# Restoring an old plane



## NateX (Mar 13, 2010)

I recently found my Great-Grandfather's Dunlap #4 bench plane in my Grandmother's garage. It was in fairly rough shape and probably has not touched a piece of wood since the 80's. I know that Dunlaps were not a premier brand at any time, but I really want to get this little piece of my family's history working like new (or better) again. All the planes I currently use are old hand me downs and orphans. Once this plane is restored I hope to add it to the rotation. 









All the parts are accounted for and in serviceable condition. Some are a little rusty but I don't really see a lot of pitting. The paint even looks pretty good. 









What worries me is the sole of the plane. The rust here looks fairly severe. 









I have done some google "research" and turned up a few methods to tune up an old plane, the one that really sounds interesting is electrolysis, however this risks and uncertainty of the procedure sort of worry me. I was also looking at simply a Scotch Brite pad and some mineral spirits. Either way I imagine an after noon with high grit sandpaper glued to glass in my future. Any input on what kind of results I could expect and what this particular problem is suited to would be appreciated.

The iron looks pretty shabby and i think will simply need to be replaced it this thing is gonna give me some good shavings. The chip breaker is in pretty terrible shape, can I buy another one that will fit or does this call for elbow grease? I was looking at the Hock tools website but am a bit confused. 









The lever cap is a bit dusty but it pretty good shape.









The knob and frog assembly appear to be fine as well. 

















The knob and tote are in pretty rough shape. I read one recommendation to soak them BLO, sounds kind of silly… Maybe make new ones out of cocbolo or some other cool wood?









Thats pretty much the story. I want to get this old tool back in service. It would make my grandmother's day to see her fathers tool looking like new. Any input would be appreciated, thanks in advance for the help!

If anyone wants to see how this goes I could make a little blog about it!

-Nate


----------



## thedude50 (Aug 13, 2011)

this one wont be hard your rust is minor and when you flatten the sole it wont have any rust left benind. for a simple cleanup evaporust works well and is a bit pricy i use the trend tool and parts cleaner its fairly cheep and a nice green kitchen pad is cheaper than scotchbryte. i wouldn't do the electrolysis set up to do one plane the trend tool cleaner will do a great job and i do this for a living. it wont eat your nice paint either and you can use it to clean saw blades and router bits as well as machines in the shop a tooth brush for the small parts and a good scrub on the chip breaker and iron a good sharpening on the tormek and your in business it will look like new and will cut just fine i have done many planes that were a lot worse than grandpas plane. if you don't have access to a good sharpening machine pm me i do irons for not a lot of money


----------



## drfunk (Jan 26, 2011)

All these parts look 100% salvageable to me too. I'd go the evaporust route myself. Hard to mess up - and it won't strip your paint. Make sure you degrease everything first with a detergent though.

The knob and tote just need a quick sanding and refinishing to my eyes. Boiled linseed oil or equivalent - some people prefer a satin finish like tung oil.


----------



## thedude50 (Aug 13, 2011)

i like a more finished look on my totes mine shine like glass and i like them that way


----------



## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

My blog
and 
WayneC's blogs
should help


----------



## NateX (Mar 13, 2010)

Thanks for the tips, I like the Evaporust idea. I'll let you know how it goes!

I don't have a tormek, but I get pretty decent results on my oil stone with a Veritas honing guide.


----------



## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

Awesome! I think fellow LJ Dan has a Dunlop #4. He might be of some help. Good luck!


----------



## CodyJames (Oct 24, 2011)

LOL!! I'm such an idjit, I was like Woah! I wonder if he's restoring a Cessna…. Imagine my surprise when I click the link…. I was like, duh! But it still wouldn't surprise me one bit though to see that you were restoring an old wooden cessna on this darned website, Have some extremely talented folks!


----------



## Dwain (Nov 1, 2007)

I think you will be suprised how nice it will turn out. I would suggest patience in working with though. It will take a while to clean up, but it will clean up. As was said about, you have good pieces there. You should be very successful.


----------



## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

^huge lol Cody re wooden Cessna. I wouldn't put it past some of the guys here


----------



## Dcase (Jul 7, 2010)

Al, you have good memory… I do have a Dunlap smoother that I restored and tuned.. Its a decent plane that will do the job as long as you get the iron sharp and tuned.

Nate, like The Dude said, once you flatten that sole on some sandpaper that rust will sand away fast and wont be a problem… Use some spray adhesive to attach some sandpaper to a flat surface such as a thick sheet of glass, granite tile, table saw/planer top or even a sheet of 3/4 MDF will work. You may want to start with 120 grit paper to lap the rust off then move to 180 and finish with 220..

It would also be a good idea to flatten the face of the frog as well as the the bottom of the frog and the bedding on the plane in which the frog sits. The best way I have found to do this is to use spray adhesive and attach 180 grit paper to some small cut offs of hardboard. You will want to sand it flat enough so the frog sits on the plane nice and flat…


----------



## NateX (Mar 13, 2010)

Katdaddy, thats just a faux patina lamp base.

I got some rust remover, Krud Kutter brand, I guess I'll see how it works. I forgot about naval jelly, the waring label said that stuff strips paint and I want to keep that so I left it on the shelf.

This morning looks like a good time to start in on this little project, time to start the cleaning!


----------



## drfunk (Jan 26, 2011)

I started off with the Krud Kutter rust remover before I moved to Evaporust. It worked just fine for me and I used it on a couple of #4's (including a Dunlap for a friend) and a 140 that were pretty far gone. Since you can't really soak the whole plane in it, I just worked in a shallow tray one side at a time.

As for drawbacks: I found it a little hard on the lungs and I had to keep a close eye on it and agitate it with a wire brush. You also absolutely don't want to get it on your eyes and hands - so wear goggles and gloves. It's phosphoric acid based and will burn you.

On the bonus side, it didn't seem to have the staining or etching effects of Evaporust.

The thing for me was I knew I had a #7 restoration coming up and I DID NOT want to deal with that much H3PO4.


----------



## NateX (Mar 13, 2010)

I started work on this plane today and made some great progress thanks to all of your comments and suggestions. I went ahead and just made it a new blog entry, which you can find here! I also found out that I in face was the proud owner of a number 3 bench plane, not a 4. Still, it works well and I can't wait to get the blade scary sharp and see what it can do!

I found the number cast underneath the tote, who knew?!?


----------



## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

I'm not sure that "3" means anything. In the pictures the size looks more like a #4. What are the measurements? Compare the sizes.
http://lumberjocks.com/donwilwol/blog/24090
or
http://oldtoolheaven.com/bench/benchtable.htm

and see what's the closest.


----------

