Thread: Old rebate plane - how to improve

I don't want to rain on your parade, but there are issues with your experiment.

First of all, Ian and I are in agreement that a nicker is important and preferred. I must profess puzzlement that a nicker behind the blade will work since the purpose of a nicker is to sever fibres ahead of the blade. Perhaps Ian can explain this.

In the plane above, the Stanley #45, the "fixture for a depth stop way behind the blade" is not for this purpose. It is for a slitter blade. This is to slice off strips for inlay or cut a thin softwood board. The provisor to making it work is that the timber is softish and, most importantly, straight grained.

A dado or sliding dovetail runs across the grain. That is where the nicker is relevant in reducing/preventing and spelching. In the example you have provided, you are planing with the grain. That will not test spelching at all.

Try it again, across the grain this time, and share your results

Regards from Perth

Derek

No worries, Derek, but my experiment was not for the nicker. It was for the depth stop, not the nicker. Ian's plane has the depth stop behind the blade and I was wondering if it works as well as in front.

I fully agree it makes no sense to put the nicker behind the blade.

In regard to the #45 yes, the port/fixture is mainly for the slitter. Sorry, my bad, I thought you could also have some funny looking depth stop there. But in any case it was the best I had to test if a depth stop also works on that location. Or better said, if I could make it work on that location.

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Originally Posted by derekcohen

....... I must profess puzzlement that a nicker behind the blade will work since the purpose of a nicker is to sever fibres ahead of the blade. Perhaps Ian can explain this.....

Quite easily, Derek, we were talking about depth stops being ok behind or in front of the blade, not a nicker! Logically, the nicker should precede the blade (which I pointed out in my answer).

Ck, I'm quite pleased you did put it to the test & didn't just take my word for it. On your 45, your makeshift depth stop ends up quite a long way back, 40mm (?) behind it, while mine starts about 20mm or a little less behind the blade. It's also quite a bit longer than the 78 stop, which was a deliberate attempt on my part to make it more positive & prevent/reduce any nose-diving at the end of the stroke. But having the depth stop right beside the blade certainly makes it less likely to over-cut, particularly at the end of the board, than putting it behind. It's unlikely to be an accident the depth stop is where it is on the 78 - the blokes in Stanley's R&D department knew their tools back then.....
Cheers,

You are right Ian, on the 45 my improvised depth stop is way behind. Actually it starts about 70mm behind the blade. I would consider that an extreme. If I go behind it I would go as close a practical.

And I also think the location on the 78 is on purpose. As a matter of fact the regular depth stop on the 45 is at same location as the 78. And probably for a lot more designs.



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I really got that mixed up! My apology to both of you.

(Ian is never going to let me forget this ... )

Regards from Perth

Derek

I wouldn't worry too much Derek. I've done more than my share of mis-reading, mis-interpreting, & mis-explaining, so I don't think I can afford to be smug about anyone else's slip!

Cheers,

Hi Derek and Ian. If only some other situations were solved so amicably. The riots in USA come to mind.

A bit more progress. It has a fence now.
While I am pondering on the other features I figured I cam do this now first.
Maybe still some further refinement, but fully functional fence now.
I used the screws which were holding the old sole to attach the fence to the plane body.
Also used the plane itself to cut the rebate in the darker wood to receive the sliding plate of the fence. This way the fence already came out nearly square. It was fun to use the tool itself to make another part of the tool ;-)




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After the fence I have now finished the rest of the plane features. Here is the result:

20200603_160205.jpg

The depth stop is made from the brass plate from the donor plane and some offcut wood I still had. You might now ask yourself, why after all this discussion about location of depth stop and nicker, this is now the result? Well although I do believe and tested that the depth stop would work fine behind the blade I still wanted it in front. I somehow thought on this plane that looks more appropriate.

Now what about the nicker? Well, here it is:

20200603_160237.jpg

After some thinking I came up with this solution. Basically like the way Derek had it and also not. I did not have an old chisel for that, but had heaps of cut offs from old saw blades. I was making card scraper and kept the scraps. I however doubted the stability if I left them too long. So I decided to make such a short one and now it looks more like the nicker on a #55. Also decided to add this little brass plate to give some more support.

Before I installed it into the plane I made a test installation on a piece of scrap wood and tested if I can score a nice line with it.

20200602_141803 (2).jpg

Although the nicker is bigger than for a #55 or alike it is still very small to sharpen easy. Therefore I made this highly sophisticated sharpening jig/holder

20200602_141902.jpg

And here is a test cut across the grain.

20200603_161100.jpg

It still might need some further tuning and practise. I am also aware that this is a soft wood I tested it on. But in principle it works. I only noticed, that when I turned the board around to cut the other side the nicker had moved. I might not have tightened it enough. But if it keeps doing that I can easily make a new one with only one hole and not a slot so it cant move.

Beside tuning what is still outstanding is getting a proper thumb screw for the depth stop. This bolt just does not look right.

Thanks for following and all the good advise

For your first go at a major plane modifiction, Ck, I think you've achieved an admirable result. What I like most about seeing other people's work is the various ways we solve the same problems. I think your nicker is an excellent example!

Cheers,

PS: the plane definitely deserves the dignity of a nice knurled brass thumbscrew. Bring it over sometime when you have a spare time-slot & we'll put that right. The job will take 10 minutes or less....

Hi CK. I agree with Ian. With regards to the bolt, a temporary fix might be to chuck it into a cordless drill and run it against a sanding belt, linisher, etc to remove the square facets and round it up. Then a hacksaw cut groove for a screwdriver. A little more period correct? YouTuber Pask Makes even made a jig to knurl the edges once the bolt was rounded.

Aha! Thanks MA. I saw that trick some time back, but could not find it when I looked for it a little while ago. It's here, for those who are as search-challenged as I am...

I suspect it would work even better on brass than stainless steel, and a coarser file should give a more defined pattern, but I haven't put it to the test yet. I will, I'm always on the lookout for ways to make parts like this without a lathe.

Another way I've suggested to 'knurl' brass is to file a series of lines along & around the rounded head. You can mark off evenly-spaced lines using an indexing head on your wood lathe, or if you don't have one, take a piece of paper, wrap it around the head, and cut it to the same length as the circumference, then divide that into equal divisions, stick it on the head & file away. Not he same as "proper' knurling, but looks the part & gives you a much better grip than a bare surface:
Knurled t_screws.jpg

Cheers,

Here is an old article of mine on making knurled knobs out of garden parts ...

MAKING LEVER CAPS AND LEVER CAP SCREWS IN THE BACKYARD

Regards from Perth

Derek