Surface grinding room

[Bobby Thompson]

I don't do a lot of posting, mainly because I do more learning here than contributing. A lot of people here have so much more than me to contribute. I am deviating from my norm here. These are pictures of my surface grinding room where I do a lot of my plane work. My bead blaster which is a very important part of the process is in the main shop. I wish I had room for it in here since I have an a/c that I haven't installed yet. The first is plane storage, oven, and workbench. On the left is my buffers. The floor is covered in anti-fatigue floor mats.


 
Next is my Covel surface grinder that I rebuilt.

 
This is my coolant system for the grinder. I use a water soluble oil.



Here is my powder coating setup.

 
Finally here is my computer which doubles as a juke box, although most times I just enjoy the peace and quiet.

[wood-chips]

You have a really nice setup and uncrowded workspace.
Lots of us would love to have your workspace floor space.
How about some pictures of some of your grinding/finished work?

[DaveParkis]

I'm sure a lot of us would be interested in your process as well.

[Bobby Thompson]

This is a finish grind on one.




This is  #5 type 6 that is powder coated and ground. Unfortunately it had a chip in the front so I modified it a bit. I also need to make the appropriate knob. These early planes have the low knob.


 

 Here is another view of the powder coating. It is one of the first I did and I have adjusted the amount of powder to get a little bit better finish. I had one that I did new jappaning and set it beside this one. I asked my son which was powdercoated. He got it wrong. I have some more but I have started making new walnut totes and knobs for them. I have my  lathe set up with a 4 jaw self centering chuck and can get the hole straight in the knobs. Also have been using Le Valley patterns for the totes. 


 
 Here is a finished #4

#4 Stanley by bthompson4860, on Flickr

The process is as follows:
1. After getting the plane in, it is stripped down and cleaned and then it is bead blasted with 80 grit glass beads. Sometimes the old jappaning is hard to remove and I have to soften it up using acetone. When it is complete,every component is clean and down to bare metal. 
2. The body and frog are masked off with high temperature tape. This is actually the slowest part.
3. Powder is then applied and placed in the oven to cure. When it has cooled it is ready to be ground.
4. Grinding starts with one side. The body is clamped to precision ground right angle blocks. Most of them are wider at the toe or foot so I have to adjust that so I won't take all that off one side.
5. When the first side is ground,I try to get it to .001 flatness. The first side is then placed on the chuck and the second side is ground flat.
6 The body is then placed in precision ground machinist vices and the bottom is ground flat. 
7. The lever cap, chipbreaker, and blade is buffed out. There may be some shallow pits that cannot be buffed out.
8. The plane is assembled and either existing knob and tote are cleaned, stained and finished or new ones are made.
9. The lever caps made after 1933, I think, are nickle plated. Some can use work. I intend to set up a nickle and copper plating set up and will replate them. I have also talked to my sheet metal friend about building a larger oven for powdercoating. My friend dropped off some old horseshoeing tools that he got from his neighbor and dear friends widow. Cecil taught him a lot about horses and he looked after Cecil's horses  when he got down and couldn't do it. Cecil died a year or so ago and Doyle still keeps his horses in shape for his widow. We derusted them using electrolysis,beadblasted them and powder coated them. I had trouble with one of them because it was too long to hang in my oven, so I want a larger oven.            

I do not sharpen the blades since people do the differently. My plans are to buy a good slow speed grinder to make it easier  if someone wants me to do it. I also do not plan to finish the totes and knob completely so users can make them comfortable for themselves. I can do it if necessary.

If anyone has suggestions I am open. I know there are a lot of people out there that can give me some great advice. Later on I can probably service customers planes. I feel like a customer deserves what he pays for, so I will work with anybody to make sure of that. I resigned from my job as a multicraft supervisor with a good name and I would like to keep it that way. I know that tablesaetom sells planes on this site and I do not want to cut his business, so I would like to have his permission to sell here. I wish him only the best and will work with him in anyway I can.
It will make me feel bad if I upset anyone. I hope this helps. I am retired and hope to make enough in labor to increase my plane collection and a few tools. To be fair though, I am not looking to recoup my investment but to finance future purchases. Besides I love what I am doing.

[Bruce Haugen]

Thanks for such a detailed description of your process.  You do nice work, and the finished planes speak for themselves.
A question:  do you check the sole for flatness once you reassemble the plane and add the tension from the frog and blade assembly?

[Bobby Thompson]

Thanks for such a detailed description of your process.  You do nice work, and the finished planes speak for themselves.
A question:  do you check the sole for flatness once you reassemble the plane and add the tension from the frog and blade assembly?

I really do not have a way to check after assembly. My vises are to small to clamp a fully assembled plane.

[Cian]

Very cool setup you have there. 


A great way to enjoy a facet of this wonderful hobby. I haven't done any restorations to speak of personally, however I have picked up a few planes to work on at some point.

[DaveParkis]

I believe Tom has stopped taking planes to do for customers, so you might find yourself very much in demand.

[Strokes77]

Very interesting.

Thank you for sharing.  I look forward to seeing more.

[Bibliophile 13]

This is really exciting to see!

Care to share how much you would typically charge to, say, flatten the sole of a bench plane?