Transitional 29

[Ray Bohn]

Here is a diagram of what I found when I attempted to adjust the cutter. It appears as if the blade will never fit flush to both the frog and the wood wedge part of the plane. The diagram shows what happens when the cap iron is locked down with the cutter aligned with the wood wedge, If I align the cutter to the frog, the cutter does not have any support at the bottom. Any information will be greatly appreciated.

[Jim Koepke]

Can the frog be moved at all to make it align to both surfaces?

jtk

[george wilson]

I never had a transitional. Can you shim up the frog to match the angle of the wood. OR,can you veneer the wood part,and pare it down to make the angle the same as the frog?

[steven c newman]

There is a tool called a float, and you can use it to file the wood "ramp" angle to match the frog's angle, so that they are "coplanar" and copasectic. Set up the frog, but leave it back a hair, enough so a thin piece of scrap can be added to the frog. The float is just a special type of rasp. Just float the rasp down through the mouth, until the scrap piece and the "ramp" of the plane match each other. Take away the scrap piece, move the frog forward and check the fit. BTW: Mine is a Stanley #129.

[Ray Bohn]

Can the frog be moved at all to make it align to both surfaces?

jtk

The frog can be moved. If I move the frog forward, the leading edge of the frog pushes the blade away from the wood surface. They are are at different angles. Shimming the frog or modifying the wood ramp seem to be the answer obtaining support under the whole blade.

Even if an adjustment is made to make the frog and ramp align, the moveable frog seems to be more of a fine tuning adjustment for assembly only. My guess is that this type of plane was never intended to have a movable frog that would adjust the mouth opening similar to metal planes. If the wood ramp does not move with the frog, there will be only one position that will provide full support under the length of the cutter blade.

[Ray Bohn]

I just found this on Patrick's Blood And Gore site.

"The frog is adjustable, but in order to take advantage of this feature some modification to the bed must be made. Due to the design of the frog (it sort of looks like the ones used on the iron planes, but is shorter along its bed length), in conjuction with the use of wood as the body, the cutter can be unsupported for a good length when the frog is moved forward. The wood can't be adjusted, but the frog can, which means that the cutter will flex backward as the plane is pushed forward, likely chattering, when the frog's face is not co-planar with the bed. Even Stanley mentioned this shortcoming in their tool propaganda."

Today's marketing people would find a way to label this "shortcoming" as a feature with a benefit.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I assume your measuring whether or not the surfaces are coplanar with a straight edge and no the iron - I've had irons come to me in old planes that are out of flat along the length.

If you can get the iron to mate well over the lower, wooden part of things, I'd be tempted to try it as is, you might be surprised. That's certainly the important part of the mating, and if the lever cap is working properly, where most of the force holding the iron against the bed is going to be applied.

That said, I'd probably alter the wooden part to match, certainly easier than making the metal match the wood . . ..

[george wilson]

If you can move the frog BACK a bit,by shimming the screw holes,you would then have a protruding bit of wood at the top of the ramp that you could pare down to match the frog angle. This repair would be more sightly than having to veneer and pare down the ramp,though those planes are not valuable.

[James Taglienti]

If youre handy with a file you could correct the angle by filing the iron frame where the frog sits. It might help out anyway i dont think the iron frame was machined to begin with.

[Ray Bohn]

I assume your measuring whether or not the surfaces are coplanar with a straight edge and no the iron - I've had irons come to me in old planes that are out of flat along the length.

If you can get the iron to mate well over the lower, wooden part of things, I'd be tempted to try it as is, you might be surprised. That's certainly the important part of the mating, and if the lever cap is working properly, where most of the force holding the iron against the bed is going to be applied.

That said, I'd probably alter the wooden part to match, certainly easier than making the metal match the wood . . ..

The cutting iron is not perfectly flat but extremely close. I wonder if the deviation was caused by being locked in a position that forced the blade to be flexed due to the mismatch of angles-maybe for decades. If I reference a straight edge to the wood ramp, I find that simply tilting the frog will align everything perfectly. What do you think about shimming the back of the frog?

[george wilson]

I already suggested shimming the frog to tilt it up more. This means from behind.