using a ros to clean up bad plane bodies ..

[Sawduster]

My bet as to why you haven't heard of others doing it is that,though many probably have, there are those out there who would get all self-rightiously outraged that someone would have the unmitigated gall to actually do something that saved time and elbow grease to accomplish a task involving some 100 year old piece of rusted scrap metal. It is mostly pretty recent that I have seen folks get away with admitting to using a belt sander.

My opinion, if you're careful about not putting too much pressure on the sander and keep the thing moving around constantly, it shouldn't cause problems. I'd be scared to use 80 grit as the gouges could be pretty deep, but I think starting at 120 or 150 would do a nice cleanup job without removing too much metal. If you've a belt sander, it might be nice to use that to get a more accurate planar surface which would leave you with less lapping to do by hand.

[BigDaddy]

My benchtop delta belt / disc sander blew up on me a few weeks ago, that's why I decided to try the ros in the first place .. that benchtop model really sucked though, and took awhile to lap the sides and soles due to un-flat belt travel ...

i'm waiting on my new industrial 10 - 20 year old jet .. 1 1/2 hp, 12" disc, 6" belt .. at a used tool store now waiting for a few parts before he puts it on the floor (i have first dibs) ..

i like the ros idea as it cleaned everything up very quickly .. i think i'll try it on an old blade and cap iron to see what it does there .. i hate cleaning those things with steel wool and wd40 ...

[Sawduster]

If they're not pitted, I use one of those cloth buffing wheels mounted on an arbor with a taper that fits the headstock of my lathe to clean up irons, chip breakers and cap irons. Makes pretty quick work for those. That, and I polish the backs and use it as the final step on the bevels. A little polishing compound on the cloth wheel and it is surprising how much stuff comes off quickly.

[BigDaddy]

I just won on ebay a stanley 5 1/4 .. it came to me all cleaned up and tuned, the sides and sole seem to have been cleaned up using a ROS, you can see the little swirl marks the ROS leaves, looks pretty neat on Cast Iron like it had just been milled ...

I've always lapped my sides and soles on either a belt sander to start, then using wet / dry sandpaper stuck to either glass or a flat surface .. and it takes quite some time ..

i've also tried electrolosys and it works pretty well, but you still have to lap afterwards ..

so, I tried this on an old rusted type 20 #6 body that I had, the sides and sole were very rusted ... stuck some 80 grit on my ros and had at one of the sides ..

within just a few minutes of very light pressure, it was shiny again, 80 grit left the swirls .. 120 removed lots of the swirls, 180 removed most .. 220 removed all of them .. then i lapped it by hand on 400 and 600 ... and polished it up with a buffer and some tripoli compound, added some paste wax ... and the side looked new ...

all of this done within about a 5 minute time frame ...

is there a reason why i havn't read of people using ROS's before to clean the sides and soles of plane bodies? It worked for me ... left everything square with no humps or bumps ... and was just wondering if there was any reason why I havn't read of someone doing this before?

[Gecko]

You mean I do not HAVE to do it by hand? What would I do with all that time? Work on wood or something? Last sole took me like 4 hours to get polished and the one I am working on now has about 1 1/2 hours into it and I am only on 80 grit. (I don't have a belt sander yet. :( ) So what sandpaper did you attach and how?

[BigDaddy]

i just started with standard 80 grit 5" ROS sandpaper .. then worked up to 120 and 180 and 220 .. took me about 5 minutes, and this plane was badly rusted ...

i've been trying to figure out a faster way to do this too :) i was in your shoes just last week spending an hour on 80 and 120 grit on an old block plane cleaning up the sides and sole ..

Edit in:
In your case (I've seen the pics of your planes), this might be a good alternative to hand lapping and electrolosys ... it will make the time go by lots faster!!

[BigDaddy]

Jerry,

Where can I get one of those arbors, buffing wheels, and compounds that you use? I have a wheel for my 6" grinder, havn't tried that yet ...

before I tried my ROS, I tried my power buffer (ryobi hand model) with some tripoli compound, buffer doesn't have great speed, so it just kind of smoothed out the rust marks but left the rust there ...

[Sawduster]

I got mine at Sears. Came with a #2 taper and a threaded work arbor and a drill chuck. The chuck threads onto the end. Also has two large nuts and washers.

Here's a link to the one I've got

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=TOOL&pid=00929849000

Here's the work arbor withou the chuck

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=TOOL&pid=00929850000

Here's the work arbor with #1 MT

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=TOOL&pid=00925355000

And the #1 MT with Chuck:

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=TOOL&pid=00925354000

The buffing wheels can be gotten from the box stores and they have several different compounds available for different types of metal and for different grits.