ikea furniture and home accessories: [New post] Record 050

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Record 050

by billlattpa

My last post, a post concerning the hand tools that woodworkers "should" begin with, was one that was likely written in some form or another hundreds of times by professional and amateur woodworkers alike. There are many, many schools of thought on this topic, and many of them have their own unique takes, some of which I agree with, and some that I find utterly moronic. I find my own philosophy to be my favorite (of course I do), but that doesn't mean that I haven't screwed up in the past.

I have pared down my woodworking tool kit, meaning the tools I use to actually make things, rather significantly. But, I also still have at least a dozen hand tools that I never use and likely never will. Many of these tools were given to me and in need of restoration, so I restored them to the best of my ability and placed them on the shelf. But there is one glaring exception.

I quite honestly don't remember exactly when, but at some point I purchased a Record 050 combination plane for no other reason than I thought that it looked cool. In fairness, it was inexpensive; I think I paid $90 for it, and it had all of the original parts and cutters, and the original wood box. It was not in good condition, though. There was a lot of dirt and rust, mostly on the surface, and the cutters were very likely never sharpened. To this day I am not sure if that plane was ever used before I took possession of it, but I know almost certainly that most of the cutters were never touched, including all of the profiled irons. In any event, I went against my own advice I purchased a tool with no real intention of using it.

I remember cleaning it up at one point, and sharpening up a few of the square cutters. But it still looked pretty awful. Unlike their wood bodied brethren, steel bodied planes don't look all that great when they are grimy. A wood plough plane can still look cool even when there's paint splatter on the body and it hasn't seen a coat of wax in decades. A steam-punk combo plane covered in rust and dirt looks like it belongs in a recycling bin. So just this past weekend I took that plane off the shelf and decided that I was going really clean it up.

I took the entire plane apart and soaked it for 24 hours in Evaporust. Once out of the rust remover I gave everything a bath in water and dish detergent using an old toothbrush to remove any grime I missed. Then came the long, arduous task of deep cleaning the tool with a wire brush in the drill press. This part took several hours and was tedious (and messy) beyond belief, but the tool actually turned out looking pretty good. I then used polishing compound to buff out the tool, but that only improved the look slightly. Lastly, I oiled up the moving parts and put the tool back together, even making a wood fence to attach to the metal factory fence.

Sadly, I didn't take any before pictures; I honestly didn't think I was going to write a post about it. However, I think I am going to try to use this tool in an upcoming project, even going as far as to using some of the profiled cutters. I've had and ignored this tool for years, and maybe it's overdue for some attention. There's a chance that I might just hate using the tool, the truth is that combination planes never really appealed to me, but who knows?!? Maybe I'll enjoy using it and find that I've been missing out. If that is the case, I will be sure to chronicle it right here on the blog.