Thread: Is my Frog of its face

Hi Matt,
Nice work ... pity you weren't around the factory at 4pm of a Friday in 1920 ... you could have saved someone a lot of work 97 years later

Do you have to remake the handles?

Regards

Rob

Does it look this?
IMG_1295.JPG

Ach, Matt - you sanded away all of the cooling slots!! Now, when you're really working the plane hard, the heat's gonna build up and...

In the defense of the Mechinest doing the clean up/facing of the frog, could the casting be a little "green"? By that I mean that castings need time to "settle down" after they are made, in a sense "seasoning" (as you do with timber). Giving time for all them atoms(?) to find their place in the casting. Just a thought

in this instance has appearance triumphed over function?

The original bed appears to be just flat enough to support the blade.

Originally Posted by rob streeper

Ach, Matt - you sanded away all of the cooling slots!! Now, when you're really working the plane hard, the heat's gonna build up and...

Rob,
I be in touch soon about getting a nitrous cooler up and running with you once the plane is back together[emoji12].

Originally Posted by chambezio

In the defense of the Mechinest doing the clean up/facing of the frog, could the casting be a little "green"? By that I mean that castings need time to "settle down" after they are made, in a sense "seasoning" (as you do with timber). Giving time for all them atoms(?) to find their place in the casting. Just a thought

Chambezio
I thought about that too.
But ,I would have assumed , and I hate that word but ,I thought they would have cast them,and then put them a side to season for at least a few months if not 12.
But this is all just a big assumption on my behalf.

Cheers Matt

Originally Posted by ian

in this instance has appearance triumphed over function?

The original bed appears to be just flat enough to support the blade.

Ian,
If I'm reading you right,
Yes appearance and my ego did have a little win.
I may if I get chance run it over my surface plate maybe.

Cheers Matt

Matt, I do agree with you that that there frog was about the mankiest-looking thing Stanley must ever have created! As Ian says, it may have been 'flat enough' unto the task, but damn, it was an eyesore. Your shoulders & arms will stop aching after a day or two, but forever more you'll be glad you don't have to look at that 'orrible blade bed every time you sharpen your plane......

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

Matt, I do agree with you that that there frog was about the mankiest-looking thing Stanley must ever have created! As Ian says, it may have been 'flat enough' unto the task, but damn, it was an eyesore. Your shoulders & arms will stop aching after a day or two, but forever more you'll be glad you don't have to look at that 'orrible blade bed every time you sharpen your plane......

Cheers,

Nothing a few well cooked spuds won't fix Sir.
Really all up, if I timed it 15/20 minutes with very frequent checking.
How it got past quality control no idea.
You could feel a finger nail catching on every score mark.
I ruffly estimated I've taken 1/2 mm of it.

Cheers Matt

20 minutes!?!? What grit? What paper? What dark magic?
It takes me forever to get anything off steel on my plates. Literally hours.

Originally Posted by RedShirtGuy

20 minutes!?!? What grit? What paper? What dark magic?
It takes me forever to get anything off steel on my plates. Literally hours.

First sacrifice a two head goat on a full moon
to the Gods of cast iron.
Then I started with 80 grit dry
120 grid dry. Full sheet on the glass
Then 180 wet and dry(full sheet)with WD 40 for lubricant,cast iron cuts easier than steel!.
I don't think I will take it past 180 grit an less the gods visit me in a dream and say it must be done.

We are only talking the frog here not the whole plane.

Cheers Matt

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Ian,
If I'm reading you right,
Yes appearance and my ego did have a little win.
I may if I get chance run it over my surface plate maybe.

Cheers Matt

Hi Matt,
Yes that is what I meant.

Also I'd be a tad concerned that if you get the mating surfaces (frog and blade face) too tightly toleranced, one may stick to the other making blade adjustments difficult.

Originally Posted by ian

.....Also I'd be a tad concerned that if you get the mating surfaces (frog and blade face) too tightly toleranced, one may stick to the other making blade adjustments difficult.

I don't think Matt's got the patience or time to take it that far, Ian - he'd have to work on the back of the blade as well, if he wanted to get some Van der Waal forces going!

But you raised a good point - how much does friction with the frog affect ease of adjustment with Bailey planes? I've got 5 of the darn things, and they vary enormously. My favourite is just perfect (perhaps helped by the fact it gets used most?), one seems a bit too sloppy and the others are a bit tight. One was way too tight and it took me a while to figure out why. It had a mismatched cap iron, which meant the adjuster was too far back at the point where the blade was cutting, and by that point the cam is binding in the slot in the cap iron. I made a new cap iron, with the cam slot in the "right" place and it is now acceptable, but still a bit tight. The blade beds vary on each - two are the old flat type like the one Matt is working on, the others are later models with the multiple depressions so that when machined off, they only have narrow ridges that contact the blade back. You might reason that less metal-to metal contact should equal easier sliding, but if there is any effect, it seems to be swamped by other factors on the planes I own, because there is no consistency - the tightest and the easiest to adjust both have the completely flat beds....

Cheers,