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238K views 152 replies 60 participants last post by  BradJacob 
#1 ·
Vintage Stanley/Bailey No 3 SW--first plane ever restored

Ok so the title says it all.

This is my first plane ever restored so I will appreciated any kind of criticism that can help me improve on this endeavor

Disclaimer

This blog contains 32 images, I do this to provide as much as detail as possible.

I got a very old ( at least that's what I can tell from the condition I bought it, can anyone help me to find out how old this plane is by looking at the pictures?) Stanley No 3 on ebay for the incredible price of $7.04 !!! last week.

At first when I got it I thought that I had waste my money on a complete piece of junk!!





The japanning was almost none due to the heavy corrosion I think?









Can you see the gouge on the iron blade!!! it measured almost 1/8" !!!!!!



After evaluating what I had on my hands I decided to take all the parts away and see if anything was on a working condition.





Yes the tote was broken into not 2 but 3 pieces!!!



To my surprise everything seem to be okay but the tote and the gouge on the iron blade, also I had it to figure out how to fix the japanning issue.

I talked to my dad, who is the manager of a company where they process all kind of military and commercial aircraft parts (also call as a "finish house") They basically do all the finish processes of the aircraft parts such as anodize, cad plating, primer and painting etc.
He told me that he could take the "junk" with him and dedicate someone to strip all the rust and will also give it to one of the painters so he can apply some special paint to work as the japanning.

This is what I got after the "special treatment"









As you can tell from the pictures, all the bolts, washers, chip breaker, iron blade and brass hardware was treat it with a special mix of of nitric/hydrofluoric acid follow with a bath of cad plating to restore some of the "metal look" the main body (the inside area) and the back of the frog were sandblasted, then a flash dip on the alkaline clean bath follow with 1 coat of primer and 2 military grade glossy coats of black paint with baking at 400f for 1/2 hour between coats. To be honest I actually laugh every time I think of having "military grade paint" on such an old woodworking tool but what the heck!! as long as it serve its purpose of protecting the plane from rust its all that matters. Sorry no pictures of all this processes, they are totally prohibited within company premises. :)

All that "special process" took place on Christmas eve

And today after playing for a while with my kids with their new presents I decided to get back on track and do some work on the plane

This is how it look before I lapped the sole, sides and the frog





After a few minutes of lapping the sides I was able to get this result



but that wasn't enough

Time went by and with the help of my dad who took care of the tote and ball this is the final result and I will say that I'm very pleased with this restoration, now this plane is priceless to me and now I'm ready to start on the No 6 which I will blog it too, on that one I will use evapo-rust, we'll see how it works. I want to thanks my dad for the great job he did fixing the tote and restoring the beautiful natural color of the wood which was taken care with 4 coats of poly with 320 sanding in between coats.







The gouge on the blade is not longer present and now the blade is scary sharp!!





















Just a quick comparison

BEFORE



AFTER



Thanks for reading and for your criticism too.

Alonso
 
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#33 ·
Stanley/Bailey No 6 second plane part #1

I came back from work today, after a very long break of 17 days, it was a really hard day since I had it to get use to wake up early deal with the traffic, the boss etc, I was literally dragging all day long, and to my surprise I found that the second No 6 I got on ebay was already waiting for me to start the restoration. Let's take a look what I got. I think I'm having some kind of attraction for highly abused and damaged planes, I really love to see the restoration process being done.



Broken Knob



and severely damage handle



It is a SW!!



Lots of rust everywhere



Ohh no!! another big gouge on the blade!!!



Lets take a look at it disassembled







It was time to get started doing some kind of miracle to give this plane another opportunity to serve for many years to come.

So I started with Evaporust on all the surfaces except the Brass hardware.



Handle and knob being repaired





How about some polishing to the brass hardware?





This is how the main body looked after being derusted



Remarkable don't you think?

Really evaporust does an incredible job




The handle is being repaired while being mounted on the plane, this way I make sure to keep the original position of both pieces being fixed



The crack on the knob is now hardly visible, after the first coat of poly this is how it look.



For now this is it, since its kind of cold outside and need to get some rest for another long day at work tomorrow, still can't wait to get back to work on the plane lol

Alonso
 
#42 ·
Alonso,

I am really new to woodworking…really really new. I have found two old 1 inch by 16 inch by 3/16 brass pieces. I spent the entire Rose Bowl (Buckeyes Win!) hand polishing, with Brasso, one of them and got it to a much better state, but it still doesn't look like yours. I am new enough that I don't know anything about buffers. Could you please tell me what type you have?

Brian
 
#44 ·
Stanley/Bailey No 6 second plane part #2 of 3

Hey folks,

We did lot of progress on the latest restoration project for the second Baiiley No 6 that I got from Ebay, and I can almost call this a complete project, but I still need to find out how to resolve the issue with the broken horn on the tote, and if anybody else can help me with this question I post earlier, the blade is very very sharp but is not square (there may be a 1/16 gap on one of the corners) so if anyone else know how to resolve the issue I have on that post that will be great!!

Ok enough, let's see some pictures,

I try to polish the Lever Cap as much as possible, since for an unknown reason the material used on these Lever Cap seems to be of a greater quality compared to the first No 6 I restored.



Here the cap iron also seems to be of higher quality than the previous one.





And now here it is, the fully restored Bailey No 6



1 coat of primer and 2 coats of glossy black paint





Fully restored and repaired knob using 5 minutes epoxy glue, as well for the Tote







Now both cracks on the Tote are hardly visible at all







The family just got a little bigger





Also can anyone explain me the differences between both N0 6's. One of them has a patent date the other one don't , the one without patent has "Made in USA" the one with the patent seems to be of a better quality than the other one, at least the material of the cap iron and lever iron, this one is also a SW, now which one is older?

I want to thanks my dad for helping me restoring all these planes, we both seem to enjoy doing that a lot !! Also he does a really nice job repairing the broken totes and knobs.

Please comment as I would like to keep improving my techniques
 
#50 ·
Today was a great day......No 4, No 78, and my new favorite tool No 220

Hey folks,

Today I started working on a my sencond Bench/Desk/Chest combo



for one of my mother co-workers, everything was looking pretty good, no issues at all, but just kind of bored, I felt sort of lonely for a little while. Usually due to the economic crisis, I have 3 days weekends, so I was going to spend most of the day alone until my dad came from work.

Suddenly I heard the ring bell, it was pretty early, (not even (9:00 am.) and next to the door it was the mailman along with 2 parcel post ebay boxes. My facial expression change completely I wasn't expecting any packages until tomorrow or Monday, I literally ran to the shop and started opening the boxes and this is what I found..









Wait a minute, that No 4 seems a little strange….... after a close inspection I came up with the conclusion that one of the previous owners of it, did some cheap restoration to it, I found that the blade is not an stanley, (no markings present) also the middle slot on the blade is shifted to right, and the tote seems to be made out of some cheap wood, not rosewood at all, now I really need to get into start making my own totes, but if I just could find some rosewood near…. o well I may need to order some online.









This little No 220 has become my new best friend, after the restoration and some set up work it cuts like a hot knife on butter…







Now it was time to start with my new hobby, restoration

This is how the came up after all the process was done..























The japanning on the No 4 is about a 98%... I think that this time I'm going to hold painting any of these 3 planes, I really want to try the re-japanning process and the No 78 seems like a good candidate.











I actually plan on doing some more work on that No 4, maybe a Hook blade and a set of tote and knob may look pretty neat on it.

O yes.. I almost forgot…. the family portrait…





Thanks for looking

Next episode….. 2 No 5 corrugated, and No 2 Fulton by Sargent
 
#56 ·
What a nice deal...

Hello Folks,

I would like to start this new episode of my restoration blog with a question.

Have any of you ever bought something that make you feel like you are the luckiest person of the world?

Well it happened to me last Friday.

I headed up to my local flea market ( the same one I know doesn't have any tools at all) but heck who knows maybe one day, maybe today, I though.

After about 45 minutes I was ready to leave empty handed, but there were a couple more of tents to look and I thought, "I couldn't find anything on 200+ tents, I won't find it now…" Oh well time to go home. Something keep pushing me to go and look to the last tent, small, just a few thing laying on the floor and a few buckets with some like re-bars sticking out. After a few seconds I decided to take a look what the old lady had for sale.
There wasn't much, mostly some pretty old books, rusted metal buckets etc.

She asked me if I was looking for something in particular, so I told her that I'm a woodworker and I was looking for woodworking tools, old, rusty tools, then she said, wait a minute, I think I have something on this other plastic bucket……..Ohhh boy!!!!!!

My eyes couldn't believe what I have on that plastic bucket, even better I couldn't believe what she was asking for the whole bucket full of "rusty" tools. She said give me $20 for the everything, its too heavy and I don't want to be carrying that back home. In a split of second she had a $20 dollar bill on her hands and I was going back home almost hyperventilating, (not really but almost)

This is what I got.

About 10 different auger drill bits

Stanley type B hand drill









Goodell Pratt Hand drill, I haven't figured out which one is it, so if anyone can help me that will be great!!









Stanley No 921 10" Bit brace with Cocobolo handles…..









But wait there's still more….
.
.
.
.

Stanley / Bailey No 5 1/4 , very rusty but seems like a good find, also the japanning looks like 98-99%, will see after the restoration.









And the best of all

Stanley Bailey No 7 Corrugated and a really nice condition, sorry silly me I forgot to take pictures of that , but you will see it soon on the restoration.

So here it is, know I feel like I just won the lotto, it couldn't be any better, I even got to keep the bucket…. RMFAO

Has anyone ever get a similar deal before?

On the next episode Restoration of the No7C, 5 1/4, and 921.
 
#57 ·
Definite bragging rights there - auger, eggbeater, and TWO planes for 20 bucks? Geez. I keep running into the vendors that recognize the worth of these tools and want top dollar. My biggest payoff in the used tool department was a chest of rusty treasures that I received for helping a friend clean out a garage attic. Had some neat historical pieces in it but nothing like your find. Congrats and I look forward to seeing the restoration pics.

David
 
#66 ·
Stanley/Bailey No 5 1/4

Hey folks,

This time it was turn for one of the tools that lucky me I got on a nice deal with an old woman in a local flea market.

Like most of the hand tools that I had bought recently, I look for the rustier and the ones that seems like nobody wants them at all, the ones that most people will classified them as "junk"

Let's see what I got..

.
.
.











After a close inspection the japanning seems to be in a great condition, I will say around 98-99%.

Ok lets see the final result after a few hours of work.















Not bad at all hee? Totally worth the $4 i paid for it :)
 
#67 ·
Looks nice! I just won an auction the other day for one of these with the corrugated bottom, and I'm hoping mine comes out half as nice as this. I'm going to try electrolysis but never done it before so should be interesting. You definitely struck gold with that deal you found, can't wait to see the no. 7
 
#71 ·
Stanley No 921 10 inch Brace

Hey Lj's

This is another tool that was part of the nice deal on the local flea market.

This is my first brace that I ever own, I haven't try it yet, but I need it to restored before doing anything else.









After looking at the Stanley Catalog from 1914 I found out that the handles are made out of Cocobolo, nice…. let's see how it came out….

I need to say that this restoration was a bit different, I ran out of Evaporust, and I really want it to try the electrolisys cleaning, but unfortunately I wasn't able to make it work properly, so the only option that I got was wet/dry sandpaper and WD-40, it came out really nice but still I think I can improve it.







I really like how the wood came out, 3 coats of wipe on poly with 320 sanding in between and finished with Minwax paste wax and sanded with 0000 steel wool.
 
#77 ·
Now its turn for the hand drills...

Hey Folks,

I've been quite busy on the shop working on restoring the tools that I got recently on a flea market.

I got a couple of hand drills that were in a really sad shape.

Like always, I like to get them back to life and gave them a really nice look.

This is what I got at the flea market

Stanley Hand drill type B









Goodell Pratt with a patent date of AUG-18-1895







And now this is how they look.

























Thanks for looking

Alonso
 
#78 ·
I am wondering if you had to take them apart to fix them up like this? I want to restore an old hand auger I have but I can't for the life of me figure out how to get it apart. It has wooden handles and I just can't get it apart to restore. Got any ideas? Do I need to take it apart?

Nice job they look great.

Sorry, I guess it's called a brace. It is what your avatar looks like.
 
#92 ·
Shelton No4.. Very nice find

Hey Folks,

Yesterday my dad and I went to a local flea market and we found several items that we really liked and of course we ended up taking home, among those there was a bench plane that caught the attention of my dad. I never heard anything about them before.

However I did my homework and this is what I found..
Shelton Plane & Tool Mfg. Co. made planes in Shelton , Conn., from 1932 until 1954..when they sold thier plane division to Stanley due to the basic fact that they could just not compete with them financially.They made what were called "industrial" planes as well as a higher quality Bailey type.

Well that sounds interesting… maybe I got a little gem and I don't even know

Pretty much this is what I got in just about the same condition, I got to say that I forgot to take the "before" pictures again… silly me…







And know this is how it looks

















I really think that this plane could use a new Hook blade to get the most out of it, also the main feature that make us keep the plane was the adjusting mechanism looks unique even thought it may not be the most practical system.

Thanks for looking.
 
#105 ·
Stanley No 102 and a little bit of work on a No 220

Folks,

This last weekend I was able to get to work on a block plane that I just left aside the day I got it, also I was able to do some more work on a No 220 that I blogged here a few days ago. Its really impressive how a couple of hours of work can change a tool so dramatically not just to look better but also to perform better.

Sorry about the blurry photos but again I forgot to take some pics before starting the restoration and I just got a couple of screenshots from the seller





Now…







And this is when I got the No 220



And this is after a little bit of clean up



However I had the feeling that I could do something else to improve it even more

After the second attempt to restored













Nice couple right?

Thanks for looking
 
#106 ·
Looking good Alonso. That logo was used by Stanley between 1912 - 1918, so you have a very nice looking, very old plane to add to your collection. If you ever need a resource to determine the age of your planes by logo, there is a neat little page here that can gives the logos and the years in which they were in use.

David
 
#115 ·
Stanley No 118 & No 130 great block planes!!!!

Hey folks,

I've been quite busy on the shop and I didn't had time to make new entries on my blog, but here I'm again.

In the last trip to the local flea market, I was able to get quite a lot of tools that need some attention, between some of then there was a couple of nice Stanley block planes, (# 130 & 118) This is what I got.

Stanley No 130







Stanley No 118





Like always, after some work they turned out nicely..





Lapped sole and side walls















Honed blade



A group picture



Thanks for looking
 
#127 ·
I finally got it... still looking for a couple more

Hey Folks,

I've been pretty busy working on the shop lately, between plane restoration and a few past due projects that I had, I didn't have time to make a new blog entry until now.

Last week I got a lot with 10 bench planes out eBay, for a pretty good price. Out of those 10 planes there were 2 No's 7 and 1 No 8. I couldn't believe it, mi first No 8, and it was on a very sad condition. It is a No 8 Type 9 1902-1907, yes this baby is somewhere between 103 and 108 years old, I still can't understand how some individuals may let this kind of tools get into such bad condition.



At the moment of the picture I had already worked on the knob and Tote, originally the knob was totally broken into 2 separate pieces, as well the Tote.





Do you see what I see? It seems like one of the previous owners replace the frog with an newer model with a frog adjusting screw but the body has no hole for this, now I need to look for the correct frog, anyone out there willing to sell me one?



After working with the Evaporust, doing some wire brushing, some lapping, I stripped the remaining old Japanning, applied 3 coats of black enamel paint and baked them at 320 for 20 to 25 minutes, My dad fixed the Tote with a new method that I haven't seen before, and all I can say is that its holding like a brand new Tote, I applied 3 coats of polyurethane and sanded them off with a 320 grit between coats follow with 2 coats of paste wax and buffed with a 0000 Steel wool. I sharpened the blade using the scary method, and set up a microbevel at 30 degrees.

The final product



The giant is back on business











Thanks for looking.

Alonso
 
#141 ·
So many planes.... time for an storage solution...

When you have so many planes and not an effective way to storage them, you need to came up with something, and quick, at least that was my situation. For the last couple of weeks I was looking for the "right" design, I did some research, and several of you make some pretty good suggestions. I decide to combine a couple of designs and make my very own Plane Storage Wall Hung Cabinet.

It hung from the wall very securely thanks to a French Cleat,



So far it serves my needs, I'm planning to add some shelves underneath so that I can take full advantage of the empty part of the wall, I'm planning to storage all my finishes and stains and several other miscellaneous stuff.







Show off time…... :) :)







Thanks for looking
 
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