Can you flatten a plane sole with a belt sander?

[scmhogg]

After seeing Niki's sharpening post, I wondered if I could flatten the soles on a couple of old non-valuable planes on my bench-top belt sander, if I was careful about heat? The platen on the sander is very flat.

Steve

[BrazosJake]

Yup, that's the lazy man's way of doing it.

Keep the paper lubed, and watch for sparks.

[kwgeorge]

I think I would have to step back and analyze this idea a bit. I guess my biggest fear would be losing the 90 degree angle to the sides during the accelerated metal removal process of the belt sander. Also I don’t know about yours but my big belt sanders seem to have a bit of a bump on the joint seam and have a tendency to bound around a bit when not uses for awhile.

What’s wrong with 150 grit on glass?

Ken

[scmhogg]

Ken,

As you know, I am a great fan of scary sharp, with my 12" X 24"X 1/2" glass plate.

However, BrazosJake hit the nail on the head. It's hard work and I am lazy.

I recently flattened [well almost flattened] a Groz plane. My arms looked like I was lifting at Gold's Gym and taking steroids. Soreness came later.

I raised the question as I have a couple of un-spectacular planes I picked up in an ebay lot, some time ago. I'm beginning to think that they will never have a chance to show whether they are worthy.

Steve

[Pappy]

Ken hit the biggest drawback, losing the 90 degree angle with the sides. An edge sander or the oscillating belt sander from Ridgid might be a better idea.

[Tom Miller]

Being somewhat, uhhh, motivationally-challenged myself, I see where you're coming from. But, another approach to take is to figure out where the sole lacks flatness, and maybe direct your efforts where needed. I, too, would be leary of rounding the edges, which can happen very fast on a belt sander, even with the flattest of platens.

I think as long as your high spots are around (and especially in front of) the mouth, you're half way there. This will ensure you're holding down the fibers really well while the blade is prying them up. Then, you mostly need good registration in front and behind.

Another approach with the sander is to go at the high spots with the 2" drum (carefully), and then back to the scary sharp to even things out and see where your at. I did that with a 3/4" chisel back once.

Regards,
Tom

[eddy merckx]

I have definitely done this. It makes a two hour job into a 3 minute job. I have to qualify my response by saying that I do use a benchtop sander but mine has a disc sander also. I set the little table square to the face of the disc so I have something to register to. I gently push the sole of the plane into the disc, then move the sole back and forth to get coverage. You will want to check every few seconds to see how much material you're removing. Remember that you really only care about flattening the sole just in front of the mouth.

The nice thing about using the disc is that it doesn't leave scratches or round off the corners of your plane. There is also no lump from the belt seam. I think I have an 80 grit disc.

I most recently did this on an old Stanley #4 that I got from ebay. It went super fast and made the plane perform beautifully. I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it before.

Eddy