#3 " mutt " . . .

steve mackay

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146
Location
El Paso, TX
OK, OK, I know its junk but my true buddy of a BIL knows of my rust affliction. He truly meant well. Thing is I'd like to patronize him a bit and give him the story behind his " wonderfull find " ( dude told him this was a real collectors item ). Its got true Stanley #3 dimensions, EVERYTHING but the body is stamped steel. Markings are " MADE IS USA " ( of course ), a " 3 " in a circle and an " 11 ", again in a circle, all right behind the frog. The markings are also stamped rather than cast in. Am I ringing any bells ?
 

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Not sure that it is junk. I can't see enough detail in the photo. But "off brand" planes sometimes make just as good uses as the big names. I have a Lakeside, ever heard of that one? It's a No. 3 and I love that plane. It's my go to plane. I will assume you know something about planes. So it may be junk. :dunno: But from the photo it doesn't look that bad.

But, I just can't see enough to know what you have in that photo.
 
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In my honest opinion...which means very little I might add...and not to belittle the plane...I think its junk...at least as is.

Just by looking at the picture, I would say the mouth is extremely wide for the thickness of the blade, but the frog is what really scares me. Not a lot of mass there, and what little there is looks to be screwed down to the body of the plane instead of being a part of it. That creates two pressure points instead of being a monolithic hand plane frog...in other words, a plane prone to chatter. There just is not much for the blade to ride on, and what is there is not secured very well.

All is not lost however. You could tig weld the mouth of the plane and then file it back to make the plane take a smaller, better chip. While you got your welder out, you could tig weld the frog down and make it part of the plane body and reduce the chatter somewhat. You would have to lap the sole of the plane after all this welding was done, even if you welded it in a bucket of water to keep the heat warpage to a minimum. You would also have to refile the frog, but that probably needs to be done now. A final step would be to lap the chip breaker as well so it beds securely onto the blade.

While I was there, I might add a Hock or Lie Nielsen replacement blade since they are thicker and made out of better steel. (The Lie Nielsen blades are A-2 steel and cyrogentically treated to the -271º F standard) So are replacement blades from Highland Hardware.

So no all is not lost, but its quite a bit of work to turn a questionable plane into a high tuned one. But it could be done for someone that was inclined to do so.:dunno:
 
Okay, so the above reply was a bit over the top. That would make the plane perform like any high quality planes on the market today. Maybe that is not in the cards for this plane though.

A simple solution might be to file the frog down flat, then add a thicker blade from Hock, Lie Nielsen or Highland Hardware. At the same time you could purchase a improved chip breaker as well. Those two purchases would most likely take 75% of the chatter out of the plane.:dunno:

It would not make the plane all that it could be, but it would make it usable and without a lot of labor.
 
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