Once the old Millers Falls planes were cleaned up and somewhat tuned up. I thought about getting some more. At this stage my collection includes two relatively recent Stanley jack planes (#5), an old Stanley jointer (#7), a recent vintage Record jack, a Millers jack, a relatively recent Stanley smoother (#4), a recent Record smoother, a Millers Falls smoother, an older Sargent Smoother and several block planes of various types and vintages. A Millers Falls 814 arrived yesterday that needs cleaning up and an old Stanley #4 is on the way.
I learned a few things that are probably obvious to those of you who have become attached to your planes. In spite of the fact that the Stanley jack planes have partially machined frogs, they don't seem to set up well. I tried and tried to get the Stanley #5s to properly plane oak flooring but got a lot of blade chatter that resulted in gouges. OTOH, the old Sargent produced smooth shavings on the same material with no chatter when I removed it from its shipping box. The Record and Millers jack planes seem to set up just fine and cut nice shavings.
The recent Stanely smoother produces reasonable shavings but it is also hard to set up. Not only is there no frog adjustment, the frog alignment is poor and the frog face is cast, not machined.
I have a Hock blade and frog on order and I'm going to try them in all of these planes (except the jointer). I doubt putting lipstick on the Stanleys will make much difference but it might make the others even better.
I am going to cut down the numbers. The Stanley jacks and the Stanley smoother will either be sold to some unsuspecting soul or found good homes (donated) in a school or community workshop. I really don't have space to store the others but I'm going to keep them anyway.
I suppose at some point I should buy one of the really good modern planes but thus far I have about half the cost of a good new plane invested in all these old ones and the whole process of trying to make them work has been an education in itself.
I learned a few things that are probably obvious to those of you who have become attached to your planes. In spite of the fact that the Stanley jack planes have partially machined frogs, they don't seem to set up well. I tried and tried to get the Stanley #5s to properly plane oak flooring but got a lot of blade chatter that resulted in gouges. OTOH, the old Sargent produced smooth shavings on the same material with no chatter when I removed it from its shipping box. The Record and Millers jack planes seem to set up just fine and cut nice shavings.
The recent Stanely smoother produces reasonable shavings but it is also hard to set up. Not only is there no frog adjustment, the frog alignment is poor and the frog face is cast, not machined.
I have a Hock blade and frog on order and I'm going to try them in all of these planes (except the jointer). I doubt putting lipstick on the Stanleys will make much difference but it might make the others even better.
I am going to cut down the numbers. The Stanley jacks and the Stanley smoother will either be sold to some unsuspecting soul or found good homes (donated) in a school or community workshop. I really don't have space to store the others but I'm going to keep them anyway.
I suppose at some point I should buy one of the really good modern planes but thus far I have about half the cost of a good new plane invested in all these old ones and the whole process of trying to make them work has been an education in itself.