# Touching up an old Stanley 60 1/2 block plane



## cabomhn (Dec 27, 2012)

Well, got my first hand plane in the mail, the stanley 60 1/2 plane. It wasn't in too bad of a shape, but definitely needed some work....

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So, first step was to take it apart. Had to get out a couple punches and made one mistake which I'll explain later...

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The smallest stainless steel parts weren't in too bad of shape, pretty good actually, so all that they need was a soak and some hand scrubbing. They were put in a tub of simple green and I let them sit over night. 

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Got out the old metal polish to get all of the oxidation off of the brass knobs, after a few good rubbings they came out glimmering with a nice sheen. I've seen people work them to a mirror shine but I didn't really see the point in that since these are going to see use and salty oils from the fingers so they will likely get tarnished pretty quick...

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For the body, it was time for some good ol' electrolysis. If some of you haven't tried it, you take some water and mix in a good electrolyte, for example, baking soda, and take a standard car battery charger at around 6 amps. Take the positive end and attach it to a piece of scrap steel, and then the negative end around your piece you're trying to remove rust and paint, and pretty much everything except for the good metal that you want...

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Now, I kind of got ahead of myself and forgot to take more pictures until I was done, family in town, busy days, etc. Oops  . Anyway, the electrolysis had taken all of the rust off as well as the paint, the original paint job had a lot of deflects due to corrosion in the main frame of the plane. So, I got a can of dupli-coat semi gloss and gloss to try to redo the "japanning" that was on the original plane. I found this little tutorial that might be helpful to some of you, it has some cool info about how to authentically replicate an original paint finish like the planes came painted stock...

Japanning Link

The hardest part about the paint job was really just getting all the not to be painted iron taped off with a good seal so there wasn't a ton of overspray. There were a couple areas with a little overspray that came off easily with a metal file. 

I took the assembled plane over some 100, 220 grit paper to flatten out the sole and the sides, I have a little more tuning up to do but for now it's looking pretty even. 

The only mistake here, is the adjustable assembly to hold down the blade, I had to take apart for painting, well when trying to re-mushroom the end I broke it, so as you can see in the following pictures, I actually ended up using a cotter pin that I clipped and bent out at the ends, actually holds tighter than the original piece so it'll do. Thanks for looking!

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## cabomhn (Dec 27, 2012)

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- Matt


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## BurlsorBust (Dec 28, 2012)

Dang, that's unbelievable. Excellent job. Wanna do a few of mine!


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## Brink (Dec 28, 2012)

Excellent transformation! Glad it's going to be a user, enjoy.


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## NYWoodturner (Dec 28, 2012)

Nice job Matt. I learned something on the electrolysis. How long did you leave it in there?
Scott


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## healeydays (Dec 28, 2012)

Nice job.

I've been doing electrolysis for years in my other hobbies (British sports cars and re-purposing) and it is great when I have a heavily rusted part. 

Another non harmful way to take rust away was a product I have been using for years Evaporust. It converts the metal back without any coating and is environmentally safe. I'll take an old rusty license plate and soak it for 3-4 hours and the metal comes out clean. You do need to wash it and coat the metal afterwards as it is bare metal, and will rerust in the air quickly.

http://www.evaporust.com/


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## cabomhn (Dec 28, 2012)

NYWoodturner said:


> Nice job Matt. I learned something on the electrolysis. How long did you leave it in there?
> Scott



Well, the first time, I took it out and checked it after about 3 hours, took a wire brush to it and scrubbed to see how much of the rust was ejected from the metal. I noticed that there was still a decent amount left so I put it back in there for about another 6 hours or so and that was enough to get everything substantial off. 


A few more things about the electrolysis...

When you are mixing the baking soda and water, it's best to use hot water because it allows the baking soda to mix better and creates a better medium for the electricity to travel through, and the electrolysis works better. On your battery charger you'll notice the amperage go down as the water cools down, so it's best to change out the water with hot water every few hours to keep the reactions going.

Something else (!!!IMPORTANT!!!!!) - DO NOT DO THIS INDOORS, this process produces an array of gases, they aren't harmful for your breathing for the most part, but one of them includes hydrogen, which as you know is explosive, so it needs to be well ventilated. 

Last little point, when taking the part you are cleaning out of the electrolysis bath, the metal is extremely prone to what is called "flash rusting" which I'm pretty sure had to do with how the outermost electrons are oriented allowing it it to be really easy for oxidation and you can get a really thin coat of quick rust (5 minutes time exposed) unless you prevent it. After taking the part out, take it to a sink with as hot of water as you can stand and a wire brush/green scrubbing pad and scrub off the entire part to remove the rust that was loosened and get the hot water in the pores, making it easier to dry off. Then, immediately take it to a towel and use a heat gun, hair dryer, etc to dry it off as best as possible. Then, take paste wax, oil, anything to seal of the cast iron and you'll be good to go.


I should have put some of this in my original post but I forgot, oops! :i_dunno:


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## healeydays (Dec 28, 2012)

cabomhn said:


> NYWoodturner said:
> 
> 
> > Nice job Matt. I learned something on the electrolysis. How long did you leave it in there?
> ...




Guys, if you haven't figured it out by now, this is one smart kid...


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