hi Vann

Wow...a bit of a Heinz 57 there my friend! :mrgreen:

Regarding the mating of the frog with the sole...I lapped mine using valve grinding paste:

Using first coarse then fine....lap the frog against the frog seat metal in the sole thus:

It takes a while but it is well worth it....

The plane feels much more solid afterwards.

Jim

 

[Racers]

Hi, Jimmi

That how I do mine, its well worth the effort, I do tend to knock off the high spots with a file/scraper first.

Pete

 

[Vann]

Taking Jimis advice (and taking this hijack yet another step further) I spent a bit more time lapping the frog to the base using medium and fine grinding paste. I don't know what grits these pastes are, but they look very coarse compared with that green compound you have pictured Jimi. I had already given these faces a basic lapping, but a bit more refining won't hurt.

I polished the lever-cap. The back of the iron was lapped, and the bezel honed.

Sorry about the lousey photo - I would have taken another but every time I get the camera out to take photos of tools my wife gives me THAT look...

Anyway, it cuts a little better, but not good enough. Next steps: lap the sole; modify the cap-iron; and do something about that poor repair to the tote.

Cheers, Vann.