When life gives you a lemon...

[mikeswrenches]

Here's the way I made lemonade.

A couple weeks ago I bought a Stanley no. 4C at the flea market. What caught my eye was the mostly intact decal on the tote and the fact that the wood was very good on both pieces. I gave it a cursory inspection and paid the guy the 10 bucks he was asking.

It sat on my work bench for a couple days when I finally got around to disassembling it for cleaning. It was during this process that I found what I should have seen when I bought it. The dreaded "crack". This one ran all the way up the side. Totally unrepairable by me.
I kicked myself a couple times for not noticing it at the market...I probably would have bought it anyway for the parts, but I could have probably gotten it cheaper. So again I set it aside.

I hate to throw things away so I thought about what I could do with it. I came up with this...a bull nose no. 4 plane. I got out a cutoff wheel for my Dremel and cut a groove up the other side to weaken it, and snapped it off.

I didn't want to use the good Stanley parts so scrounged through my parts bin and found a generic lever cap and a tote that fit. I wanted some kind of a knob for the front so used this one that I had in a drawer. It's not a plane knob but works.

[lptools]

Hello, First corrugated bottom bull nose plane that I have seen. Nice job!!!! Regards, Lou

[coolford]

Mike----I think your hand will be flat if you use that plane in a corner.

[mikeswrenches]

Mike----I think your hand will be flat if you use that plane in a corner.

A flat hand would definitely not be good, but the knob is just held on with a long Phillips head screw so can be easily removed. A shorter knob would also help, I'll have to see what I have.

Mike

[mikeswrenches]

In an effort to avoid becoming the first member of the "flat hand" society, I made a change to the front knob. You'll have excuse me for not using a flat head screw in the knob as this was all I had.

Mike

[JohnD]

I had a 78 rabbet plane with the front cutter position section broken off and missing completely. I filed the broken area to match the remainder of the casting and repainted everything black. Almost looked factory.