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I've been semi-productive for the first time in a long, long time this past week; Two electric guitar bodies jointed (2-piece), glued up, rough-cut, one already pattern routed to shape and hollowed/chambered, the other will follow at some point this week, and a neck blank awaiting squaring. I finally got to properly test run my Steve Knight jointer (big purpleheart wooden plane), and it works fantastically well. Joiniting 2" mahogany was a very pleasant experience; the plane's got just the right amount of heft to stay on course, but not too heavy to pick up repeately.

This afternoon, I levelled/planed the slight cup out of the two body blanks (the board they came out of has been sitting in my 'stash' for a good 3 years now, but it had a slight bit of cupping), using my nice old Stanley Bailey #5 (circa WW I)...and then badness happened. A clumsy move on my part, the one time I didn't set the plane down in its own spot, a 40" drop to the concrete, and my centennial, lovely, only-#5-I-have nosedived, and snapped in two (nose cracked clean off)

I'm Not Amused. Or happy. This sort of thing weldable, or is it simply not worth the effort? I know someone who does metalwork who might be able to help, but I'm afraid it won't ever quite be the same. And now I'm stuck without a good jack; I have an iffy #4, an OK block plane, a really nice wooden jointer, but the size I use most for general neck blank prep (this week's planned activity) is now sitting in pieces on my shelf. I want to at least salvage the knobs (Brazillian, dontchaknow), but I'd rather salvage the whole thing. There's a local old tool seller I've found, may have to swing by and see if he's got a nice Record or Stanley 5 or 5 1/2 for a normal price (I can't/don't want to spend 250 euros on a new Veritas)...

And it was all going so well...

Hang in there Mattia. There's always good news...it could have landed on your foot! You don't need another orthopedic dept. appointment.

I seriously doubt that this can be welded effectively. Salvage what you can and move on to the next one.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

It's most likely a casting which could be brazed but I also doubt that it would take a weld.

If you can get the two pieces brazed together, you of course will have to flatten the sole which is of course do-able.

I would see if it can be brazed, you have nothing to loose right?

Sorry for the miss-hap Mattia, that really sucks.

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

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Mattia-
Cast plane bodies are very tricky to weld, and there's not much 'meat' to allow for mis-alignment and correction.
If you check around the used Stanley dealers on the net you might find a similar replacement body.
Bob Kaune in WA, USA sold me a 60 1/2 body when I did the same thing as you- dropped on concrete. He has a website
http://www.antique-used-tools.com/.
Bob lives about 20 mi from me, though across water and a border. Send me a pm if you want me to give him a call for you.

BTW, I have an early 5 1/2 like yours. Are they valuable?
Perhaps I should use mine more! I seem to pick up the ECE Primus planes (or the 60 1/2) when I want to hand-plane.

Cheers
John

Mattia,

Not only is there little meat fore repair as John mentioned, there's a good chance there would be warpage from heat to deal with, and not much leeway in the way of material for truing. If you had a good iron on it, ebay might turn up a decent body that you could put all your good parts on, such as frog, iron, tote, as long as it's of similar vintage. Those parts often take a worse beating than the body. The #5 is very common and pretty inexpensive with so many around in non-collector condition.

Here's something.

Patrick Leach's Blood and Gore might have some info about dating and interchangeability of parts.

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Thanks for the thoughts, guys!

I'm going to contact the local old tools seller (has a bunch of vintage planes of all kinds on our equivalent to eBay), see if he has a spare plane body (and maybe another interesting plane) he might want to sell.

Sorry to hear about your accident, Mattia, but it might be an interesting experiment to try to have it repaired.

Despite having read that you should never buy a welded plane, I have an old Bailey no. 7 which has been put back together somehow (welding/brazing?) and is perfectly flat. I love it and last night was happily leveling my old workbench. Good luck!

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

I've had several cast iron exhaust manifolds successfully welded, but it was by an old craftsman that knew how to do it. He put both parts onto a charcoal bed, and heated them red-hot. Then he welded them, and let them cool back down slowly. Worked fine, but it takes the correct equipment and experience to do it right.

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Gene

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason- Mark Twain

Mattia, welding is an imperfect process. As Gene has said, it is possible to weld the cast iron back together again. but if it is serviceable after the repair is any ones guess...

I am sorry for your loss.

On a lighter note, I found a modern Stanley Jointer plane for just 49 ($US) in the Home Despot... I mean, Depot! with 20 minutes work and a Tormex sharpening system It works just fine...

(PM your address and I'll try to get one for you (the plane not the Tormex))

Robert

Mattia- how much do you think it would cost in shipping for me to send a #5(will need tuning, clean up)? I have a few, shall we say. One is yours for the asking. Mike T.

Mike, thanks for the very generous offer, but I suspect the cost would be about 35-40 bucks for cheapest airmail, and maybe half that for slow surface mail...I'll check how evil local prices are first (waiting for email response), but I may take you up on your offer!

Don't toss the old one! Clean up the sharp edges along the break on the grinder and use it as a fret/fret board leveler a la Frank Ford (provided there is enough material of the plane left) Just a thought.

[QUOTE=gozierdt] I've had several cast iron exhaust manifolds successfully welded, but it was by an old craftsman that knew how to do it. He put both parts onto a charcoal bed, and heated them red-hot. Then he welded them, and let them cool back down slowly. Worked fine, but it takes the correct equipment and experience to do it right.[/QUOTE]

That's exactly how I heard it was done. Heat them red hot and then weld... Do-able, but not by anyone of your regular Jo-Shmo's off the street...

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Welding can be pretty iffy. There is an epoxy like material here in the states called JB Weld. I have used this to successfully repair cast iron plumbing and also a hole that was punched in the crankcase of a Suzuki 2-cycle dirt bike.

It might be worth a try if you run out of other options. I don't know if it is available in Europe, though.

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC