Found a Toad

[steven c newman]

At a local "Junk in the box" store. I bought two old handplanes. One was to be parts & spares for a #5 I already had, the other looked like a "Project Plane" . Got the two home254478 :eek: Black lever cap turned out to be an 80 yr. old "Private Label #3" Tote was broke, rust everywhere, and that black painted lever cap just had to go.


As for a Toad? A pressed steel "frog" is not a frog, so I calls them "Toads" , The Parplus #5, with a cambered iron has one. The "blue" paint Worth #4 also has one. The main problem I have found with these Toads is in those two bolts to bolt it down. How in the world do you get that bolt to start, without a magnetic screwdriver? ROYAL PITA! But, once they are in, and down tight, things work very well, indeed. There is a "sweet spot" these toads have to sit in. Once there, no chatter in the iron, settings stay locked in place. I am thinking of keeping the iron from the Worth #4 squared across. Then I can just exchange irons with the #5 as needed. Then I could even have a cambered iron in a #4. @10-1/4" long, it is a bit longish, though. Anyway, got things cleaned up on these two "Orphans". Time to test things out on some Oak ( no, NOT something easy to plane, I go for the wood I work with) and away we go:eek:254479 Not too bad. :D Handles have a coat of BLO, after they were stripped of old finish. As for that "Private Label" plane?254480Repaired the old tote, didn't like the colour of it, so a "new" tote was swapped with it. Might have once been on a Stanley/Victor plane. Seems to fit this plane. $25 for the pair of planes. A LARGE #4, and a slimish #3. Keepers???:confused:

[steven c newman]

And this is the Parplus #5, with a cambered iron254509scrubbing down a plank to make leg stock out of. Plank is some old, nasty looking Oak. The edge grain showing there is what the face grain looked like, before the Parplus #5 went sailing along over the plank. Even the lever caps on the two "Toad Planes" match! irons also are a match, other than the business ends. Might keep the two together as a set????

[steven c newman]

After working with these two "Toads", I am finding out a few things. 1): the bolt that holds the lever cap. If nothing is clamped in place, the bolt will wiggle. IF things are clamped up, NO WIGGLES.

2) backlash/slop: Weird part about this style of adjuster, there is almost zero backlash/slop. The part that goes through the chipbreaker to set the depth of cut, fills that hole completely. There is no excess room available for slop to enter in.

3); iron's "bed". Yes it is pressed steel, and painted up. The nice thing is an iron has full length and width support under it. No cavities! IF one wants to, they could flatten the bedding area back to bare steel. I haven't found any need to.

4): laterals. Both are as cheap as can be, and still work. They have that "Stanley double folded" look to them. Usually rather short throw to them. They still work, just doesn't take all that much to move the iron from side to side. With their bigger rivets, they also stay put on the frog/toad better.

5) Lever caps. They seem to be too short. They do not go far enough onto the chipbreaker's "hump". Only to the exact center of the hump, is about it. No fancy spring on the back of them, either.

Lastly, a 6) item. Base castings. The #5 s are about 1/2' short than "normal jack planes", but match the length of early ones. Body is a thick casting. The #4 is a bit long, @10-1/4", and again, the casting is heavier the a normal #4. irons are about what Stanely used, as far as thickness is concerned. Not real thick, but not too flimsy thin, either. Mouth opening on my #4 right now is about 1/16". Seems to work decently. Might be able to close it up a bit more, if I need to.

Because the irons/chipbreakers, AND lever caps are the exact same, I can switch between the cambered iron on the #5, and the squared edge on the #4. Might have a #5 smoother, AND a #4 sized Scrub plane? Or, the other way around. looks like these will stay a set.

[Bill Houghton]

No fancy spring on the back of them, either.
In my experience, the spring is a useful thing - it reduces any tendency of the cam to dig into the chip breaker and facilitates adjustment. It's not hard to add one - feeler gauge stock with a hole drilled/punched through it and a rivet will do the job.