Restoration of a couple of Stanley #71 router planes

[sploo]

I previously posted a few photos of nickel plating some old Stanley #71 plane parts in Anyone tried DIY copper electroplating?, but this is the rest of the job...

Two #71 planes; both heavily rusted and in pretty bad shape. Both were dismantled, left in rust remover for a while, then cleaned up on a wire wheel:

I nickel plated several parts (see the earlier referenced thread), but the two knob screws on one plane were too badly rusted, so I made some new ones on the lathe:

Then added slots in the mill:

Old and new screws, with the new screws "raw" and then nickel plated:

In the weeks between originally nickel plating the bodies and doing the rest of the parts the bodies had started to rust, and the plating wasn't great anyway (flaking in places). Smaller/smoother parts plate better, but I don't think my set up is good enough for the larger items. I took both back to the wire wheel to clean up, heated them with a hot air gun and melted a lot of microcrystalline wax into the body in the hope that'll protect them. Here's one before/after:

The knobs were gently cleaned with white spirit and then recoated in shellac. The photos make them look a bit plastic, but they look good in reality. All finished parts:

Blades sharpened, and a quick test:

Hopefully good for another 100+ years.

 

[andrew_2]

Wow. They look amazing.

 

[worn thumbs]

Nice work! I suspect there are just about enough old tool enthusiasts to support a business that makes screws for old Stanley tools.

 

[rob1693]

I wonder why they used such obscure threads early record also copied them with the identical threads

 

[yetloh]

Lovely. I'm guessing the American one with the elaborate script may be earlier and perhaps more desirable to a collector. The other one's handles look dark enough to be ebony although that seems unlikely unless someone has replaced them at some point.

Jim

 

[rob1693]

I have 2 quite early ones both bought for peanuts at prices they're fetching today

 

[bilspe]

I previously posted a few photos of nickel plating some old Stanley #71 plane parts in Anyone tried DIY copper electroplating?, but this is the rest of the job...

Two #71 planes; both heavily rusted and in pretty bad shape. Both were dismantled, left in rust remover for a while, then cleaned up on a wire wheel:

View attachment 147129

View attachment 147130

I nickel plated several parts (see the earlier referenced thread), but the two knob screws on one plane were too badly rusted, so I made some new ones on the lathe:

View attachment 147131

Then added slots in the mill:

View attachment 147132

Old and new screws, with the new screws "raw" and then nickel plated:

View attachment 147133

In the weeks between originally nickel plating the bodies and doing the rest of the parts the bodies had started to rust, and the plating wasn't great anyway (flaking in places). Smaller/smoother parts plate better, but I don't think my set up is good enough for the larger items. I took both back to the wire wheel to clean up, heated them with a hot air gun and melted a lot of microcrystalline wax into the body in the hope that'll protect them. Here's one before/after:

View attachment 147134

The knobs were gently cleaned with white spirit and then recoated in shellac. The photos make them look a bit plastic, but they look good in reality. All finished parts:

View attachment 147135

View attachment 147136

Blades sharpened, and a quick test:

View attachment 147137

Hopefully good for another 100+ years.

Great work...... love it.
Not seen a Stanley one with the more decorative font. Guess it must be early

Just done a recent resto on a Record

 

[sploo]

Lovely. I'm guessing the American one with the elaborate script may be earlier and perhaps more desirable to a collector. The other one's handles look dark enough to be ebony although that seems unlikely unless someone has replaced them at some point.

Jim

Rosewood on that era usually. I've seen later No 71s with what looks like beech.

Not seen a Stanley one with the more decorative font. Guess it must be early

If the patent markings were used in the same way as the hand planes (No 4, 5 etc) then I understand that the casting can be dated to within 20 years of the last/newest patent number shown. E.g. March 4.84 will refer to an 1884 patent, so the plane will date from between that date and 1904.

 

[sploo]

I wonder why they used such obscure threads early record also copied them with the identical threads

I've never seen a clear explanation, but one thought is that some of the diameter + TPI combinations of those old screws were pretty coarse; with a coarse thread being better suited to screwing into cast iron. I don't know how accurate that is though.

 

[pe2dave]

Lovely job, enjoy them.
My favourite hand tool. Makes me smile every time I use them.
Should be sold in pairs