Lateral adjustment lever hitting tote
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22 August 2018 at 12:58 am #550443
So I purchased this “vintage” Stanley number 7 jointer plane. I’m really happy and excited with it. I did a mild restoration, basically just cleaned everything and reassembled. I noticed the adjustment lever is hitting the top of the tote. The frog is very adjustable on the this model so I’m at a loss. Maybe this tote is not the original?. What are my options here. I honestly don’t remember if it was like that before I disassembled.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.22 August 2018 at 1:17 am #550446I have a number 7 that is generally from that era, judging from the front knob and how it sets on the plane. Some things you can do to help date the plane and see if things are up to snuff are as follows:
1) take a picture of the face of the lever cap to see if there are any markings on it. Also, see if there is an “S” on the back side of the lever cap.
2) show us the etch or stamp on the top of the iron. Right off hand, I think it unlikely that a 100 year old iron is that long. Also, see if there is any evidence that it is a laminated iron.
3) take off the lever cap and iron and show us a picture of the frog, mouth, screws that hold the frog, and the general frog casting. It will help date the plane.
4) take a picture of any stampings on the lever. Any patent dates, etc, would be helpful.
5) take a picture of the iron sticking through the mouth from the bottom of the plane. It might just be that the frog is set too far towards the rear of the plane.
The plane from the picture generally looks like something from 1892 to maybe WWI. Additional pics could narrow it down.
And the tote (handle) looks like it might have too big a horn. It might be a replacement.
- This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by Larry Geib.
- This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by Larry Geib.
- This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by Larry Geib.
- This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by Larry Geib.
it looks like an early one to me, I would probably file away the protruding metal that’s touching the handle just enough so it’s not touching, it might have had a few knocks in its lifetime, sometimes the adjustment lever can bend backwards from its original setting, it’s possible as well that the frog is not correct for the plane….anyway please post some of the details listed and we’ll help identify it, cheers.
22 August 2018 at 11:26 am #550457Your plane is no newer than a type 8 and those were made around 1900. It could be earlier depnding on if it has certain patent dates and where they are. If you have room in front of the blade, move the frog forward. Here’s a picture of my type 15. The adjuster is close but no where near touching. That could be a replacement tote. It’s hard to tell, but it should work. If anything, the tote can be easily changed if necessary. The last thing I would do is modify the adjuster in any way. You can go to the hyperkitten site (just Google hyperkitten) and type and date your plane in a couple of minutes. Good luck with it.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.22 August 2018 at 1:23 pm #550469I have a Sargent #8 that I restored and the tote was hitting the lateral lever. The seller (or previous owner) had bent the lever so it wouldn’t scrape – but I see yours is up against the blade too. If I had to make a guess, I’d say that was not the correct handle. You could print off this template from Lee Valley to see how close it is to correct. http://www.leevalley.com/us/html/16j4010k.pdf
This is supposed to be for Stanley #5 and up plane totes. I ended up just making my own to fit my hand and give me the clearance I needed. I had a small piece of figured walnut that I couldn’t use for much else – so it worked great for this.
Judging from the pictures, it looks to me like either a Type 6 or 6A which would date it between 1888 and 1892.
I notice that the small tote screw is missing. Does the hole in the tote line up with the threaded hole in the casting?
Is the frog installed too far back? (On a jointer you would normally have it set fairly far forward.)
Dave
22 August 2018 at 3:52 pm #550473If it’s a 6, it has three patent dated stamped on the lateral adjuster and another one on the depth adjustment nut, but I can’t see any of that in the picture. What looks odd to me is the position of the rear of the lateral adjuster relative to the mounting hole in the tote. On all of my Stanley’s, that nib on the underside of the lateral adjuster is well behind the tote main mounting rod hole. That would mean the frog is already too far forward?? Doesn’t sound right does it?
23 August 2018 at 12:13 am #550478So I took more pics today. The front tote screw is missing but the holes line up. I have frog as far forward as I can get and still get shaving clearance. The plane does take a beautiful shaving and seems to perform just fine.
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You must be logged in to view attached files.23 August 2018 at 9:36 am #550489What you appear to have is a hybrid of a type 7 and type 8. The bed has the “S” casting mark and most likely is a type 7 (1893-1899), but the frog has a “B” casting mark and the single patent date on the lateral adjuster so that is definitely a type 8 (1899-1902). This happens all down through the various types as they were changing features of the design and it’s not uncommon to find planes that have a mixture like this. Most likely, yours came out of the factory in the 1899 to 1900 time frame.
As I said earlier, my #7 is a 1931/32 model and a lot of things had been changed about the design from what you have so it’s hard to compare them, but it looked like the frog had to be pretty far forward and that’s what you just indicated. Have you tried moving the frog back slightly? The angle of the top of the tote doesn’t necessarily match the 45 degree angle of the frog/lateral adjuster and moving it back might give you a little clearance between the nib (for lack of a better name) on the underside of the adjuster and the tote. It’s hard to tell if the adjuster is hard up against the bottom of the blade or not, but if it isn’t you won’t hurt the adjuster if you bend it up slightly. The adjuster on my #5 hits the top of the tote because it got bent down at some point. Some guys bent the adjusters up and down a few times on new planes just to loosen them up.
Congrats – that’s a wonderful find. The adjuster issue is really minor. I think a little tinkering will make it go away.
23 August 2018 at 1:24 pm #550490That’s awesome Harry. My first old Stanley! $30 off eBay seemed worth the risk.
23 August 2018 at 1:36 pm #550491That’s the way to do it. A lot of times people don’t really know what they have. Try to come up with a front screw for that tote though. Those 7’s are heavy and you don’t want to break the tote. I use mine all the time and it doubles as a dumbbell when you want a quick workout:)
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