flattening a plane

[mrojec]

I'm refurbishing an old Craftsman smooth plane given to me by my FIL. I have a granite flat stone and tried rubbing the plane on wet 400 grit wet-dry paper to flatten the sole. It seemed to be working but it's very slow going. I plan on getting some 200 grit to speed things up and progress to finer grits to get a smoother surface. Any other recommendations for speeding the process up? Yes, I'm a bit impatient, and time is at a premium just now.

[Uncle Cracker]

This is not a job for the impatient, unless you have a machine shop. Your methods are correct for the typical DIYer. Just take your time and go one step at a time. Your efforts will be rewarded.

[Russianwolf]

After reading a lot on old hand planes, there seems to be some debate as to whether there is a real benefit in a perfectly flat sole. Now there are certain areas where everyone agrees the sole need to be in contact with the wood (right around the mouth) and that the sole should provide a stable, smooth cut. But some have contended that the sole doesn't need to be perfectly flat and uniform and that making it so is overkill. A slight concavity in the back end for example may not effect the cut and actually make planing easier as it would reduce friction (the whole reason for the corrugated bottoms on some planes)

So, get the plane blade and set up tweaked. Flatten the sole to the point that it's stable and makes countact around the mouth, then give it a try and see how it well it's doing the job. If it's still not quite right, tweak some more and try again.

I was fortunate that the No.5 and No. 7 that I bought have very nice soles already and were nicely tweaked to begin with, so al I have to do is keep a nice edge on the blades.

[shoottx]

This is not a job for the impatient, unless you have a machine shop. Your methods are correct for the typical DIYer. Just take your time and go one step at a time. Your efforts will be rewarded.

If you go to 220 wet dry paper and rush the process you may embed other sanding lines that will also take more time to work out DAMHIK

Unless there is a huge amount of material to remove, I would stick with the 400. But if there is a lot to remove you might want to think about a belt sander or just cleaning up and using it as a paper weight!

[Uncle Cracker]

220 wet works OK if you don't use too much pressure, but I have not noticed that it is significantly faster than 400 wet, on which you can put some more grunt.

[Pappy]

Take your time to get the best results. There are different opinions as to how flat you need to lap the sole of a plane. Personally, I try to get as much contact from the toe to an inch or so behind the mouth. Behind the mouth you only need an inch or so at the heel so the plane cant rock front to rear.

[dkerfoot]

Agree with not having to have it perfectly flat. The only thing to really be concerned about is if it is convex (banana sole).

Sharpen the blade and adjust it. If you can produce fine, thin even shavings across the width of the blade - congratulations! The tool now does exactly what it was designed for.

[poolhound]

I spent a lot of this weekend working on a bunch of planes. Some I already owned and came from my grandfather and others that I picked up at a yard sale.

2 x stanley 220 block
1 x groz low angle block
3 x smoothing planes (1 old stanley #3, Groz #4 & what looks like a craftsman #4 with plastic handle)
1 x Sargent #5 Jack Plane with corrugated sole
1 x Stanley #6 jointer

The block and smoothing planes soles are now about as good as they are going to get. none are 100% flat but they all are at the front, mouth and tail. The flatter they get the harder more flattening becomes as you must remove more and more material. I sharpend up the irons and they are all taking nice paper thin shavings. The frogs and chip breakers could still use a little tuning but that will be a piece of cake by comparison to working on the soles.

The 2 larger planes (#5 & #6) are going to need a lot more work. I had to take the belt sander to both of them to start with and they now need a lot of elbow grease to get them in shape.

[Hoover]

I have different planes,from router planes to jointer planes. I have yet needed to flatten the sole of any plane. It's a cure looking for a disease. Sharpen the blade, and set so it just makes wisps of shavings. We tend to overwork adjusting our tools, rather than using them.

[mpauly]

I have different planes,from router planes to jointer planes. I have yet needed to flatten the sole of any plane. It's a cure looking for a disease. Sharpen the blade, and set so it just makes wisps of shavings. We tend to overwork adjusting our tools, rather than using them.

I'd agree to that statement to a degree, but I've gotten some used planes that had rust pitting and minor gouges (that left marks when testing it out) that were easily taken out by lapping the sole. I was much more aggressive and started with 100 grit dry paper, then working up to 220 and then to 400 wet/dry. They don't need to be highly polished like a chisel (though I guess it couldn't hurt) and didn't take more than 5 minutes total.

As others have said, spend the time getting your blades lapped, square and honed.

Michael

[Uncle Cracker]

Some folks just use their planes for easing edges, evening out joints, and the like. These processes don't require a perfectly true foot. For those who use a hand plane for truing or flattening wood, some have a touch that is so pure they could do it in their sleep with a completely cockeyed tool, but others (such as myself) are so doofy that they must rely more on the plane's flatness to achieve good results. So I try to keep mine as flat as I practically can, just to get the results that come more naturally to others. The way I look at it, there is no disadvantage to a flatter plane when working on flat surfaces, or those you want to become flat. There is obviously a limit though, as a dull or misaligned blade will more than offset any advantage offered by even the truest of planes.