Tool Rehab: Ohio Tool 1/2" Side Bead

In the previous post, I compared three 1/2" beading planes.  The Ohio Tool plane was in the best condition of the three and that was why I chose to work on it.  The following pictures are all after the fact - I didn't take any pics while doing the work.

Ohio Tool plane parts

The boxing was glued in well, so I didn't have to remove it and glue it back in.  It was mangled a bit at the front of the plane, but I planed most of that down when working on the sole.

The first thing I do is to re-establish two reference surfaces: the left side and the fence portion of the sole.

Left side of plane (OK, it on the right in this picture, but it's the left side of the plane) needed some flattening

Planed the fence portion of the sole flat and square to the left side

Then I marked a line on the ends that would be the peak of the bead.  I made this line by first setting a wheel-type marking gauge to 7/16" and made a mark referencing off the sole.  Then I used a square referencing off the left side to continue this line across the end.

Gauge line on end

To work on the bead portion of the sole, I made the jig that Bill Anderson shows in this article on the Wood and Shop website.  The jig is simple genius and works very well, though it does take a lot of patience to get to the final shape.  A big thank you to Joshua Farnsworth and Bill for making the article available online.  Man, I'd love to take a class with Bill some day.

Plane body in the cradle portion of  Bill Anderson's jig

Another view - fence sole is flush with top of jig

The adjustable scraper holder part of Bill's jig

You can see from this picture how the jig works

There are some important things about this jig.  First, the two vertical pieces of the cradle should be identical in height and should be flat and straight on top and bottom.  Otherwise, the scraper holder might not run true when scraping the sole.

Also, I made the scraper piece longer than needed.  It's 3/4" wide and about 2 1/2" long.  I purposely didn't make the 7/16" diameter rounded end centered in the 3/4" width.  It is flush with one side of the piece.  This helps me make certain the scraper is aligned properly.  I can hold a small square to the part of the scraper sticking up above the holder, referencing on the holder to ensure the scraper is square.

Close-up of scraper and holder showing surfaces square to each other

After scraping down to the 7/16" line I marked earlier, I planed the tip of the boxing using a shoulder plane.

Planing down the boxing

Then I worked on the side of the boxing and the depth stop with the same plane.

Planing the side of the boxing

The tricky thing about these last two pictures is knowing when to stop.  The gauge line I marked earlier shows where to stop for the depth stop.  (Actually, you should plane the depth stop an extra shaving or two so that the workpiece you're beading won't have a small flat on top of the bead.)  For the side of the boxing (above pic), I gauged a vertical line referencing off the left side.  I've just planed the line away in the end pic earlier in this post.

The iron was in tough shape.  I spent a lot of time flattening the back.

Back side flattened

I also spent a lot of time getting the bevel side shaped right.  Maybe I'm getting a bit better at this, but it didn't seem too tough this time.  It takes a LOT of patience.  I used round chainsaw files at 25° to get the shape close.  Then I honed with fine sandpaper on a dowel at 30°.

Bevel side filed and honed

Tough to get a decent pic of this, but finally got a good match between iron and sole

Test cut in some scrap

This plane cuts very well now - I'm really happy about how it turned out.  I may never have a need for a half inch bead, but if I do I'll be ready!