operation norris

A friend of mine put in touch with a gent who had this sad looking plane in his possession. I thought it could do with the "Philly" touch, so after a quick exchange of currency, off to the workshop it went!

I shall be keeping a photo-diary of my restoration of this lovely old plane, which I believe is a Norris A5. It has beech handles which are badly affected with woodworm - the front bun is almost powder. Also it is missing its iron and the adjustor mechanism is snapped off halfway up. Let's get started.

Here is the plane - as you can see she is badly rusted and the worm holes are quite obvious. I have applied some WD-40 to the lever cap to loosen off the screw and also lube the cross pin.

The steel is quite badly pitted, but hopefully I can restore it.
First job was to remove the most obvious rust. Some 80 grit sandpaper soon removed the worst. Please note - this plane is badly corroded. It is too far gone to just clean it up and needs some serious work.
Front Bun I had to remove the bun as is was falling to pieces. This involved more work for me but I really couldn't leave it as it was. I drilled through the bun to find the crosspins and then prised out the rotten timber. You can see dust from the woodworm on the bench and in the plane - I vacuumed up the workshop quite seriously after this operation!
The tote was pretty bad too - I saved what I could to use a template in the future (I took lots of photo's too!)
That looks rotten to me!
So into the "bath" it goes for some electrolysis.
And a few hours later we have this. Now to get started on the remaining rust.
I spent quite a while sanding and grinding away rust. There was plenty of it! With the majority of it gone my thoughts turn to the new infills. Here's the Rosewood I'm going to use - a nice colour with some lovely black streaks.
I've started to shape the infills, paying attention to the grain patterns to get the most pleasing arrangement. I'm going to copy the original tote with its three piece construction.
After taking advice from an expert I knocked out the remains of the cross pins. I also wanted to remove the screw cap so I could remove any rust behind it.
I located the crosspin (by taking a very close look in raking light I was able to make out the outline of the pin), centre punched the middle and then drill a 4mm hole down the centre. I was then able to drift out the pin.
Here's a shot of the pin starting to shift (you can make out the domed head where it has been riveted over.
Bingo! Out it comes, and with no damage.
There are two small brass washers inside the shell - these I put to one side for later re-assembly. Now to get rid of the remaining rust.
I had to start shaping the front bun - couldn't resist! After making some markings I removed the majority of the waste with a saw and chisel.
Then I nibbled away the waste with rasps and files......
Until a snug fit was achieved. I have left it oversize for the time being.
Update!!!! Sadly the rosewood I was going to use was just too short for the tote. So, after a re-think I am using Bubinga. I have made the new tote and side pieces and have begun fitting the front bun.

"Operation Norris"