'Nother flattening plane sole question...

My thoughts

jim_reed@marietta

>I use sc sandpaper on a flat marble floor tile. For most Stanley planes, esp the larger ones, flatening is greatly overrated. The best benefit is removing the smutz from the sole and reducing friction. Less is more. Good luck.

Re: 'Nother flattening plane sole question...

Jim in Burlington Ontario

>There is a great article in the articles section. If you have a thrift/junk store around try and find one of those larger glass coffee table tops. As for the grit I find it just get pushed around and doesn't cut evenly.

Re: 'Nother flattening plane sole question...

Fred Krow

>The general rule in lapping with diamond or CrO grit is the plate should be softer than the part to be flattened. The grit should imbed into the lapping plate and be somewhat held in place for the grit to work.

Glass alone does not work very well,,, if you place some mylar film on the glass then the grit, the system is very efficient. The mylar is available from Lee Valley or most art supply stores.

Regards,

Fred Krow

This method works well...

Christopher Fitch @ Memphis

>I have had good success with it..

Re: 'Nother flattening plane sole question...

Murray in Palo Alto CA

>Based on Bill Tindall's experience as posted a few months ago, I gave this approach a try. I picked up an inexpensive surface plate ($20 Enco) and tried a number of thin intermediary surfaces in which I embedded diamond grit - I haven't have much success and need to spend some more time to work out the bugs.

Bill used a cast iron lap plate in which to embed the diamond paste. Not having a cast iron one, I tried a number of alternatives, including mylar, copper, steel, and plexiglass. None of these worked very well - my hypothesis is that the grit gets pushed too deeply into the soft material - the sharp edges are buried and those that are exposed are broken off. If I find a reasonably priced piece of ground cast iron, I might try that.

One thing that I've observed is that it is important to use some sort of hardened steel press (ground shafting?) to initially embed the grit into the supporting material - if you don't do this, the grit just moves around and eventually is washed off with the swarf. Others have suggested using a magnet to pull up the metallic swarf, leaving the grit, but I haven't tried this.

Do some experiments and post your results - I'd like to hear how others fare.