Categories
Hand Tools Planes Stanley

Making a Stanley 164 Low-Angle Plane from a Stanley 4

This post is written by Colin Sullivan, who has previously shown his very nicely-made Stanley No.9 Cabinet Makers plane. Here, Colin shows another nice bit of engineering, a Stanley ‘164’ copy, for which he’s used a standard Stanley No.4 as the starting point. Colin writes:

This plane is made from an early no. 4 body – this one model has just enough metal in the base to take a thread for the cap iron bolt. A small block of metal was glued into the sole for machining and the whole base was milled to 11deg. the plane iron angle for the Stanley 164, see drawing for details. Stanley only made this low angle smoother from 1926 to 1943, and now it is both scarce and expensive!
It was designed by EA Schade using the Bailey method of blade adjustment on the top of the cap iron to allow for the very low blade angle of 12 deg. The blade is from Lie Nielsen who make a copy of the 164, in bronze with an adjustable mouth the same as Stanley. The cap iron is S/S and the adjusting lever is mild steel using the standard small brass knob for adjustment.
The mouth is not adjustable like the original but it ended up just right and performs very well, well worth the time spent making it.

Copy of Stanley 164 Low-Angle Plane_1
Cop of Stanley 164 Low-Angle Plane_2
Copy of Stanley 164 Low-Angle Plane_3

Categories
Hand Tools Plough planes

Side beads with a Record 405

I don’t bother too much with the smaller Record plough planes, as I have this Record 405 and it seems to work pretty well. I would recommend sourcing one if you are thinking of an older plough plane to use. The price generally hovers somewhere around 80-90UKP from dealers or eBay. Make sure you get all the bits, because sourcing tiny missing bolts, spurs and screws can make the process of buying one quite a bit more expensive.
I’ve been making a cabinet for my bathroom and wanted a bead running around the inside of the door frame. The stiles and rails of the cabinet will therefore have the bead and I’ll mitre the beads when I m&t the joints.
The trick with this plane, like any plough, is to concentrate more on the left hand, (pushing the fence against the stuff), rather than just thinking about the right hand.
Start with very light passes a the far end , keep it light, keep it very straight and don’t flex your shoulders too much. As you cut in strokes, move back, pushing the next cut into the previous one. Try to do this when the depth gauge has nearly bottomed out, then you can swipe through the whole groove at the end and take the final depth out. Move like someone who is frozen in their upper body. Once you start pulling back and pushing into the groove you’ve established, you can relax a little, but all the time concentrate on that fence, don’t let the grain push it away from the reference surface.

Record 405_3
Record 405_2
Record 405_4
Record 405_5

Categories
Planes Restoration

Calling from the graveyard…

Stanley No.9 Cabinet Maker Plane – Hot Dog
…yes, a Stanley No.9 Cabinet Makers plane, sans ‘hot dog’ handle for now. I’ve not yet had the chance to empty all these more boxes to confirm it’s gone awol for sure. The pics I have so far don’t fill me with promise, but I’ve worked miracles on planes not far off this condition. If it’s rusted through on the bottom though, I’ll be gutted.

Update: Bad News. Halfway through cleaning the plane up, I noticed the back corner was coming loose as there seemed to be a fracture. Sure enough, the rear corner of the plane came away. No idea what I should do with this now. I think it would be possible to weld/braze, but beyond my skills. If anyone out there wants to make an offer on a fixer-upper, let me know, otherwise it might go on eBay.

Stanley No9 Cabinet Maker Plane_2
Stanley No9 Cabinet Maker Plane_3

PS, check out Colin Sullivan’s post about making his own.

Categories
Jim Hendricks Planes

How to adjust a plane with Jim Hendricks

Jim Hendricks 1
You may have already seen my post about Jim Hendricks. Here’s a link to a video by Jim about how to adjust a wooden plane, something I get asked about a lot.

Categories
Carving Hand Tools Turning

Ladder making and more…

Robert-Penn-The-Man-Who-Made-Things-Out-Of-Trees-2
I’m reading this very interesting little book at the moment. The Man Who Made Things Out Of Trees, by Robert Penn. The book was given to me by a couple of former colleagues from the ‘day job’.
The book is all about the Ash (Fraxinus Excelsior) and it’s multiple uses. It’s remarkable to see how the tree has been used throughout history and to learn just how unique it’s special characteristics are. The author has cleverly used the felling of a specific tree to explain how parts can be used for everything from coach building to making a canoe paddle.
I’m currently at the section where he’s having a bowl turned by Robin Wood. I know Robin’s work well, but didn’t realise what a fascinating variety of jobs he had enjoyed before he started full-time turning. Best buy the book to read more!
You can see the actual bowls that Robin made for Robert on Robin’s website, here. Or, check out the video.
Something else I came across this week was a link to the wonderful web page of Stanley Clark, a wooden ladder maker. It seems Robin was also involved in the creation of some wonderful films for this Heritage Crafts Association Project. As the text on the home page reads:

During the 1950s, Stanley Clark worked as a ladder maker for John Ward & sons who employed 12 people making approx 1600 wooden ladders per year. When aluminium ladders were introduced in the 1960’s, the wooden ladder industry disappeared almost overnight.
Woodworkers Robin Wood and Steve Tomlin travelled to Northampton as part of this Heritage Crafts Association project to make a ladder with Stanley and learn the skills.

Go here to see the great films and read about the project.
Stanley Clark-Ladder Maker 1
Stanley Clark-Ladder maker