Stanley 45 Combo Plane Overhaul #5: Just Some Little Bits

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First, I'll toss this in here. I should have included it with the other wood pieces in the last entry but I forgot. I kept the original Rosewood piece for the fence. It was kinda "gunky" and a little dried out but otherwise in good, solid shape.


I used a plane and flattened out the faces which also exposed fresh wood then squared up the sides. Sanded up to 320 and it looked pretty good.


I probably would have made a new fence to match the tote/knob but the piece of Rosewood I have isn't long enough so I didn't. This one needs a little hydration but then it'll be a perfectly fine user. She's taking a good soak in BLO right now.

Now onto the little bits.

As I disassembled the plane, I put all of the small pieces in a container so I didn't loose anything.


You can see there is a good amount of rust and some nickel plating that ain't hanging on real good. So, back to the wire wheel on the grinder for all of the pieces that were big enough for me to use it without eating the skin off my fingers…


What a difference a couple of seconds on the wheel can make


Some parts were too small for me to comfortably clean them up with the grinder, so I brought the grinder to them. The Dremel got a little snack too ;-)


When all was said and done, everything went back into the container in a nice bath of CRC-336.


I still had the tiny little spurs to do and the even tinier little screws that secure them. I have these granite tiles I keep handy with various grades of wet/dry paper adhered on.


When I started woodworking, I used the Scary Sharp method of sharpening and sorted through about 2 dozen of these tiles from HD with a straight edge to find the 2 flattest ones. I no longer sharpen using paper but, I do find these tiles with the paper to be extremely handy to have around. For just such things as this:


Here I'm using a pencil eraser to remove the rust from the faces of the spurs. You can see the difference when it's done:


I did the screws the same way except my finger worked better than the eraser.


Finally it was time to sharpen the spurs. That was no small chore. See how fat those fingers are?!


But, eventually I got a good even burr rolled on the edge and drew the back side a couple of times to remove it and they should work just fine (if I even use them).

So that pretty much wraps up the plane portion. Over the next couple of days, I'll be putting some finish on the tote and knob and some kind of rust prevention on the bare metal. I need to clean up the cutters and sharpen them up. Then it'll be time to put this thing to work


Thanks for dropping by!
Those tiny bits and pieces are a pain aren't they? You did well though. Looking good.

Andy -- Old Chinese proverb say: If you think something can't be done, don't interrupt man who is doing it.