Trying to fix my grandpa's old hand plane sent me down a three day rabbit hole

I found his old Stanley No. 5 in the shed, all rusty, and thought I'd clean it up. Figured it would take an afternoon. The sole was way out of flat, so I started lapping it on sandpaper on my workbench. After two hours, I realized my bench wasn't flat either, which was throwing everything off. I had to build a simple lapping plate with a piece of thick glass and spray adhesive, which took a whole day just to get set up right. Then the actual lapping took another full day of elbow grease, checking with a straight edge every few minutes. What I thought was a simple clean-up job turned into a three day project just to get the base flat before I even touched the blade or chipbreaker. Has anyone else had a simple restore turn into a huge geometry lesson?

3 comments

3 Comments

susan_mason26d ago

Yeah, that bench not being flat is such a classic trap. Did you end up having to flatten your workbench too, or did you just work around it with the glass plate? I feel like every old tool project has that one step where you realize you need another tool just to fix the first one.

the_max26d ago

Used to think a flat surface was just a flat surface... that project taught me otherwise.

nina_johnson8621d agoMost Upvoted

Honestly, the real rabbit hole starts when you check the sides for square to the sole. That flat base is useless if the plane isn't square up and down too. Had to learn that the hard way on a No. 4, ended up making a jig to hold it against my sander. It adds a whole other DAY to the process, but a skewed plane just tears up the wood.