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After patiently watching craigslist for the past few months, I found this 30's era stanley #7b jointer plane for $30. It was in decent shape, but the handle was broken, and worn out. I decided purists be damned, so I cleaned up the plane, repainted it, and polished all of the hardware.

The handles are curly bubinga and tiger maple. Since the original rear handle cracked in half, i opted to alternate the grain of the maple just as if it were plywood to give it strength. I don't have a lathe, so I had to get creative when I made the front handle. I roughed it out on the bandsaw, then chucked it in the drillpress, and sanded away till I had the desired shape. The handles were finished with 2 coats of thinned amber shellac, followed by 3 coats of laquer.

Let me say that this badboy really plows through wood effortlessly due to its heft(it weighs just over 8 pounds!). This plane is 22" long with a 2 3/8" blade.

Gallery

Comments

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932 Posts
Looks Nice! 30 bucks for a #7 is a good deal…nice work with the wooden parts….Is this plane made in England?
 

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491 Posts
Nice looking plane Julian! I know it's sacrilege to some folks to modify old planes but for me if you aren't going to us them give them to a museum. I think what you've done will give an excellent plane for a long career. Wish I had it myself. A #5 is as long as I have and it's no Stanley.
 

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1,266 Posts
That the best 30 dollar tool you're going to find on the planet…nice fine and nice work enjoy using it…Blkcherry
 

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Doubtthead, yes it's a Baileys made in England.
 

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Congratulations! I'm on the lookout for a #6 or #7. You have one sweet tool.
 

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88 Posts
Nice restoration job! Beautiful plane! Definately worth using, and passing down to the kids! :)
 

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403 Posts
Looks great, why can't I find scores like that?
 

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It doesnt matter what others say about customizing a refurb you have good taste and you did a great job.
 

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Looks like it cleaned up pretty well. I love the idea of restoring old tools and actually using them. If you bought it and just looked at it, then in my opinion you'd be better off spending your money on a nice picture and hanging it on the wall to look at…tools were made to be used. Good job!
 

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Great opportunity to get #7 jointer plane for just $30….great restoration work and now it looks "newer" than the brand-new one.
Craiglist? Can I buy on-line? (I don't think they ships internationally…)
 

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1,083 Posts
Great opportunity to get #7 jointer plane for just $30….great restoration work and now it looks "newer" than the brand-new one.
Craigslist? Can I buy on-line? (I don't think they ships internationally…)
 

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Excellent!
 

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That's Heirloom quality work.
Your grand kids will like using that thing.
 

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I really like the handle work. Making the handle with layers running across each other makes allot of sense! Beautiful work. How did you shape the tote? Bandsaw and …. is my guess.
 

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Thanks for all the comments.

I roughed the tote out on the bandsaw, then used the oscillating spindle sander followed by LOTS of hand sanding. The toughest part was getting the holes to allign. I made a jig for the drillpress that held the tote at the corret angle for drilling the holes.
 

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Simply beautiful. I love the laminate pattern that you chose. The contrast really looks great! I'm sure that will be a treasured tool for a long time!
 

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The tote and knob are gorgeous.

I just bought a Stanley No 7 SweetHeart ($38 on eBay) that needs some work. The paint is badly chipped, so I think I will strip and re-paint it.

What kind of paint did you use?
 

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I'll give you $50.00 for it right now and pay the freight for you to ship it to me! Kidding!!!
Great work! Thanks for sharing.
 

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great job on the plane,i have a stanley#45 plane that i use.will put pic's up soon.i feel if you own it use it. no sense owning it and just looking at it, they where made to be used,, shinju
 
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