Official Luthiers Forum!

I bought this old Stanley Bedrock flat sides 605 off of Ebay, along with a 604 in hopes to restore them both back to good useable condition. I started lapping on 80 grit but realized it would be countless hours of lapping before I got the soles flat so I took them both to a machine shop (both planes machined for $20!). The 604 turned out great but the 605 is out by about .012+" at the front left edge. The machinist says it was probably dropped. Check out pics below. I don't think I would want to machine the sole any further. Is this plane still worth fooling with? I'm just learning hand planes and I thought restoring a few would be a good way to learn how they work, and well, I just like restoring things. . Thanks for any input. Here are some pics...

Front end of sole, see left side...


Another pic with the problem area defined...


Problem area with straight edge and feeler gauge...


View from the top, just because...

you could always just treat it in practice as if it were 3/4" narrower then it is, and only put pressure on the "good" side. if you know how to weld you can fill it, then surface it again.
other than that, it looks pretty messed up

I'd get rid of it for a number of reasons.

Maybe if you drop it again, it'll bend back into shape.

_________________
Jim Hansen

Sharpen the blade and try it. You might be surprised at how well it works and doing that is unlikely to cost you any more money.
A Plane doesn't have to be truly flat to work well, it just has to be flat in the right areas.

I have several old Stanley planes that I bought for $20.00 or less. I would replace that one.

Looks like your machine shop did a nice job.

For normal planing this sole will be perfectly ok (can't imagine how you could tilt it towards the front right edge!).
For joining top and back plates you will want to use only the completely flat side of the sole though.
Go for that restoration, those oldies (even the messed up) don't become cheaper.

Don't Bedrock's have pretty thick castings, if you had it machined the rest of the way would it still be thicker than a standard Bailey plane? I've never handled a Bedrock plane before so I don't have a good sense of it.

_________________
______________________________
Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

I dont know if the Bedrocks are thicker than Bailey but it looks like there is plenty of sole left. Im just not sure; how thin is too thin?

I might continue the restoration and if it doesn't work out in its current state Ill take it back to the machinist. Thanks for your thoughts...keep 'em coming!

Yes, whether or not you continue to flatten that sole, it is already flat in the right places for most planing chores. It's definitely worth the effort to clean it the rest of the way. You can eventually find another that can be fully flattened, but don't get rid of this one.

I would assume the plane body is cast iron. Cast iron does not bend from being dropped,it cracks. Cast iron can distort from internal stresses. I also assume the machine shop surface ground the bed. The machinist may have not noticed the dip when setting it up and when he did notice during the grinding process did not want to grind the bed any more to clean it up. To me tell someone it was dropped is just a cya statement on the part of the machine shop. Todd is right on, get it remachined to remove the .012-.015 and you will be OK. Good luck.
Tom

_________________
A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Don't throw it out. As others have already stated it is flat in the proper areas. Those are just fore and aft of the mouth also the toe and heel. Planing an area where the plane is completely in contact with the wood except the beginning and end of a stroke you'll be fine. Planing on edge will require staying on the flat side however as the toe needs to be in contact with the wood.

_________________
No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as the dog does.
Christopher Morley

Ok I will go ahead and restore it, based on the majority of favorable responses, and I just cannot toss aside such a classic hand plane. I will post pics when I'm done with the restoration. Thanks for your help.

That stamped lever is there for a reason. There is a great deal of voodoo going round about flat. I have a variety of excellent planes, none milled, some flattened a bit and most re-bladed and easily adjusted with that lever. It is not barbaric to utter "flat enough."

I finally finished the restoration on my Bedrock 605. It took awhile to gather all the tools and materials needed to do the restoration (bench buffer, scotch brite wheels, battery charger for electrolosis, etc), plus squeeze in the time as it took several hours. I think the next one will go a lot quicker. It's ready for the next 100 years! ...........

before


before 2


Restored blade. Seriously sharp! Lapped and honed on Japanese water stones with a Veritas honing guide


After


After 2

Hi, Gil, Nice job on the plane. I'm glad it worked out for you. I'll bet a lot of folks will be inspired to clean up their rusty old hand planes after seeing your results.

Patrick

Thanks Patrick and Todd! Hey Todd, how do you go about baking the finish on using Duplicolor? For this plane I used epoxy enamel - the kind used for appliances (refrigerators and the like). I just sprayed on one coat and let it dry as per the instructions on the can. It looks great but it chips easy. I would like to try to bake on the next one, and maybe try a different spray paint such as the Duplicolor.

Wow! Nice job, Gil!
+1 Todd, how do you bake the paint?? Low heat oven??

_________________
Chuck Kish

Good on you, Gil. I love to see these nice tools kept in use.

_________________
"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Nice job. If you want to take it up one notch higher, try a Ron Hock replacement iron.

Steve

Please japan them. But send your wife away for the weekend, your gonna need the oven.

Mike

You will ruin it's vintage value if you re-japan or strip the original japaning in any way. Leave it as is. Looks great.
-C

_________________
Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

Gil, I am nearing the end of the process of restoring 6 Bedrock planes. It has been a very long and difficult journey, but I have a tip for you. The worst part is flattening the sole, for sure. Go to a shop that sells stuff for auto body work and buy some 40 grit, 3M "board sanding" strips. They are green and about 16" long and about 2" wide. If you stick these to a sheet of float glass you can make a long "runway" of abrasive. I needed a long runway as I had a 608 to deal with. The key here is that with 40 grit the sanding goes about twice as fast as with 80 grit and the 3M paper is designed for metal. Stay away from sandpaper designed for wood. I used a whole roll and got very little use out of each piece before the grit was too worn to use. Using the 3M paper will save you hours and hours of sanding. When you are done flattening them at 40 grit, do a polish with 80 grit and 120 grit.

I decided to "ruin" my planes and convert them to user planes instead of collector planes. They now look great and work great and no collector will ever be interested in them. Good luck on your restoration.

Hi fewarren - Thanks for the great tip, I will look into the 40 grit when I start on the 604. It seemed like a waste of time when I tried using 80 grit for wood, so I just took them to a machine shop. Even after the machine shop flattened my 605 I noticed it still could use a bit more lapping to get it perfect however the sole was flat within .0025". I also "ruined" these two bedrocks but I knew they would never be collector quality. I am thinking of buying a Hock or LN iron for each plane, maybe even an LN chipbreaker. Please post pics when you get some of your planes restored!

I wonder if you could turn that plane into a decent scrub plane? I'd certainly save it for parts at least.

_________________
"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.