Restoring a Millers Falls number 900 v line plane.

[keith micinski]

I am just getting into hand planes and got this off of Ebay for 5 bucks. I figure it would be a good way to learn about them and I needed a smoother plane anyway. I filed down the bottom of the frog where it meets the body because it was a little bit rough. Then I looked in the body where the Frog goes and it is a lot rough. Is there any reason why I wouldn't want to file this surface flat?

[Bill Rittner]

I usually use lapping or grinding compound and rub the frog on it's mating surfaces to ensure good contact. If you take material off of only one surface you can upset the relationship of these mating surfaces. The frog rests on the large upper surface that you filed and also the small surface lower down towards the mouth. You want as much contact between these four surfaces as you can get.

[keith micinski]

Ok thanks, I will go ahead and file the body then to. The casting is really rough and full of crud.

[Jim Koepke]

Johnny Kleso has some information on his site about plane tune ups. In particular is an article by David Charleworth at the bottom of the page:

https://home.comcast.net/~rarebear/planes101/tuneup/tuneup.htm

Also if you open the "sticky" thread, "Neanderthal wisdom/FAQs you will find in sub section 7 some articles by Bob Smalser and myself on rehabbing old planes.

jtk