Tuning up my Record N0. 5 jack plane

jack of all

I was awake very early this morning so I decided to head down to the workshop for a couple of hours, before the rest of the household awoke. I had a job in mind, something i'd been meaning to do for some time....

I bought a lovely Record No. 5 in Richard Gough's shop off Capel Street, about 8/ 9 years ago, before Record planes went altogether. I think I paid about £50 for it at the time, a bargain. The plane worked well after some fettling and adjustment, especially when I fitted a Clifton blade and breaker. However I did find that the reach of the adjustment yoke ("Y" lever) was a little on the short side, fine for use with the regular thin plane blade but not so fine on the thicker Clifton. I managed to get my hands on a redundant "Y" lever and adjustment wheel from a Lie Nielsen frog, so I set about swapping over the parts today. Everything went well, very simple operation- drift out the existing pin with a parallel pin punch, file off some flash over from the frog casting and refit. Result! Backlash is reduced by half and full adjustment throughout the range is now possible. I replaced the original (horrible) plastic handle and knob with a rosewood set before taking a few shavings on a bit of 3x 2". Very happy with the result, now to get my Sunday morning fry up!

aerosol

Thats giving you some lovely shavings there:D

jack of all

Cheers Aerosol; it's funny though, it got me thinking about the whole "tune your regular plane up" versus buying a LN/ Clifton/ Veritas straight off- this topic often features on some of the woodwork forums. Truth is I reckon you're better off buying a better quality plane to begin with; by the time you cost in the quality blade, chipbreaker, hours of fettling etc you soon get very close to the high end plane in terms of cost. Only thing I will say is I love that Record plane, it was my first new bench plane (I "inherited" an old Record No.4, before this) and the screw adjustment for the lever cap is a great feature in my opinion, I've always favoured it over the more conventional spring lever adjustment.

ennisa

Jack, good work on the record and thanks for the pics. What are the other planes in the last pic? Looks like a #5 a #7 and maybe a #3 or #4? How did you get your hands on the spare parts from a nielson?

Always remember though that the shavings end up in the bin! (or the gerbil cage!) It is the quality of the surface that is left behind that determines how good the plane, and your technique is

I agree that it would be best to start off with a more expensive plane but couldn't afford it so I went with the anants and have enjoyed them, they do need a little fettling, about an hour each when you take them out of the box but they are the best that i can afford and still be able to buy more than just one. I got a #5 1/2, #8 and #77 they are not ready to go out of the box like i'm sure the lie nielsons or veritas are but they are very servicable and I just could not afford the more expensive stanley et al. The #5 1/2 still gives me the best surface, even better than the stanley #4 smoother for some reason. I must do some more twekaing of the stanley to see if I can figure out why that is!

Actually the very first plane that i bought was a stanley sb3 (ewwwww) I had to trim the bottom of the sitting room door after the new carpet went down. This was at the very beginning of when I got started and did not even realise that they aren't sharpened enough to use out of the box! That was an experience. Plastic handles, small blade, weird adjuster and a blunt iron and no sharpening tools or idea how to do it! I did not have a good time of ie. And as it turned out I did not need to trim the door at all. That plane is not my scrub plane and it is crap at that too. Don't ever buy one!

I'll post a picture of my collection. (the other half bought me a new camera )

jack of all

Cheers Ennisa,
I must admit I've got a bit of a tool addiction and it's not limited to woodworking tools! Still got to spend my money on something since I quit the fags 10 years ago- that's when I started out in woodworking. As for the planes, I have a few, but the ones pictured are-

Lie Nilesen low angle jack, Lie Nielsen No. 7 jointer, Clifton 4 1/2. I also have a LN No. 4; when this plane was delivered I wasn't happy with the frog as I felt some of the tolerances on the adjustment were a bit sloppy for the price of the tool (worse than my original Record). A few emails back and forth and they agreed to send me on a replacement. They never looked for the original to be returned, hope they don't read here! Thus the spares. I bought a couple of Anants in my time too. Spent a lot of time on them to get them to a stage where I was happy. In the end I gave the pair to my brother as they were really surplus to requirements for me and they needed a good home. Even with the LN or LV there's still room for tweaking (although minor) and I've found some very interesting advice in David Charlesworth's books. I'd love to see those pics...

dubtom

Here's my little collection. Got them all at various car booth sales,they all need sharpening and a general recondition. TBH I could count the amount of times I've used a hand plane on the my right hand,just can't pass them by when I see an old one at a sale. I could spend a month sharpening both the planes and chisels I have,if I had a month.

jack of all

Very nice Dubtom, where are these boot sales I want to know!!! Don't get me started on sharpening, my wife laughs when she sees me coming with the waterstones, sheet of glass and wet/ dry paper! You could spend an hour or more on a plane blade, depending on what nick it's in. Very therapeutic work though...and it's a chance to sharpen the old kitchen knives too,,,,

dubtom

Fairyhouse market on Sundays is usually a good spot to pick one or two up,from cheap new ones to old and in need of tlc,you'd be amazed the stuff people sell at those markets.

jack of all

Too far away for me, pity...

ennisa

I took some pics.

That old yoke in the front is a rolson fillister plane that had a broken casting and i got for a fiver. It is pretty much all that it is worth. It has no nicker so does not work too well. I just realised that the Anant's are in the back and not too easy to see. These are the start of my addiction, it can only get worse from here. I need to sort out the woodies. The jack i use all the time but i really want to get the little coffin smoother running, i got the two smallest woodies from my father in law. I have sharpened the blades but for some reason the first time i used them the blade's chipped all over the edge. I'm not sure if they just couldn't deal with the knots in the pine i was testing them on or whether or not the hardness of the blades is the problem. I will be trying again with the same blades because it is a pain in the arse to find replacements, especially for the little guy.

The Anant #8 jointer weighs a ton and in retrospect a #7 would have been more than adequate but the #8 was on clearence for the same price as a #7 so how could i pass up more plane for the same money. Hopefully the #8's will be rarer!! Yeah sure.

I read a quote ages ago:
"My only worry is that after I am gone my wife will sell my tools for what I told her I paid for them!"

Can' remember where I heard that. But I look at the planes sitting in their spot under the bench and I ponder the future!

I didn't know there was a market in fairyhouse, oh no, this could be bad.

Jack, isn't there a market in kilkenny on sundays? They have their own website and everything.

dubtom

oops,I've passed by wooden planes like those many a time in markets.

aerosol

I've got plane envy:D Fine collections.

I was just at that Kilkenny market a few weeks ago Ennisa,saw a few old planes.Its roughly the same size as Fairyhouse(when you get up there)

jack of all

Lovely kit there ennisa, nice shot too, looks like a plate from one of those Taunton books! Talking of the values of planes and tools etc my wife jokes that if I ever played away she'd flog the lot at a car boot sale (for bugger all!). I have a few old woodies that belonged to family memebers in the past, but I've never been all that interested in them- most of them have seen long and hard service and are very worn.

ennisa

Jack,
A wooden plane that is in usable condition can be a very nice thing to have as they are usually lighter than their metal equivilant, some wooden jointers are twice the length of a stanley #7 or #8 because the weight it less restrictive. If you find one that has a nice flat sole and the mouth is not too ragged and the blade is either in good condition or is just lightly rusted then it can be a good investment. If the sole is a bit ragged then it can be jointed with a jointer plane or power planar/jointer. I find the biggest problem is find a compatible iron as very few of them that I have seen will take a standard plane iron.
If they have reached the end of their useful life and they are being sold for not much then i'd like like to think that I would give them a home on a shelf in the workshop rather than having them end up in the fire or on somebodies mantle piece!

I have to say though that there is a different feel to using a wooden plane on wood it just doesn't seem like so much of a battle and they way that your hands fall when using a wooden plane means you tend to use it in a less regimented way. As in it's easy just to flip it around to pull it or use it in a circular fashion to plane around an awkward grain etc..
Getting used to the way that you use a wooden plane in terms of adjusting the iron etc.. only takes a little time to get use to and just becomes second nature, the same way that adjust the depth of cut or lateral adjuster on a bailey style plane.

If you see one for a decent price and it looks like it is in good nick then give them a go you might like it and if doesn't work out then they look very nice on the shelf in the workshop.

There are also some good books articles on line about making wooden planes. The krenov planes specifically look lie they might be nice to make. I do like the idea of making some of the tools that I use. We do it all the time when we make jigs but i like the idea of making planes and also making some marking and measuring tools like marking gauges and try squares. I just haven't got around to it yet :rolleyes:

Jack, your wife is an evil woman but she obviously knows how to keep you on the straight and narrow

ennisa

Just the steel planes. Couldn't really see them in the last pic.

Dubtom, what planes are in your collection there?

jack of all

I have a few more planes, not pictured already, would it be considered gloating if I were to post them?:)

ennisa

Not by me

jack of all

Ok, I'll try and get some pics posted up in the next few days!

jack of all

Here's the rest of the stable:

Veritas apron plane, Veritas low angle block plane, Veritas standard block plane, Stanley router plane (great tool and so quick to set up), Stanley No. 93 shoulder plane, Stanley side rebate plane, Lie Nielsen edge trimming plane, Stanley fixed mouth block plane, Record low angle block plane, LN No. 4 smoothing plane, Record No. 4, Clifton no. 4 1/2, LN low angle jack, LN no. 7 jointer, Record No. 5 jack, Stanley multiplane.

They are all great planes in their own right but my favourites (and the ones I pick up most often) would be the Veritas apron plane (just great for fitting) and the Clifton- great heft feels, good in the hand and when sharp it cuts so well.

aerosol

:DNo gloat there jack of all;)It would be wrong not to show them off.
Seeing all these planes is making me want to try using hand tools more.I'm lacking a heavy sturdy bench and vice which doesn't help..

Fingalian

Hey you forgot to mention the ECE or is it an Ulmia smoother with the lignum vitae sole? How do you find it?

jack of all

Fingalian, indeed I did forget the ECE smoother! I find it very good although I haven't given it much use to be honest. I got it for very reasonable money from Fine Tools and it seemed like a good buy, especially given the lignum vitae sole. The blade needed a lot of work to get rid of the manufacturer's machining scores on the back, but once that was done it performed very well.

Aerosol: the bench was inherited from my father who bought it at auction years ago. It's English made, from beech with a tail vice also and quite sturdy although it did suffer from some woodworm before I got it. Still it's a good bench and meets my needs.

ennisa

Fantastic Jack, I like them all. I have a hankering to get a routing plane. I just don't know how my budget is going to cope. I might start off with the varitas small router plane. They are about €50 but I would like the larger one for cleaning up the bottom of dados etc.. plus if it can substitute more a decent amount of my routing, which is dados, then my workshop will be a whole lot quieter.

Great collection and thanks for showing them off. What did you pay for the ECE/Ulmia in the end? I'm not sure how much they cost so I am interested in what you would reckon a good price is.

See what you've done now!

jack of all

The Veritas router plane does look like good value over on Axminster and I find it the best tool for some jobs, especially as I only have a 1/2" electric router model that's a little too big for some work. The Stanley is fine but I suspect the Veritas would be a big improvement. I think I paid £65 for this Stanley in McQuillan's about 9 years ago. The router plane is very satisfying to use, especially for cleaning up dadoes and the like, especially with the dovetail cutter fitted. Best thing is it produces chips/ shavings as opposed to irritating dust! I can't remember what I paid for the ECE, definitely under €80 I suspect.

jack of all

I actually got around to using the ECE plane yesterday, not for fine woodworking as such, but working with wood nonetheless! There was an old sledgehammer lying around the shop with a cracked handle; I'd promised myself that one of these days I'd get around to replacing the handle. Well I did it yesterday; it's funny the whole operation took about two hours (lighting a fire outdoors to burn out the old handle, shaping the new handle to fit etc) so there's no question that it would be as cheap to buy a complete new sledge (fibreglass maybe?) rather than spend so much time to carry out the repair! Still that's not the point, is it? Anyway because the ECE had a fairy wide mouth it proved to be just the tool to quickly remove the bulk of the waste from a new (pick axe/ mattock) handle before finishing with a block plane and rasp. Anyway it was a pleasant couple of hours with an end result. I was disappointed to find that my ECE plane's blade has suffered some corrosion while in storage- the perils of an unheated shop...

Fingalian

''Still that's not the point, is it?''
Nope , the point is to fix it yourself with what you have on hand.
I have that ECE plane too and I also have a ECE Primus.Your LN's give me plane envy though, going to have to buy eh I mean invest in one soon.I was using the Primus last night to take the arris off 10 16' 2''x4''s ,I could have fired up the router but then I could not hear the radio. Anyhoo the thing about the ECE is it relatively light which I found a big plus when working up and down all those 16 footers, Nice change from the oul cast iron No5.Had some rust on the blade too, even though I keep it in a bag with some desiccant.Does desiccant wear out, does it reach some sort of hygroscopic limit? New thread coming up, how to keep tools rust free on this misty isle!

dubtom

ennisa wrote: »

Just the steel planes. Couldn't really see them in the last pic.

Dubtom, what planes are in your collection there?

As with everything in my shed ennisa I'd have to go and check.Needless to say none of them are of any real value,I was more interested in getting a 'set' if there is such a thing,as 3,4,5 ect although I did splash out on an aminster duplex rebate plane last year just to fill a hole in my tool box. I say splash out,it was only 40 quid st.

jack of all

Fingalian, I have to agree with you there on the lightness of the ECE! I was using my 4 1/2 initially to remove heavy shavings, which was repetetive and hard work; by comparison the ECE was light as a feather and very slick in use (what a wonderful sole!). I often wonder about the dessicant too; I always save any bags of it that come with electrical goods etc for use in my tool stores. Might be worth baking it at low temperatures in an oven to drive off the the accumulated moisture? I regularly run over the various tools with a camelia oil/ liquid paraffin/ light machine oil mix. I saw an idea once where a guy hooked up a pygmy bulb (less than 10 watt?) inside his tool cabinet, the trickle of heat generated being enough to keep everything dry!

Fingalian

Yep lignum vitae is naturally oily so it makes for a slippy sole.Read somewhere that they used make gear wheels from it.Good tip about the pygmy bulb,must experiment with that, have you ever thought /heard of using kitty litter as a desiccant? I must do some research.

jack of all

Fingalian wrote: »

have you ever thought /heard of using kitty litter as a desiccant?

Snap! I have considered it, but I suppose the problem with any dessicant is that once it's "saturated" it's finished? Those "vapour" tins seem to be effective (according to other forums) but they would be uneconomical in my set up...

jack of all

I see that camphor is good for keeping tools in storage rust free; I'm going to see if I can pick up some of that in the pharmacy, they'll probably look at me like I've got two heads!