wood plane repair

Re: wood plane repair

John Vancil

>Rick look under Wood Central articals-Bob Smalser-rehabing old woodies. Bob's method of glueing a piece of hard wood to the soul works better than morticing in some hard wood behind the blade on the soul. I hope this helps. John

Re: wood plane repair

Paul in NJ

>I've done it both ways and I think the patch to the mouth method is much easier and less intrusive to the plane. Make the patch a little oversize. After leveling the patch to the sole it is easy to creep up on the desired mouth opening by paring with a sharp chisel. "Restoring, Tuning, and Using Classic Woodworking Tools" by Mike Dunbar is a good reference.

Paul Dzioba

Re: depends. . .

Dave Mount

>. . .like everything does.

I think the answer stems in part from what current ills you are trying to fix. If the only thing you need to accomplish is closing up the mouth, then I'd do the inlet patch ahead of the mouth. While cutting the recess for the patch may seem a little tedious compared to just jointing the sole and slapping on a new piece, it has the advantage that you're not messing with any aspect of bedding the iron, so in some ways it's less fussy overall -- you just need to go slow as you reopen the mouth.

If the iron isn't bedded nicely, or the plane has bigger problems than a gaping mouth, then laminating on a new sole may be a better fix, and Bob Smalser's article demonstrates that approach. If the iron has bedding issues, a new sole may help deal with that by lending some fresh support to the bottom of the iron, depending on the thickness of the new sole and the thickness of the iron.

I'm assuming from the fact that you're contemplating resoling that this isn't a plane that has value other than as a user. The mouth patch is a far less visible repair.

Go for it.

Dave