Another stanley infill

[wayne Jepson]

Inspired by Derek Cohen here is my attempt at a stanley infill. Bones for the build came from a #4 Stanley of unknown type. I also tried to use other parts from the original plane. Blade from Lee Valley. Its not quite finished but will be soon.

[jerry nazard]

Now THAT be pretty! Did you take any photos during construction? Can you share a bit about how you built it?

That is one beautiful looking plane.

[Rick Markham]

That's one sexy beast Wayne! Tell us more, I'd like to know how ya did it, and what the experience was like.

[Scott MacLEOD2]

Where did you source the lever cap and screw?

Beautiful work by the way. Inspiring. (Which is my way of saying I have muttering about doing similar for some time and I should get off my butt).

Scott

[David Weaver]

Looks good...what's left, putting the lever cap in?

I'm on my second infill and basically have to drill and install the lever cap and remove the temporary infills and put in the final. I would say that far and away, getting the holes in the right place and getting the lever cap on flush is my least favorite thing.

I fully understand why stanley (or bailey, rather) chose to use a screw coming up from the frog in the middle of the cap now - no matter how poorly the frog is made, the lever cap will always contact the top of the iron in three places unless something is *really* wrong.

Should work like a pearl when you're done.

If you're not using a post drill (drill press), let me know how it goes locating where you feel the holes should be marked, and then marking and drilling them. For me, getting the mark dead on where you want it is made a lot easier with an optical center punch, but the bit still wanders some, and probably would even with a drill press. A mill would be the best tool. When I put the holes in the current plane this weekend, I'm going to try drilling a piece of scrap steel, and then using that to force the drillbit to stay on target so i can avoid the headache of doing a lot of work to the lever cap to get a good fit. Wish I had a mill.

[wayne Jepson]

Finished the plane. All I had left to do was fix the cap iron using 2 pins through the side of the plane. They did not pass through the cap iron but threaded into it.

To answer some of the questions,

The wood is cocobolo
Bed angle is 55 degrees with no chip breaker.
The cap iron I made from an old stanley lever cap.
I made the cap screw from an old blade adjustment knob.

I honed the blade and took some cherry shavings. This is the second infil I have made and again I am amazed by how well they perform. I got so wrapped up in making this plane I forgot to take pictures of the process but I have started another and will try to document for those interested. My first infil was from a bronze St james Bay Tool co. casting and is a great user. I have quite a few junk old planes lying around so I wanted to salvage these to make them useful again. They make great bodies for infils. I have a small mill which I use to remove all the unwanted parts of the inside of the casting. I also have a very smal lathe i use to turn knobs and lever cap pins. Threading I do by hand with inexpensive taps and dies. Attached are some pics. Thanks

[wayne Jepson]

A few more pics including the start of another plane and the machines i use to do it.

[jerry nazard]

Wayne,

Super post! Great pics!! It would be wonderful if you could keep us up to date on the progress of your Op. 3. (That is, if you don't mind a bunch of us copying your work.... :D)

Thanks.

-Jerry

[Zach England]

That's neat. Forgive such a pedestrian question, but what about the possibilities of something like this with a norris-type adjuster?

[wayne Jepson]

I have thought about a norris type adjuster but i am just trying to figure out how to make. I am not a machinist so any help anyone can provide would be helpful.