Results 1 to 10 of 10
  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2019
    Location
    Brisbane
    Posts
    807

    Default Stanley Lever Cap - Why buy it when you can make it?!

    Hi,

    a friend has given me this Stanley #3 plane. It was not a special one. Probably after WW2, but I went to refurbish it anyway. Hey, it was for free. However it was missing blade, chipbreaker and lever cap.



    PART_1557379980098(1)[1].jpeg

    I managed to trade in some other parts for a blade and chipbreaker, but still needed a lever cap. I know it is not hard to find them on ebay or so, but I thought I can save some money and try to make one myself. Why not? Could be fun. So I rummaged around my workshop and found the following items in the picture. A chunk of steel, a little bit of steel sheet, an old tent pole, bolt, paint and various types of epoxy.

    20190814_091633[1].jpg

    I then went ahead and traced a lever cap of my other #3 to get the shape. Could also just done a shape more like a Pope plane or so, but I like the Stanley shape. But to make it easier I decided instead of the cam lever to just put a thump screw like other manufacturer do. I drilled and tapped the hole for the thump screw and then one smaller and one bigger hole for the lever cap screw. I first wanted to go for the classic key hole shape, but one of the holes went off center and so I proceeded to file the opening to the newer kidney shape. Pure accident ;-)

    After that I cut the shape roughly with a hack saw and shaped and ground it on my belt sander and with various files. Rounded the bottom part as good as I could so that shavings can escape smoothly.

    With a bolt it already worked quite well and maybe took me over all 2 hours. But I did not like it that whenever I tightened the thumb screw/bolt the lever cap would wonder to one side through the friction of the end of the bolt and the chipbreaker. Also it scratched the chipbreaker.

    The next part is not needed for a functioning lever cap. I decided to overcome that to fix a little flexible metal strip like on the back of the Stanley lever caps. Stanley fixes it with a rivet I believe. I just drilled 3 little hole (not all the way through) in the lever cap and also 3 corresponding holes in the metal strip. Then fixed the strip with Gorilla Weld to the lever cap and cleaned it up with a Dremel after curing. Works great.

    Finally I wanted to make a nicer thump screw and cut a piece of the tent pole and filled it with epoxy I died with black paint and casted the head of the bolt into it. Finally sanded and polished it.

    All that maybe added another 2 hours. So overall after 4 hours I had a new lever cap. Here final result and now the plane is complete again and works quite well.


    20190813_182935[1].jpg20190813_182951[1].jpg20190813_182955[1].jpg20190813_182913[1].jpg

    I was surprised how quick and easy it was and I am no metal worker. I am not even that great of a woodworker. I just have fun with it.

    My apologies, for not having intermediate pictures. I only decided afterwards to share this. The picture of the materials I used is also taken from the leftovers. I actually did not know exactly at the beginning how I would tackle this. I just went ahead and one thing lead to the other ;-)

    Not sure if it helps anybody, but who knows? There might be many planes without lever caps out there.....

  2. # ADS
    Google Adsense Advertisement
    Join Date
    Always
    Location
    Advertising world
    Posts
    Many





     
  3. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Helensburgh
    Posts
    7,696

    Default

    Take a bow, that is a great piece of work and out of the box thinking.
    CHRIS

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Hobart, Tas
    Posts
    1,211

    Default Stanley Lever Cap - Why buy it when you can make it?!

    That is just so cool! It looks amazing, and appears to be entirely functional too. I’m looking forward to seeing what else you come up with!

    The best part, is any woody who sees that plane is going to ask you about the lever cap (or should we call it a screw cap), and you’ll have an opportunity to retell this story over and over again.

    Oh, you really should stamp/write you name and the year of manufacture on that cap too, as it will no doubt be with you for a long time, and will be nice to look back and realise how long you’ve used it in 20 years time.

    Kind regards,
    Lance

  5. #4
    Join Date
    May 2019
    Location
    Brisbane
    Posts
    807

    Default

    Good idea. I shall do that.

    Thanks

    Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Brisbane (western suburbs)
    Age
    77
    Posts
    12,093

    Default

    Good one, Ck!
    As a very longtime tinkerer, tool-maker & tool-modifier, I'm all for the DIY approach. I would've used brass, myself, it's a heck of a lot easier to cut & shape than steel, and works just as well (the lever-caps on Cliftons are bronze), but I'm all for using what you've got on hand, so if steel was all you had steel is good. I don't own a belt sander, which has a big influence on how I go about shaping metal..

    Derek made a lever-cap thumbscrew using a similar technique quite a while back (here's his description). He used a knurled brass ring off a hose fitting to give it a 'proper' look (& no doubt a bit easier to twist).

    Something I quickly learned about lever cap screws is the end of the screw needs to be pointed to stop the slewing effect. Not a sharp point, as that will dig little divots in the cap-iron (even a brass screw will dig holes in mild steel), which makes adjusting the iron difficult & erratic. You can't use a sleeve with fixed lever caps like on an infill, because the lever-cap stands too far off the blade assembly when it's tightened down (it has to be like that to allow the blade/cap-iron assembly to be removed without removing the lever-cap). A nicely rounded point stops the slewing & doesn't ding the cap iron. With a lever cap that sits almost flush like the Bailey system, the fixed sleeve is the more elegant solution.

    Making a cam isn't as hard as it looks. I made one many moons back to replace a missing cam on an old plane I picked up in a junk store. How on earth it went AWOL is anybody's guess, but it meant I got the plane for next to nothing! It was a bit fiddly hacksawing & filing out the shape (I didn't own a jewellers saw back then), but not too bad - I had a couple of other similar planes, so had a good model to work from. My new cam worked well after a bit of tinkering, I think I had to spend a bit of time getting the shape of the cam just right, so it locked in the right position, but it was such a long time ago, I can't remember exactly.

    Anyways, well done & extra marks for a bit of ingenuity & getting the job done with what was on-hand!

    Cheers,
    IW

  7. #6
    Join Date
    May 2019
    Location
    Brisbane
    Posts
    807

    Default

    Thanks for that. I thought about using brass, but I would have had to go out and buy some and here I tried to stick with what I had lying around. For this plane I also think the steel is more suitable in terms of color and texture. But with this working I am planning to make more like this and also complete planes. For that I will try to source some brass. Have not found a good source in Brisbane yet or online. Will have to search that a bit more.

    The screw is in fact a little slippery and I think I will go and either knurl this one or make a complete new one. The link you posted is great. I am probably going to try that.

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Brisbane (western suburbs)
    Age
    77
    Posts
    12,093

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Cklett View Post
    Thanks for that. I thought about using brass, but I would have had to go out and buy some and here I tried to stick with what I had lying around. For this plane I also think the steel is more suitable in terms of color and texture......
    I agree, steel is definitely more in keeping with the original, I was just thinking about my tennis-elbow & the extra effort of sawing & filing..

    Quote Originally Posted by Cklett View Post
    ...... I will try to source some brass. Have not found a good source in Brisbane yet or online. Will have to search that a bit more....
    I buy my brass from George Weston & Sons in Carole Park. They are happy to sell small amounts, but depending on which part of the city you live, it might be a long trek. You can order ahead & pick up, or wait while they cut it for you - if you do the latter, check out the scrap shelves at the front of the office, they often have short bits that are very useful to a hobbyist like me, & you get them for scrap price, quite a saving on the regular price! Of course it's pot luck what's on the shelves on any given day, but I picked up enough for two lever caps for about $10 last time I was there...

    My only complaint is that the brass alloy of their flat bar is all 380, which is not so good for peening, if making a dovetailed body is on your mind. You can get away with it if you are careful, by doing most of the metal-moving with the steel of the sole, & limiting the amount of peening required for the brass parts. If you can find a source of 260 brass flat that is 3.2-4mm thick & about 50mm wide (or better still, 75mm because it's a more efficient width to get plane sides out of), that would be the stuff to go for for plane making, it's much more ductile . I've yet to find anyone in Aus who stocks it, unfortunately....

    Cheers,
    IW

  9. #8
    Join Date
    May 2019
    Location
    Brisbane
    Posts
    807

    Default

    That's just around the corner. Thanks a lot!

    You probably roll your eyes now that I haven't found them before....

    I think I will first start with wooden body to practise and then work my way up.

    Thanks

    Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

  10. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Brisbane (western suburbs)
    Age
    77
    Posts
    12,093

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Cklett View Post
    ......You probably roll your eyes now that I haven't found them before....
    Well, I'm sure you would've stumbled on them eventually, once you got serious about gathering up the bits....

    Quote Originally Posted by Cklett View Post
    ......I think I will first start with wooden body to practise and then work my way up....
    I think that's a good idea. Wood is a bit easier to manage, you can use small pieces & offcuts depending on what style you make, so you feel free to experiment and change things or start over if it goes wrong. My first couple of woodies were pretty ordinary (of course I was expecting miracles!), partly because I didn't research the topic enough, so I was fumbling along & making some of it up on the fly. (In my defense, there was no internet & nothing like the information there is now, though p'raps we've gone to the opposite extreme - there's a plethora of information & some of it conflicts!). No matter how it turns out, you will learn more about planes & what makes them tick.

    Way back, I made a small 60 degree smoother which is a 'hybrid' with brass sides riveted to a wood core (a sort of cross between a Krenov and an infill ). Unfortunately, it's another thread that has dropped its pictures, but it looked like this:
    Brass_ironwood laminated.jpg

    I was aiming for the 'slipperyness' of a wood sole with the convenience of a lver-cap, & it turned out moderately successful in those respects, but like most woodies, it suffers from a teeny bit of distortion with wood movement, even though the Cooktown Ironwood core is pretty stable. It means I can't just pick it up & get stuck into planing without testing on a bit of scrap to make sure the set hasn't gone rank, if it hasn't been used for a few weeks. Other than that, it does the jobs it was intended for.

    For a first all-metal project metal, making a shoulder or rebate plane is a good way to ease into the techniques. That might sound a bit counter-intuitive, as they need to be fairly precise tools to work really well, but they can be assembled by the simple process of riveting the components together, and with a modicum of care, you can get them very accurate.

    I got the idea from Peter McBride in this thread (unfortunately, it's one that has lost its pictures). But my version still has its pics.
    New wedge.jpg

    Because I have a little metal lathe & too much time on my hands, I decided to jazz the next one up & add a screw adjuster and a thumbscrew to tighten the wedge (makes it easier to back off the pressure for blade adjustments): RG 1 inch complete.jpg

    The simple wedged version is quite adequate, you don't tend to alter the set on these things very often, and after a bit, adjusting with a hammer takes about he same time as using a screw adjuster.

    I've rabbited on about the general principles of peening metal in this thread.

    I do have to add this warning - making tools is highly addictive & tends to become an all-consuming passion.....

    Cheers,
    IW

  11. #10
    Join Date
    May 2019
    Location
    Brisbane
    Posts
    807

    Default

    Thanks again for the detailed tips and hints. I really appreciate it.

    I also agree that one learns so much about the what makes a tool work well by tinkering with the designs and trying to make them. Also it makes me admire and appreciate even more the people who developed and made them.

    I fear I am already hooked. I had a broken chisel and decided a couple months back to make a tiny plane for a friend as a little gift. As a young lad he loved woodworking, but his parents told him that he'd rather learn something proper... I thought I give home something to inspire him.

    So I made this one. Nothing special and maybe more a toy. Although I thought it worked well and good for putting some champhers or so. It sits well in the hand.

    By the way the box it is sitting on in the photo was made by my great-great-grandfather who was a carpenter in the shipyards of northern Germany. Still in great shape. I hope to be able to make items that last that long...


    Anyway making a shoulder plane sounds good. Thanks again. Highly appreciated!

    Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Similar Threads

  1. READ ME! WANTED - Lever cap for Stanley No 3
    By lawqbarr in forum WOODWORK - Tools & Machinery
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 11th July 2019, 06:34 PM
  2. WANTED:QLD. Lever cap for Stanley #3
    By lawqbarr in forum WANTED & WANTED TO BUY - in Australia
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 11th July 2019, 01:44 PM
  3. Lever Cap Screw Stanley 4 1/2
    By Cayls in forum HAND TOOLS - UNPOWERED
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: 4th May 2012, 07:44 AM
  4. -=WANTED=- lever cap for a Stanley 181
    By Slow6 in forum HAND TOOLS - UNPOWERED
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 1st November 2008, 02:54 PM
  5. Where can I buy a Stanley #4 Lever Cap?
    By rhancock in forum HAND TOOLS - UNPOWERED
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 26th July 2008, 01:21 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •