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  1. #16
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    Thanks for that Ian, I might chuck it in the lathe and make a nice ball end on it. I was doing something fairly similar to your technique for blade setting. Just thrown off by the worn screw. No work on it last week, took the family away for the weekend instead.

    A question on the old woodie. Where the front knob should be, there is a circle of leather nailed on. I thought maybe the knob had broken off and this was a repair, but then I saw one for sale with exactly the same thing. Is this how they were manufactured, or a common mod, or??
    The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.

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  3. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Boringgeoff View Post
    Your brace looks like a Millers Falls No 32 maybe?
    Cheers,
    Geoff.
    Cheers Geoff, I couldn't see any obvious marking on it.
    The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.

  4. #18
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    Jun 2010
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    Quote Originally Posted by yowie View Post
    Where the front knob should be, there is a circle of leather nailed on. I thought maybe the knob had broken off and this was a repair, but then I saw one for sale with exactly the same thing. Is this how they were manufactured, or a common mod, or??
    It's called a strike or strike button; they can also be made from wood. The purpose is to provide somewhere to hit the plane for loosening the iron. One many old woodies you'll see hammer marks on the heels, toes and ends; this is how they can be adjusted. For a plane that uses a tapered iron the blade is set by gently tapping the end of the iron which increases the projection out the bottom slightly. Because the iron is tapered to be thicker at the edge end it also slightly loosens the clamping force imparted by the wedge so that also needs to be tapped down to tighten it all back up again. Come honing time; hitting the strike button on the top of the toe will loosen the assembly.

    You can adjust the iron's set just by hitting either end of the plane; hit the toe and the iron advances; hit the heel and it retracts.
    Nothing succeeds like a budgie without a beak.

  5. #19
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    Mar 2004
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    What the chief said. I generally find a tap on the toe is more effective at loosening the blade than hitting the back end. I don't know if that's a universal thing or it just applies to the dozen or fewer non-screw-adjuster planes I've used....

    Very, very occasionally I tap the front bun on my infills that don't have screw adjusters when I've set them a bit rank & want to pull it back a bit. I loosen the lever cap a tad first (of course!), & it usually takes only the merest tap to bring the blade back. But in general, I wouldn't advise applying more than a gentle tap or two on the woodwork of an infill - you'd hate to see those cross-rivets come loose!

    Cheers,
    IW

  6. #20
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    Oct 2005
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    Yangebup, Perth
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    Thanks guys, I was familiar with the tapping method of setting the blade, but just hadn't seen a leather tab for the purpose.

    Had a bit more of a crack at the infill on the weekend. The blade bed is certainly not flat. I think it will take some work to bring it into line, especially without removing the brass lever cap (which also was way out of square to the mouth. I have filed it square now.

    I may have to purchase a float unless someone can let me know the best way of squaring up the frog. I guess filing it down, I will have to change the angle of the frog, which means filing the metal near the mouth to the same angle as well.
    The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.

  7. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by yowie View Post
    ...... The blade bed is certainly not flat. I think it will take some work to bring it into line, especially without removing the brass lever cap (which also was way out of square to the mouth. I have filed it square now.

    I may have to purchase a float unless someone can let me know the best way of squaring up the frog. I guess filing it down, I will have to change the angle of the frog, which means filing the metal near the mouth to the same angle as well.
    Go very carefully with the filing - tipping the blade up to a higher angle will rapidly increase the width of the mouth!

    How far back is the blade bed? Has the rear stuffing been removed & replaced at some point? Unless you've got a pretty significant mismatch between stuffing & sole, it may be ok. If the stuffing sits a mm or less behind the metal of the sole (has your plane got a blade-block, i.e. a thick piece of metal riveted to the sole & continuous with the bevel in the sole?). As long as the blade sits firmly on sole and/or blade-block, and has good support where the thumbscrew bears on the blade assembly it may not affect performance, the very thick blades these planes normally have are pretty solid.

    The amount of filing needed to get wood & metal square is huge - I know well because on the first infill I made, the stuffing ended up a fraction behind where it was supposed to be (still don't quite know how it happened!), and it took me ages to get everything flush. It's an absolute cow of a job, working in a confined space & trying not to hit the sides. And that was with the LC out - it will be worse with it still in place. Blowed if I know why the early makers riveted their LCs in, it makes life so much easier when you can remove them for maintenance jobs like this...

    Cheers,
    IW

  8. #22
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    Hi Ian,
    The blade bed itself is quite level with the sole blade-block. The wooden bed just seems to drop off a fair bit on one side (slightly less on the other )the higher up you go. This means that the blade can rock, instead of sitting flat.
    I don't think it has been removed or replaced. Maybe just worn?

    Either way, while it is probably useable as is, it is a pain to set and moves too much, therefore unless I fix it, it will sit on the shelf not being used.
    The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.

  9. #23
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    Mar 2004
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    I think I get the picture, yowie. No idea why it should be like that, the wear you'd get from adjusting the blade back & forth a few mm would be infinitesimal, even after 100 years of use, I would think. But people do find ways to mess up tools...

    Filing & scraping the whole bed flat would be a major chore, believe me! You'd drop the blade angle by a couple of degrees too (depending on just how bad the current surface is), but that's probably of little or no consequence. Without seeing it, I would be reluctant to give too much advice, but what comes to mind is Karl Holtey's way of bedding blades in his infills. He puts a steel stud in the bed, just under where the lever cap screw bears down, the top of which is just a smidgin above the level of the bed. So his blades don't actually touch any part of the wooden part of the bed, they're held off slightly above it by the steel bit positioned under where the screw meets the cap-iron. It's worth considering, I reckon it might solve your problem very neatly & with the minimum effort. [Edit: just realised, with most oldies like yours, the cap-iron screw slot goes way up the blade, and the hole for the head of the screw to pass through is at the top, so there may be no metal in the crucial spot to rest on the stud. You might need a strip of metal that would span the slot.]

    I've been meaning to try it myself, & maybe I will on the next infill I make. But of course, I'm not making any more, right!?
    .....
    Cheers,
    IW

  10. #24
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    I may have to give that a go...
    The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.

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