Reconditioning a Sandusky 177 Dado Plane

While I am waiting for the Waterlox to cure on the drop leaf table, I decided to recondition a wooden dado plane that I got some time ago.  It is definitely a flea market plane. I think I paid $10 for it.  The body is pretty beat up.

The two wedges where not the correct ones for the plane and it of course need sharpening.  The body was dirty and had a number of dents. The bottom was flat and the mouth reasonable tight which is a good sign.

To start with I clean the body with Turpentine.  Turpentine is a natural solvent which will not harm the wood.  In fact, the original finish on many planes of that era where finished with a mixture of  50% Linseed Oil and 50% Turpentine.

This removed a lot of the dirt and grim on the plane body.

I just put it on a rag and rubbed off the dirt.

Next were the wedges. The wedges which were in the plane were not the proper wedges for this plane.  The main blade is set at a skew so the wedge needs to be planed to fit the skew opening.  I used a hand plane and put the wedge in the vise and planed it to fit.  It could still be a little longer but I thought I would give it a try before making it smaller.

The front wedge was too large and did not fit much at all.  So I had to plane it on the sides and front to back to get it into the opening and provide some support for the nicker blade.

Both blades needed sharpening.  I used a simple guide on the skew blade to sharpen and hone to a good sharp edge.  The nicker I used a file and a stone to sharpen the two points to cut across the grain.

 I tacked a fence board across a piece of soft maple for testing.  I set the nicker first and cut the two groves on either side of the dado.  These just cut the fibers at the edge of the dado width.

Then I set the blade like any traditional wooden plane.  You generally want it to take a fine shaving. I tapped it too much in the beginning and it was taking to thick of a shaving.  The plane was working but it was hard to control.   I needed to back out the blade a little.

You can see the chips are pretty thick and going across grain it can be a bit of work to control.

I did a little practice and adjusting the plane blade depth by tapping the back of the plane to get a smoother cut.  I also applied a little bees wax to the bottom which made it easier to push.

So it is running pretty good right now.  So next time I need a 13/16 inch dado I have a quiet way of making that groove.  The next chest I make the drawer runners will be 13/16 inch.

Here is today's video: