Plane Restoration

To begin, I disassembled everything, and cleaned out any dirt I could get to. I sanded the levercap, starting at 220 grit. If the cap is not too bad, I'll use a higher grit to begin with, as it makes less work later. With that done, I move on to the circular parts. Here is the setup I used for everything circular. The adjustment wheel is fastened to a piece of threaded rod. With all the cosmetic work done, I started on the performance enhancers. The frog's face must be flat. I lapped it on the edge of sand paper on glass, in order to work around the lateral adjustment lever. The bottom of the frog and its mating surface on the body must be flat as well. I then worked on the body, lapping the bottom and sides. The blade that came with the plane was not square ground, so I reground it and sharpened it. The last thing that must be dealt with is the chipbreaker. The front must be an airtight fit with the back of the blade. To ensure this, I sanded the leading end at an angle.


I then took it for a test run. Not bad for 1 1/2 hours.