Seldon Bailey No 5 Patent Plane

If you've been following along, you know I managed to pick up an unusual metal hand-plane at a local yard sale. I posted about this in my last blog post, however for convenience here are a few images:

Group of Items found 2012.10.06

Plane as found

I only had a few facts to go on:

1. The plane body is unmarked
2. Tote and knob are both rosewood
3. The blade adjuster has an unusual raising feature.
4. There's an extra cap which is secured via a cam-lock lever
5. The blade is marked "Bailey Tool Co" in an arch across the cutter, with a medieval looking axe and Patent 1871 beneath.

Knob view

In any case, I posted the images above to the old tool group to see if I could fine out any more info. I suspected from my own searches that this plane was an early Leonard Bailey plane. I received a couple of replies identifying the plane but the best answer I received was from tool collector Josh Clark who wrote:

John-

 

Yup, it's a Bailey Tool Co. jack plane all correct and proper and actually in not too bad condition. This plane was made in Woodsocket, RI by Seldon Bailey & Co., not Leonard, though Leonard did get involved at some point ca. 1878 and the whole thing gets confusing. You can see the various patents for the plane here: http://datamp.org/patents/search/xrefCompany.php?id=534  If you have an interest in mechanical stuff, the blade adjusting mechanism is really cool- it's a work drive that has a very very fine adjustment tolerance, much finer than a standard Stanley plane. Cool stuff. Nice find.

 

Josh

So this blog post is basically about taking some detailed photos and getting them online (I found one photo of a similar plane, a number 4, that was shown on a For Sale page but marked as sold).

I very carefully dissembled the plane to give it a good cleaning, using only mineral spirits:

Here are some details shots of the blade adjusting mechanism:

And here's a short video of the way it works:

The other unusual feature of the plane is the cam-lock mechanism:

And here's another short video showing how it works:

Additional photos of the cleaned plane:

I received a suggestion from Josh that I might want to repair the tote (it had been badly glued together at the crack at some point and the rod would hardly pass the off-set). I undertook to use something that was reversible, in case at some point someone wanted to do a different repair, so I used a black super glue I found online, reasoning that a bit of acetone would break the repair if necessary.

I did just a little light sanding then added some shellac to approximate the sheen on the knob. Here are photos of the completed plane with just a little more cleaning an a light coat of paste wax:

That's about it. I hope I've managed to add to the knowledge-pool regarding the Seldon Bailey plane.

Here's a site that shows images of other Seldon Bailey planes (sold):
http://www.quietcornerantiques.com/id71.html

And here's some additional info from the Old Tools Archive:
http://swingleydev.com/archive/get.php?message_id=226226&submit_thread=1

Thanks! John

Unisaw - Quick October 2011 Update

This past weekend I finally had a chance to put another coat on the Unisaw case - next up is a bit of wet-sanding then another coat and I'm calling it done.

I've started assembling some of the interior parts - still deciding about the motor - I have new bearings for it but may put everything together and do the motor later. This project has been taking so long that I'm getting to the point where I just want to get if off the floor (it takes up a lot of space and I have to hear someone complain about it every time she walks by).

-- John

Unisaw - Completing the Arbor and Tables

So a few days ago I got busy completing the arbor rebuild and starting the tables. The first thing I needed to do was address the big piece of the table edge that was missing (broken off - see the first post images and you'll see what I'm talking about). Ideally this would have a new piece braised back in, but frankly, I've yet to find anyone locally who I felt comfortable with doing the work. Cast iron is rather finicky - the technique requires heating the metal up to cherry red before welding so that the metals interlock, then allowing to cool slowly (like it sand) so you get a strong joint. When talking to any of the welders around here, the only process they know is to immediately start going at it with rod - after thinking about this a while I decided to just fill it as best I could with JB Weld. Since it's not a load bearing surface and wont be under any stresses, metal-filled resin just seemed easier to me (to work, particularly). I cut a few pieces of hard plastic and made a small form, mixing up the two parts and laying it into the void. The stuff was pretty much self leveling.

JB Weld within Form

Cardboard palette and Popsicle stick applicator

Allowed to dry and harden over-night

As you can see the color approximated the raw, cleaned cast iron. I continued to work down the resin using rasps, files and finally sandpaper

 

 

 

 

 

Ready for Paint!

While I starting taping off the tables and wings for paint, I also finished up the arbor rebuild. The first time I put the arbor together I wasn't happy with the result - the pulley could slide back-and-forth along the shaft about 3/32" - the threads on the bearing side were also a bit buggered so the retaining nut wanted to cross-thread. So before I torqued everything down and screwed something up, I took it all apart and made a few posts on OWWM to ask for some opinions. I knew I would need to chase the threads so with it apart it would be easier to get things to go together when assembled. One idea I got from the forum was to put everything together sans bracket so I could see how it would fit - that way I would know how much room I would have for the final nut and belvedere washer. While taking things apart the far bearing nearly fell out of the bearing - so I knew that was probably part of the problem. It was too loosely pressed in (the retaining nut wasn't applying enough force), so apparently what happened was that when I applied pressure on the arbor to press everything into final assembly, it loosened the far bearing - that was the slack I was seeing (understand there was so much slack that the spaces would slide - that's where I got my 3/32" of looseness). The second time was the charm - this time I applied a drop of blue LockTite to the far bearing, then made sure I got the retaining nut very snug. I did have one mishap - the punch slipped and hit the plastic bearing sleeve hard enough to scrape the coating, but not hard enough to puncture (luckily) so I went with the same bearing with the hope that it wasn't bad enough to warrant a replacement (only time will tell!).

Starting to press the bearing

Watch the spring washer so it doesn't get caught

You can see the small spot of coating where I slipped

TIP: Place small screwdriver blade under belvedere washer until nut is tightened

Slightly pry upward then go to a larger screwdriver (careful not to hit the bearing sleeve)

Final step to add the pulley lock (with a drop of blue LockTite)

Completed Arbor Rebuild!

I tried to group the photos together a bit, but in practice I actually went back-and-forth from inside to outside while I hit the wings with primer, then two coats of paint (if you look at the camera times you can see the order). I also got two coats on the underside of the table.

Primer

Paint

Table after Second Coat

Wings after Second Coat

In all I feel pretty good about where I am thus far. I still need to finish painting the cabinet, plus the motor cover, cranks, feet and pan, but those will need to wait for a clear day. I'm going to start the sub-assemblies and probably get the motor apart so it can be cleaned, potentially turn down the commutator and fit new bearings (may get new brushes as well).

-- John