DISCLAIMER If you reading this blog as a “how to.” I will caution you now, I am a complete novice at this sort of stuff. I’m an electrical engineer, a machinist I am not. I’m just learning about this new world, to me, of hand tools. You have been warned.
I’ve been wanting a Jack for so long but there have been higher priorities. Along comes, TheDude50. I purchased a 605 from TheDude50 here at LJ and I got her yesterday. I fiddled with the setup and her and I were off getting acquainted. She performed well but I knew that she could do better. I checked the sole for flatness and she is curvy. Now I like my girls with lots of curves, but not hand planes so much.
We need to have a a sole to sole talk.
I typically use what ever is on hand and today was no exceptions. The best, flattest, surface that I have is my table saw top. So I apply a liberal coating of wax before applying ever grit, a little spray adhesive on the back of sand paper and get to work.
Step 1) 80 grit
So here she is after I took about 5 passes to clean the sole a little. I bet you can spot the trouble already.
Here after about 10 minutes or so.
Can you spot the trouble areas now? Of course you can. The tip of toe is a little harder to see in case you missed that little spot but the heal is pretty obvious at this point. Time for two new pieces of 80 grit…
So here she is after finishing up the the 80 grit.
The heal is still a little dark but it removed all of the marker so I called it good. The toe is low right on the tip, upper left in the picture. It’s such a small area I’ll call that good too.
Am I right in doing so, or should I go back and work on the toe / heal a little more?
Step 2) 150 grit. I would have preferred 120 but 150 is what I had.
Same as the 80 grit but now there is a noticable “shine” to the sole.
Step 3) 400 Wet/Dry
I wanted a little more polish to her so I glued down some 400 grit and used Mineral Spirits as a lube. You could use water but there’s no way I’m putting water on my cast iron table top on purpose. That’s asking for all sorts of problems.
So I’m like a little girl, I like shinny objects. So I lapped the sides a little too.
Far from perfect but it’s a nice start. Unfortunately, my time with her tonight is over. We’ll have to try again another day.
Thanks for reading.
Chunk