Beautiful job! One thought for your consideration: Rex Krueger suggests that, when flattening the bottom face of the plane, all the components should first be installed and tightened (albeit with the blade withdrawn up into the body). The idea is that if the plane body is flattened without the components installed, it will not be in the same tension it will be in during use, so the bottom face could be twisted out-of-flat once the components are installed and tensioned down...
I have restored hundreds of plane's for years , and I have been a carpenter for 40 + years, I think you did a great job well done, you got all the rust off , I don't understand when people do half of the job, and leave rust on which will eat into the plane even more, you did a wonderful job.
Everyone has a different way of restoring. The common factor is the devotion and love that you put into your work to turn out a beautiful finished project like this one.
Thanks so much for this. I recently found a Stanley No.5 plane in the shed that used to be my wife’s grandfathers. Needs restoring, but now I know what to do after watching your video. Thanks Drew,
What a great resto! I think many of us are enjoying restoring the old Stanley planes. I'm working on a #3 now. Except, I didn't use Jay's method of using a piece of PVC. I liberated one of my wife's Pyrex baking pans. Hahaha...it will never see the kitchen again! Love the out takes and self deprecation. Sounds like me after a few beers.
I have a Bailey 5-1/2 that I will have to do all this to but fortunately its in much better condition. You did well bro. They are pretty decent tools all in all. I have some Veritas planes too and, of course, they are excellent planes but it cost me less than a third to buy the Bailey. I have a Veritas shoulder plane and a NO 4 which is mostly what I am using anyways. Thanks for the vid. Love to see people fixing up the old stuff.
I found a Bailey #6 plane in a trash can. It's just like the Stanley. Matter of fact. Stanley and Bailey made planes together. Mine looked just like yours when I found it. I restored it. Although I did not paint it or refinish the handles. I like the old school look. You did a very nice job on yours. But, now that I see how nice it looks with spit & polish, I'm headed out to the shop to do it over again. I use my #6 quite often. Matter of fact. I used it yesterday to fine tune the fit of a door. Best free tool I ever had.
You certainly got it looking very pretty indeed, and 18 months later I’m sure enough people have told you about leaving the blade in to flatten it. An excellent job, and I don’t know about you but I feel the planes I’ve restored (grand total of three) feel much more mine than those I've bought not requiring any restoration. I feel I’ve invested more of myself into them. Great video.
I have rebuilt a number of Stanley planes. Based on that experience, I think you have done an excellent job. Some restorers might quibble with the use of enamel paint rather than traditional japanning, but you'll not hear that from me. I am a plane user, not a plane collector -- and japanning is a level 5 pain in the ass. BTW: The lever cap looks much nicer without the chrome, no matter what shape it is in. Nicely done! P.S. A Stanley #6 Fore plane is the BOMB. -- great daily user in the shop.
Great job! I restored a #6 a few years ago in much the same manner. Just last week I used it to edge-joint two 98" boards that got glued together. It worked well for that and was a joy to use. I hope yours has treated you well too!
Yes, so far so good! I was messing around with it the other day seeing how narrow of a shaving I could cut. My shavings were coming out translucent and measured .001 of an inch! I think it's dialed in pretty good! Hah! Thanks for watching and commenting, 21mph12!
Hola! 🖐Hey, for your first time restoring a plane I thought you did an awesome job!!! 👏👏 I'm sure that the more you use them and give your planes some TLC, you'll refine your process then you'll be restoring like a master in no time at all. Try watching Third Coast Craftsman, he's got some good videos on similar restorations. Really like this video, thanks for making and sharing. Take care and have a good one, Adios! 👊
It went just amazing.. it's a completely another plane after restoration, I just did my no. 5 ( Made in England) Stanley plane yesterday.. Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful work! Instead of vinegar, use citric acid. The resulting parts are easier to clean with less rust residue. I would also follow it up with a baking soda solution to neutralize the acid. I would thoroughly remove the paint with paint remover before rust removal. There can be rust lurching under it. For infilling the lever cap with paint, there's no need for the tape and fine brush. Just paint over the logo and wipe over it with a towel lightly soaked in acetone. It will leave the paint in the engraved areas. Finally, to keep the plane from rusting, polish all the unpainted areas up to 1000 grit. Rust doesn't like polished surfaces.
Great video. I too have a no.6 Stanley Bailey Type 19 which is in need of restoration. Seriously considering taking it to a machine shop and have them mount it on a surface grinder and take a few licks as opposed to manually flattening the sole.
Fantastic result! Well done restoration and great video. The only thing I might have done differently would be a little scuff-sanding prior to painting, to improve the adhesion.
I have the same plane except mine is a #6C.. Mine was my Wife's Grandpa's..He was a master cabinet maker & also had a #4C & a Bedrock 602 + a 9 1/2.. I painted mine just as you did.. I have about 50+ files that he had soaking in the vinegar now.. You'rs came out really nice after polishing.. Congrats!! BTW I also used white vinegar & don't think there's any way better than how you did it.. Gary/Hk
Hey thanks! It sure is a lot of work, isn't it? I still haven't gotten around to restoring all the others I have. I've only done this one and the little block plane. I'll have to get busy.
Got to love the under appreciated #6 fore plane. I would suggest flattening the sole of the plane as the last step of the process when the plane is assembled as if it was ready to use.
Thanks, Ryan! To be honest, this isn't a restoration that I'd want to do twice. It's a big job but once I got started I found myself getting excited to see the finished product.
I'm in the process of doing a Stanley number 5. I'm jappaning it instead of painting. Still cleaning up the small parts, your video is going to help me with that quite a bit. I'm going to use your method to clean the cap iron. I'm a nickel-plate, just for fun.
On some of my handplane restoration I use a generic sears sandblaster with med. air pressure on the plane body and many of the other parts but just not on the planner bottom, I too flatened it on a flat surface. But the sand blaster is much quicker, I just blew the pieces off with air then a quick buffing on the grinder with a wire wheel, and its pretty much ready to give it a coat of paint.
Drew...you've once again given me some motivation to get out in the shop and tune up some of my old planes that have suffered many years of plane neglect. ;) Nice work on this though! Really a beautiful tool!
Oh wow! Great job. It looks fantastic. I just picked up 3 hand planes(Stanley 602 and 2 Stanley #4) at a garage sale for $5 dollars. I'm going to restore them also.
What a terrific job you did on the number 6. (the video is very well constructed and edited) The plane looks brand new. Every time you pick it up you will take a breath and admire the finished plane. I somewhat restored my Dad's old no. 4 and it works like a champ. I think of him every time I pick it up. I liked the taped funnel for pouring the vinegar back into the bottle. Clever. Also, i am really happy to see someone else use Mineral Oil instead of boiled linseed oil. I never realized linseed oil rags can combust on their own. (plus, I am allergic to linseed oil)
I really like some of your basic working practices. I have NO power tools. So, I accumulate little bits of knowledge to work with only hand tools. But really, your videos are very well crafted.
Thanks! I'm more of a power tool guy but I certainly appreciate and enjoy working with hand tools too. Thanks for the kind words. Im just starting out here on YT and it's sure been fun so far.
"....my Dad's old no. 4 ........ I think of him every time I pick it up." I'm in exactly the same situation - I have my Dad's No4 and No5, plus 2 old tenon saws that I think belonged to his dad. Every time I use them I almost feel like I'm shaking hands with him.
In the future you can use an orbital sander with a 220 grit disk to clean up lever cap easily. Also before you do that, take a wire wheel to it. Then fill the "stanley" logo area with red lacquer. After that's dry then use the orbital. You'll clean a polish the lever cap and "stanley" will emerge with a fresh red background. Ask me how I know. Just restored a No.5 & No.3. The "back handle" is called the tote. FYI
Just watched this, 2020 and I was like oh shit he knew to put the handle on very first, then frog and blade. Then I seen the outtakes hahah by the way which were funny as hell! I’m sold, I mean subscribed lol
I enjoyed your video! Just a few things that I have learned from amazing individuals is that for the edge of the plane body you remove the tape before it dries. Then you can use a razor blade to gently scrape the paint to true up the edges of the painted inner area with the unpainted sides. The best time to do it is when the paint is gelling and not hard. It helps seal the edges of your paint o prevent moisture from penetrating underneath and causing chips/bubbling. Sometimes when you peal it off after it it's dry you could remove some area of the "wanted" paint Now you have to waist more time on touchup. Look up Evaporust. It's magic for restorations. Make sure you do a light sanding between your coats of lacquer. After your first coat, the next one will not have a prepped surface to adhere to so your chances of the lacquer flaking off in the future is greatly increased. I like your outtakes! You talk the same way I do when I make mistakes.haha. "Nice goin' ya moron!" :D Subbed!
Ah!!! the No 6. probably one of the least used Stanleys along with the 2 and 3. Forget the 1. I love my 6 . I have only 70 planes and not a 5 among them, as I only realized recently. I always reach for the 6. I love my my 6.
Great job, only thing I could suggest would be to use electrolysis for the rust removal rather than just plain vinegar - only because it reforms some of the iron.
Yep I agree, it is a little on the large size but a great piece of kit. For me it’s also sentimental as it belonged to my grandad. I’ve now got a couple of wooden planes that were my great grandads to restore 😄
I JUST PICKED UP A PLANER BAILY PAT 1918 740 U3 made in USA FOR $50 BUCKS I DONT KNOW IF THATS GOOD OR NOT BUT ITS IN REAL NICE SHAPE. WHEN I GET SOME TIME IM GOING TO MAKE IT LOOK REAL PRETTY.
Next time be sure to put a little roll of paper in the screw holes to avoid paint from interfering with the threads. Do you have a Facebook or Instagram? I have a homemade tool that I'd like to send a pic of for you that would greatly assist with the refinishing of the knob and tote. 😃 The plane is a beauty.
looks great! can you estimate how many hours you spent restoring this planing? Loving the blooper reel at the end too. My wife has several planes that I might want to restore and I am wondering how many years it will take to do it lol. Thanks
Beautiful job Drew, she looks gorgeous, but you're only half way there my friend. Those shavings were very thick and sounded like hard work. If I can offer some help from years of restoring planes. The sole should only be flattened with the plane assembled and the blade withdrawn as when you tighten everything down on assembly it will distort the casting and all the flattening done before will be irrelevant. The mating surfaces of the frog and plane body should be checked for flatness. The edge of the chip breaker should be flattened where it sits on the back of the blade so that it applies even pressure right across and so that shavings can't jam underneath/between. Hold the blade/chip breaker assembly up to a light and look for gaps, gentle rubbing of the underside of the leading edge of the chip breaker on a stone will get you there. The back of the blade must be flattened and polished, before you can sharpen the front. It should be effortless to get shavings that fine that you can read a newspaper through them, then Grasshopper, you may leave the temple.
But It’s a Fore plane. 😁 The truly first step of is to identify they type and purpose. its supposed to be a workhorse and take thick shavings and not be machinist grade accurate. You plane-fetishests all tend to think that even scrub planes should take off Japanesey thin strips.
I almost commented on how the plane sounded struggling thru the wood. But he did such a beautiful job I couldn’t lol. This is the absolute proper way right here ^^^^^^ def get a thicker replacement blade, confirming the yoke will catch the slit in the chip breaker, or get the IBC blade
Beautiful restoration. Something that eats rust even quicker and more thoroughly than vinegar is muriatic acid. It is more dangerous to use and requires good ventilation but the results are nearly instant (under 5 minutes) and the leftover acid is also a.useful way of cleaning any oil or grease dripping from stains in the driveway or garage floor. It’s cheap and available in hardware or big box stores like Home Depot. Also found at pool and spa stores at a much higher cost. It cleans the metal so completely that it wants to start corroding again quickly. Just rinse off the acid with water and wipe on some lubricating oil or WD-40 to halt the corrosion.
Didn't know about the acid. But I'd probably still opt to go the slow and safe route with vinegar rather than experiment and inevitably melt my limbs off with the high powered stuff. :) Thanks for watching, Dennis
Fisher's Shop; You might wish to give it a try. Just do it out in the yard with a little breeze to your back or set up a fan. The fumes are the biggest concern. It really is easy to use and safe if employing some common sense. Some rubber gloves or some tongs to handle the pieces will keep you safe and lower the pieces into a disposable aluminum cooking container as is used for cooking turkeys. Use just enough acid to cover the taller pieces. If cleaning odd size tall pieces a paint brush can be used to brush on the acid. The brush won’t be damaged and after cleaning with soap and water it an be used for painting again. The speed and thorough clean up of the rust is an amazing thing to see. Pitting will still require some grinding but the surface rust is gone in seconds.
Great clean up of that old rusty plane. Just a shame that you painted the "STANLEY" background on the lever cap black instead of red as it originally is though. P.S. Just out of curiosity, why do you run the plane at such an angle when you use it? Sort of defies the purpose of having a No. 6 plane if you are only going to put about 10% of it on the board.
I like the look of the black over the Stanley orange. To each their own, I guess. I'm no hand plane expert, but I run it at a slight angle to improve cutting.Doing so adds more of a slice to the cut instead of a direct chop... if that makes sense.
The frog sits on that area and I didn't want the paint to interfere with it not sitting perfectly flat. I think it would eventually get worn down too and chip off if I had.
I gotta be honest, it hurt me to see vinegar touching that old plane. Yes, it removes rust, but it will also damage the metal. A razor blade will scrape off most of the rust, then you can hit it with sandpaper. Regardless, the end product looks great!
Depending on the lever cap is maybe 10% due to rust, and the remaining 90% was because you let that sit in vinegar as long as you did. I made the same mistake. You can't leave cast iron in vinegar that long. Cast iron only develops surface rust, it will never pit under normal circumstances
I use a bees wax boiled linseed mix and rub This into bare metal surfaces, Polish off and this works well for protection of surface and makes it glide over wood, repeat as required. This works for me.👻
I appreciate that you used brass wire instead of steel. Much less aggressive and better in my opinion. The only thing I didn't like was the spray paint. I would prefer a real japanning process. It adds a day to the job but is worth it.
Nice find and awesome job for someone that's never done a plane restoration before. One question though, did you use any WD-40 type lubricant on the screws before you reinstalled them?
The only thing I didn’t like is you change the colour of the backing of Stanley to black... Might not be able to get that colour orange again probably But looked nice as hell
It looked like you could have stripped the japaning better. John Bear has a furniture refinishing RU-vid channel that uses saw dust liberally applied on the stripper.With a small wire brush to get into the details.
