[Duane Bledsoe]

Found these for sale on Craigslist. $5 for all three. Says they need sharpened. I know nothing about planes at all but $5 seems cheap.

http://huntington.craigslist.org/tls/4307143938.html

 

[ryan50hrl]

I have one like the middle one....and its my most used plane. For 5 bucks you can't go wrong....

 

[timetestedtools]

They are worth $5. All three can be tuned into decent users, with the Stanley #220 (center) and the craftsmans being the better of the 2.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

Well I bought those planes. I have a few questions about them. I'm going to have to post them in several posts though because of the way my iPad posts pics. It won't do more than one at once for some reason and I'm technically inept so I can't fix it. I'm not, however, inept when it comes to fixing tools, so I'd like to work these planes over and make them worth using, if possible.

Here are the planes.....one is an old Craftsman, a Stanley 220, and the orange one has a sticker that says Stanley Handyman. I'm guessing the Stanley 220 might be the best of the three considering its condition and from the two posts above (they seemed to attribute some value to it).

 

[MarkE]

Not bad for $5. The Craftsman smooth plane looks to be in pretty good shape.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

My questions involve cleaning and sharpening. All the blades have some chipping. I figure I can remove the blades and use some light grit sandpaper like 220 grit to dress the blades and get the chips out. How do I make sure they stay straight while doing this? I don't want a slanted edge compared to the plane's foot.

Also, the Craftsman might have some problems. It seems the blade is pressed into the front of the opening in the foot. There's no room for the shavings to roll off the wood. I've tried every way I can see to adjust it so that the blade has clearance. So I took it apart and it looks like the blade is being bent slightly, causing it to be forced into the front part of the opening. The next few pics will show what I'm describing. In this pic the blade is touching the front side of the opening.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

Here's the blade out of the plane, attached somewhat loosely to the metal plate it rides on in the plane. There's a large, um, set screw, holding it on, similar to a knob in size I guess. Sorry, I don't know much at all about planes but $5 was too cheap to pass on so I just bought them without looking at them much. With the blade loose, it doesn't bow.

 

[MarkE]

It looks like the frog is too far forward. Take off the lever cap, and the cutting iron/cap iron. You should see two screws holding the frog to the base casting. Loosen those two screws and slide the frog back.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

With the screw tightened down, the blade bows. This pic shows it. Is this normal or not?

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

It looks like the frog is too far forward. Take off the lever cap, and the cutting iron/cap iron. You should see two screws holding the frog to the base casting. Loosen those two screws and slide the frog back.

I tried this. Still did it. I moved the "frog" all the way back as far as it would go. There's a lever on the back that appears to adjust the pitch of the blade crossways when moved left or right. This actually hits the handle with it moved back as far as it will go, and yet the blade still hits the front of the opening.

 

[MarkE]

With the screw tightened down, the blade bows. This pic shows it. Is this normal or not?

NO! The blade should not bow when the screw is tightened. I have never seen that happen.

I wonder if the cap iron (the piece with the curve at the bottom end) is bent. It should be about straight right up to the point where the curve starts.

 

[timetestedtools]

give us a picture of the plane with the blade removed and the frog all the way back looking down. I'm wondering if its the wrong frog. The bow in the blade isn't the issue.

 

[MarkE]

Take a quick look at this web page. scroll down to the No.3 size plane. There is a diagram there that has the names of all the plane parts. It makes it easier if we are talking about the same parts.

 

[MarkE]

give us a picture of the plane with the blade removed and the frog all the way back looking down. I'm wondering if its the wrong frog. The bow in the blade isn't the issue.

Have you seen a cutting iron bow like that before? I never have. That just looks... bad, to me. How do you correct for that?

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

Mine appears to have a part the diagram doesn't have. With it all assembled, there is a metal plate behind the blade and in front of the frog.

 

[MarkE]

Mine appears to have a part the diagram doesn't have. With it all assembled, there is a metal plate behind the blade and in front of the frog.

Post a picture of that.

Your plane is a little more modern than what I am used to. Don't know that I have ever seen a plate between the iron and the frog.

 

[Dave Paine]

Post a picture of that.

Your plane is a little more modern than what I am used to. Don't know that I have ever seen a plate between the iron and the frog.

+1 on the picture. There should not be a plate between the back of the blade and the frog.

Order of components is
lever cap on top
cap iron
blade
frog

 

[MarkE]

I just looked at that diagram on supertool.com and it may not be the best one out there.

Just google 'bench plane parts diagram' and you will get a better representation of all the parts involved.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

This is the order the parts came off in. The one with the large screw was in behind the blade and the screw was holding the blade on top of it through the slot.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

Ok, I googled the diagram and it appears some Shmo had it assembled wrong. The cap iron goes on top of the blade not below. When I bought it they had this backwards.