No. 27 transitional plane

[john davey]

I am interested in setting one of these up with a cambered iron for roughing stock. I found one for cheap money and have a few questions.

First the bad news. I need a blade for it. Seems it takes a 2 1/8 blade which is not so common. According to Patrick Leaches site the 27 is one of the more common transitionals so I think I can find a blade. If not I am assuming I can get a 2 inch to work. Also the bolt that enters the frog and adjusts up and down that the cap iron slides under is frozen. I think I can get this free with a little work but am probably screwed if I snap this off.

Now the good. It looks to be in very good share otherwise as the bottom is pretty darn flat, everything is tightly attached to the wood and the tote/knobs are fine. I do have the cap iron and chip breaker just no blade.

So my questions:

can I use the 2" if a 2 1/8 is difficult to find?
Anyone have a good trick to break the bolt free?
Are the 2 1/8 blades easy to come by? (I did see Hock sells one but I think that kills the cheapness part of this).
And finally are there any transitional plane fans out there. I bought this as I was just real curious about it and it seems it could be a good wood hogger. But are they still useful or are they sitting on shelves across the country as ornaments at this point?

Thanks, John...

[Terry Beadle]

IMO you can use the 2 inch instead of the 2 1/8th.
A Hock blade does not kill the cheapness of the plane because it will more than pay for itself in your precious shop time. A Hock blade will keep an edge many times longer thus making you more productive. Also it will perform so much better you will spend a lot less time in stock preparation.

The stuck bolt should be soaked in penetrating oil for several days. Fresh application each day ( twice a day is better ). If it doesn't break free from that, then you can apply some heat in the form of a heat gun or put it on low heat in an oven for a short time and see if that expands the metal a bit and allow it to break free. If it's still stubborn, I would use a torque shock wrench on it. These are a short hand held spring loaded torque tool that you pop a socket/phillips/std slot tip on and hit the end of with a fairly heavy hammer. Auto rebuilders use them all the time to get rusted bolts to break free.

I have two transitionals. They both work great. Don't worry so much about how flat the bottoms are or the width of the mouth as a simple straight edge held against the sole will let you know if the bottom is not so convex/concave that the blade won't work. I flattened mine with a smoothing plane and tuned it with a card scraper. Just once, and have been using them for over 5 years. This assumes your description of wanting to use them as a lite jack plane is accurate. I put a good curve to the cutting edge with a 800 and then a 1000 grit water stone and take it to 8000 on the principle that a polished edge will last quite a bit longer in use.

I use mine for roughing out stock cross grain at 45 degrees like a scrub but I don't put a scrub plane edge on them. Then a few swipes with the grain and switch to a woody razee jack by Steve Knight. It's a great combination that delivers very little tear out and ready for smoother surface quickly.

Good luck and enjoy the shavings.

[Jonathan McCullough]

A picture is worth a thousand words. I've often found that old planes with the Bailey mechanism have actual physical grunk on the threads of the depth adjuster screw, like oil and toolbox grease mixed with sawdust and dirt. There's often enough there to prevent you from moving the depth adjuster nut. You may want to take a wire brush, the cheap ones at Harbor Freight that resemble a toothbrush, and give the threads a good scrubbing all around with some 3-in-1 oil.

A 2-inch blade should be fine, especially if you're going to put a lot of camber on it and use it as a scrub plane.

Saw a transitional at a flea market recently. It was in okay shape and had a price tag of $200 on it. I wondered if the guy was just trying to get a rise out of people, but the exhibitor next to him was watching his table for him (or her?) so I never got a chance to gauge their degree of seriousness. I have one to fix up, but so many projects. . . .

[john davey]

Well, I paid 14 bucks for mine so 200 sounds pretty crazy. I'll try to snap a picture tonight when I get home. I was already planning on sticking the metal parts in evaporust tonight anyway. Once out of there I will find some penetrating oil and soak in that (unless I should do that first???). Terry I do agree that the Hock blade would be a better option. I have one in a smoother and it is wonderful. I am just trying to keep the price down at this point. If the bolt breaks free and I get it to work with some good results I would not be apposed at upgrading to the hock at that point. As far as the bottom it really is pretty good and for what I need it for is most likely already fine. I will fuss with the wood if I get all of the metal pieces to work out :)

[Andrae Covington]

I use a transitional #28 fore plane with a cambered blade. Fortunately mine came with the original blade (or at least an old one). One bit of caution when ordering a new blade... separately I bought an unusually thick old plane blade, 3/16"+ at the cutting end and 1/8" at the other end. But the dog on the blade adjustment mechanism was too stubby to engage the cap iron through the thicker blade.

[James Scheffler]

There is a good chance that bolt will free up just from the evaporust soak. I've found it works better than penetrating oil for any part that can be soaked. One thing that sometimes helps is to soak it for a while, then take it out and see if there is any grunge in the threads right where they enter the adjuster. You can clear that away and then soak it again so the liquid can penetrate further in.

Sounds like you don't need a chip breaker for your transitional, but anyone who does should be aware that the aftermarket ones won't work with transitionals. The slot for the adjuster will be in the wrong place. On the other hand, it would be possible to make a new slot in the right place provided it's not hardened steel.

I've gotten a lot of use out of my transitional jointer. I like the all-metal Stanleys a little better, but no reason not to try a transitional if you run across one.

Jim S.