Need Rivit Material for Old Stanley Plane Restoration

[Stew Denton]

Hi All,

I am restoring another Stanley plane, in this case an old Bed Rock. In the process I took apart the frog, removed the horizontal adjuster and removed the yoke also. Had to drill both of them out, they were REALLY in there.

At any rate, I need to find some material to make replacement rivets out of. I went to a local supply house, and they didn't have rivet material of the right size.

I thought about soft iron wire, and think it would work because it will probably be soft enough to rivet easily. I used to have some of about the right size, but have no idea where it is.

The yoke size is about 1/8 inch, and the one for the horizontal adjuster is about 5/32nds, if I recall, so will need two sizes, or will have to do a lot of careful work with a file if I had some stuff that was a bit oversized. I did measure the diameters with a dial caliper, and also checked the approximate sizing with some twist drill bits. The supply place did have very high quality steel roll pins in 1/8th inch, and they said they would work. I'm not real keen on using a roll pin, even if it would work well, as it isn't close to being a replacement in kind, but bought a few anyway.

I thought about nails, but nails are pretty tough and they don't rivet that easily, because they have to be driven into wood. The guy at the supply place suggested the shank from an aluminum pop rivet, which would be pretty close size wise for the bigger size, but again not a RIK, and I don't know how well the aluminum would hold up.

Any ideas?

Stew

[Clay Parrish]

Could you use brass rod?

[Stew Denton]

Hi Clay,

I thought about brass, as in brazing rod, and it would be better than aluminum being tougher. It isn't RIK, but I may have to use it if I can't find regular rivet material.

Stew

[steven c newman]

IIRC: You can still buy rivets from Stanley's parts department, whatever name they are using now.

[Stew Denton]

Hi Steven,

I went to the Stanley Parts site, and they show that they no longer stock that part, I looked on every model of bench plane they list parts for.....no luck.

That was yesterday evening. I hope to phone them today (we'll, there are 4 grandkids at our house today) to see if they still have that part for vintage planes, but it looks like they don't. I will put in a post when I find out.

Stew

[Tom Vanzant]

Stew, the original pins were mild steel. The holes in the yoke have a slight taper, so removal from one side is much easier, but, too late now. You can probably find a nail or mild steel rod that fits, but if a few thou under-size, raising a slight knurl at the "head" end of the pin will provide enough interference to hold the pin in place. Remember that the yoke is cast iron. Roll the pin across a piece of wood with a mill file to raise the knurl. The horizontal adjuster can be loose...just lightly upset the ends to prevent fallout.

[Pete Hotard]

Yeah the yoke pin will drive out from left to right if you are looking at the back of the frog. Just for future reference. Sorry I don't have any suggestions on what material to use to replace the ones you need though

[Jim Koepke]

I have used a nail in the past. One needs to be very careful. If the nail is too big, sand it down until it can be pressed in with light force. If it is too big, it will crack the cast iron.

Chuck the nail into a drill and sand it.

jtk

[Tom M King]

Aircraft aluminum rivets come in "hard" and "soft". A hard one would probably last a fair amount of time. They're pretty cheap, solid as opposed to hollow like a much softer pop rivet, and don't have to be heated. I use them (soft ones) for putting gutter parts together, but that's with a pneumatic gun (hammers the head end), and a bucking bar backing the rivet up. They could probably be flared out some other way.

Pop rivets also come in stainless which are really strong, but it takes a good gun to pop them.

I don't know if either of these will work, but just presenting something else to think about.

[Jim Davis]

You can anneal a nail (almost alliterative!) by heating it red hot and letting it cool in air. It will be very easy to head over then.

[steven c newman]

I just went over to Stanley Plane Parts......they now have a better "Service Net" site that has the parts. Basic parts kit runs about...$15 or so?

[Jim Koepke]

I just went over to Stanley Plane Parts......they now have a better "Service Net" site that has the parts. Basic parts kit runs about...$15 or so?

Stanley parts have really gone down hill in the last few years. Is this the kit you are looking at?

http://servicenet.bostitch.com/Parts/Search?searchedNumber=1-12-702

For that price I would start looking through my boxes of nails. Then I would find my propane torch and do like Jim Davis mentioned.

jtk

[steven c newman]

IF it is for the yoke...I have a spare the OP can have. Lateral? pop rivet, might be safer than trying to pean over a rivet on a cast iron frog that can crack and break.

[Stew Denton]

Hi All,

Thanks for the input. First I am going to check my nail collection, as Jim K suggested in response to the Jim D post.

Steven, thank you for the offer. I may take you up on it, but want to check my nails first (I have over 50 coffee cans of different sizes of nails and screws so it may take a while,) but am sure that I have (or used to have...not the same thing) some 20 d box nails that may work for the bigger size. Like Jim said I will dig out my propane torch and see if I can soften the nails by a good amount.

Jim (K), thanks for the reminder on not using a rivet that is too close to the size of the hole, for fear of cracking the cast. I was aware of that possibility, and have actually been concerned about that very thing. I certainly will take your advise to use an undersize pin.

Thanks and regards,

Stew