Cleaning up rusty planes

[Cherryville Chuck]

Ive been collecting planes for a while when I see them cheap. The cheaper they are, usually the more rusty they are too. I've found that this isn't usually a deal breaker. The rust on the outsides of the body is easy to remove. I've been using a drill with a 5" disc and rubber backing plate. The finest disc is 120 and it will leave scratches, especially if it's a fresh disc, but it's quick. I took the rust off the sides and sole of the pictured #7 jointer plane (off the ridges at least on the corrugated sole) in 7 1/2 minutes. With the same drill and a stiff wire wheel I cleaned the rust out of the corrugations in another 7-10 minutes.

For the plane iron the back side has to be smooth. The bevel side can be pitted and that doesn't matter. To get rid of the pits I've been using my belt sander turned upside down. A welding magnet makes it easy to hold the iron down onto the sanding belt. With a 240 belt it only usually takes about 2 to 4 minutes to get through any pitting. I still have to lap the backs but that goes fairly quickly with diamond plates. I have one that is around 100 grit to get to flat, then 400 and 600 to get to smooth. I finish off both sides with a felt wheel setup loaded with green honing compound on the home made setup shown in one photo. Green honing compound is 8000 grit.

I can switch the felt wheel with a wire wheel and it takes the rust off of the screws and depth adjuster, etc. Smaller gauge wire works better on the small stuff.

[Stick486]

I like the welders corner magnet..
beats my speaker magnet by a long shot...

[Cherryville Chuck]

It allows for a pretty good grip and because you aren't fighting to hold on I think it makes it easier to stay flat on the belt.

[Cherryville Chuck]

Another example of a couple I cleaned up. I got these from a guy selling on facebook marketplace. I bought the #5 off him for $20 and then a few days later I showed him what it looked like after I refinished it and he asked me if I wanted a #4 he had. I gave him $10 for it. The pictures are his that I copied from the ads. The most time consuming jobs are cleaning the frogs and skew levers and refinishing the totes and knobs. On the #5 I got it down to the original beech and left it unstained. On the #4 I couldn't get down past the red stain so I re-stained it with SamaN brand water based stain in raspberry color. That was a little too pinkish purple so I diluted some black of the same brand and gave it a wash coat to darken it. That turned out exactly what I was shooting for. I think I used water based poly on both.

[Nickp]

The results are awesome...!

[DaninVan]

Amen!