Repairing a loose lateral lever on a Sargent plane

[James Spangler]

I have a Sargent model 408 VBM plane with a lateral adjustment lever that is a bit loose; the rivet holding it to the frog is not holding it snugly. The lateral lever still moves the iron one way or the other, and I was hesitant to attempt to fix it as I once busted the top off a frog trying to peen that rivet tighter, so I chose to leave it as-is. This plane is currently up for sale in SMC Classifieds and in the interest of full disclosure, I mention in the description that the lever is loose. Lately I’ve been thinking that this might deter a potential buyer of an otherwise nice working and good looking plane, so I decided go ahead and attempt to peen the rivet tighter.

I wanted to share a photo of the rig I set up to securely hold the frog horizontally while I peened the rivet. I’ve also included a couple of “before” photos of the front and back of the frog. Luckily on this frog, the rivet head on the back stands proud of the surface so I could rest it on the anvil of my vise with minimal stress on the surrounding cast iron. My big parallel-jaw clamp standing on end holds the frog at the right height during this operation.

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I used a smallish hammer with my nail punch to carefully go around the edge of the rivet head to push the edge down with some gentil whacks. I was nervous doing this, but to my relief, this eventually worked and now the lever doesn’t fall to the side under its own weight, although the rivet head is not quite so handsome now.

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With my retirement hobby of restoring old planes and other tools, I’m now somewhat more confident that I could repeat this when needed without breaking another frog. :)
And as a final touch, I’m lowering the price on the SMC Classified listing.

[Frederick Skelly]

Thanks for posting this. I've had to do this ang your rig sure works better than mine did. (Wooden hand clamps have so many uses and I never think to grab mine and try.)

[Jim Koepke]

Unless they are falling out loose my tendency is to leave them alone.

jtk

[Ben Ellenberger]

Thanks for posting this! I tried to peen the lever on my smoother, but was too cautious to make any progress. This looks like a good way to hold the frog.

[James Spangler]

Yes, the lessons I learned from breaking the top off a frog a few months back are:

- Set up the rig so that only the rivet touches the anvil - difficult to do on most Bailey frogs because there are two cast iron ribs on the back on either side near the rivet.
- Double and triple check the above set up.
- Don't whack it with a large hammer :eek: and use gentil taps.

Sometimes I only learn with trial and error.

[Jim Koepke]

- Set up the rig so that only the rivet touches the anvil - difficult to do on most Bailey frogs because there are two cast iron ribs on the back on either side near the rivet.

A set up like this might help:

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The punch is ~1/4" and rests on the anvil.

jtk

[James Spangler]

Good suggestion Jim. Thanks!

[Tom Bussey]

Since I used to restore planes I thought I would offer what I learned over the years. I do not think much of Stanley planes that do not have frog adjustment screws. They are however a good source for screws, chip breakers and blades. Off brands are not worth even trying to salvage anything Even totes don't fit. Stanley did make a lot of planes without frog adjustment screws and are a good place to get lateral adjustment levers though. I grind off the head of the rivet on the under side of the frog to remove them. I have gotten little rivets from Ace Hardware. One has to look through all the little drawers to find then. The rivets sometimes need to be shortened. I remove the yoke . I have a small pin punch to tap out the yoke pin. I tend to put the rivet up from the bottom and then use a ball peen hammer, ball against the top of the rivet and then use different hammer to to hit the ball peen hammer. Light hits and take you time and check often. It is easy to get the lever to tight. The yoke doesn't need to come out but it un-muddies the field. And like Jim showed, the frog needs to be held in position and kept from rocking and rolling. Since the head of the rivet the only thing to make contact with the anvil part of the vise there is not much danger of braking the frog if care is taken.