Bailey #7

I’ve never flattened a jointer plane, and have never noticed any issues. I think Chris swarz even says not to worry about it.

Looks like a nice #7 for a great price too, congrats.

-- Never confuse mistakes with failure. Kevin

I tend to prefer a jointer to be quite flat in the relevant areas, though not as much as a smoother.

How do you know that you have a problem as it is? Of the 4 I have rehabbed, I have only come across one that had any issues that were not cleared up by sanding on some float glass to remove the last of the rust.

I spent 3 weeks sanding my #7 Record flat. I should have sent it to a machine shop for grinding.
I put a plate of glass large plate down, started with 80grit self stick roll, kept at it.
Yes it should be near flat. It does not need to be perfect, but the closer it is, the better it will work.
Get rid of the rust first and see what you have.

They are very good a the job… I strop after sharpening and have found that’s the key to pain free work with a handplane.

-- Jeff NJ

Arminius,
I haven’t used the plane yet so I’ve got no idea if it’s out of whack or not. I guess what I’m looking for is should it be as flat as my jack plane or not. I don’t have anything long and flat enough to put sandpaper to it just yet. I don’t think my level is better than actually seeing shiny metal appear as it goes across sandpaper.

Jeff,
Thanks for the info. I’ll knock the rust off the sole but am resisting the urge to make the thing super pretty.

-- I am what they call a "rookie".

A jointer should probably be at least as flat as a jack, if you are using the jack-jointer-smoother sequence it is doing more precise work.

I would clean it up and put a sharp blade in it, and see if you can take blade-wide shavings of the thickness you need to do the work, roughly 0.005”. If you can, it is flat enough.

Thank you

-- I am what they call a "rookie".

sandpaper stuck on your table saw bed…that’s how I did mine

-- as technology progresses, wood workers seem to regress...all my power tools and my favorite is a chisel and a hand plane

Take a 24” (or longer) straight edge and go diagonal on the sole. That will show you where the sole is flat and where it isn’t. As long as its flat at the first 1” or so of the toe, the areas just in front of and behind the mouth, and the last inch or so, you’re good. If the sole is low in other areas, it will NOT affect performance. If you want to get it dead flat, you can glue some sandpaper down to your table saw or another flat surface and start working it, but that’s going to take forever and its actually pretty easy to take the sole out of square. Your best bet would be to reach out to Table Saw Tom (Tom Bussey) and get a price for him to machine it for you. He does amazing work. His price generally includes flattening the sole, making sure the sides are square to the sole (only important if you’re going to use it for shooting) and he flattens the back of the iron. You got a very good deal on a nice plane, BTW.

-- Dave, Colonie, NY