# Stanley No. 4 Plane Restoration



## cabomhn (Dec 28, 2013)

Well I had a little time during winter break between semesters to get a little work done on something woodworking related! I had bought an old stanley no. 4 plane over the summer that I never got around to restoring. This time I generally knew what I was doing and it only took two days to get this whole thing done start to finish. 

Here's a couple pics of the plane as I got it...



 


 

It wasn't in too bad of shape, there was a significant amount of rust on the blade and chip breaker, the handles had some pretty nasty nicks in them along with some other issues. After a lot of work and scrubbing I got everything ready to be painted. 



 

It's been in the 30's and 40's here so my garage was a little too cold for the paint to set up and cure. I needed temps in the 70's so I had to ghetto-rig a way to keep the temp up where it needed to be. I figured a cooler would be ideal for the insulation so I stuck a light bulb inside and some aluminum foil brought it to a nice and stable 80 degrees. 



 

Skipping a bunch of steps here's the final product...



 

 

It came out pretty good! I need to sharpen the blade, but I can't do that at home here since I don't really have the tools. I have it dated to 1925 so it's just under 90 years old. Hopefully ready for another lifetime worth of use! Thanks for looking

Reactions: Like 12


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## ripjack13 (Dec 29, 2013)

Interesting...I saw a bunch of junky old planes at the swap meet last month. Nothing worthwhile really. Maybe late 70-80's Stanley's and some no name ones. I keep looking though....

Yours came out sweet too. Great job!

Reactions: Like 1


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## cabomhn (Dec 29, 2013)

ripjack13 said:


> Interesting...I saw a bunch of junky old planes at the swap meet last month. Nothing worthwhile really. Maybe late 70-80's Stanley's and some no name ones. I keep looking though....
> 
> Yours came out sweet too. Great job!



Thanks! I've always love taking something old and bringing it back to usefulness.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Fret440 (Dec 29, 2013)

This is cool. I like the threads you've posted about plane restoration.

Jacob

Reactions: Like 1


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## NYWoodturner (Dec 29, 2013)

That came out extremely nice Matt. Great job

Reactions: Like 1


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## Schroedc (Dec 29, 2013)

I need to go that far on some of the old planes I have, for me I get them true and clean and sharp and stop there. A paint job and the handles would make a world of difference but then I might be afraid to use them :)

Reactions: Like 3


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## bobhasen (Jan 4, 2014)

Very nice!


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