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steve swantee
04-05-2008, 11:39 AM
Hello all, While planing a bit of birch with my Stanley No 4 (type 7), it seemed to be chattering a bit, kind of jumping along intermittently, as it encountered more difficult areas of grain. The frog receiver is the old rectangular type with machined areas, and mates well with the frog with no rocking at all, but I have noticed that with this vintage of plane, there is no support under the front portion of the frog. So I had an idea to cut out a thick paper shim to the correct thickness, and insert it under the unsupported area of the frog, and tighten the frog screws. Then I took it for a test drive, and to my surprise it worked great. No chattering or jumping. So, I'll definitely be leaving that shim in there. I know I could buy a later vintage plane with better frog support and an adjusting screw, but I prefer the earlier vintage planes. I would really like to try a thicker LV replacement blade as well at some point in the future. Has anyone else tried anything similar to improve the performance of these earlier frog styles???

Steve
Jim Koepke
04-05-2008, 2:35 PM
Hello all, While planing a bit of birch with my Stanley No 4 (type 7), it seemed to be chattering a bit, kind of jumping along intermittently, as it encountered more difficult areas of grain. The frog receiver is the old rectangular type with machined areas, and mates well with the frog with no rocking at all, but I have noticed that with this vintage of plane, there is no support under the front portion of the frog. So I had an idea to cut out a thick paper shim to the correct thickness, and insert it under the unsupported area of the frog, and tighten the frog screws. Then I took it for a test drive, and to my surprise it worked great. No chattering or jumping. So, I'll definitely be leaving that shim in there. I know I could buy a later vintage plane with better frog support and an adjusting screw, but I prefer the earlier vintage planes. I would really like to try a thicker LV replacement blade as well at some point in the future. Has anyone else tried anything similar to improve the performance of these earlier frog styles???

Steve

I usually try some type of transfer verification like dykem blue to make sure the frog actually is well seated.

I have used paper shims at times to find gaps or to get a lever cap to work a little better before getting the round tuit needed to do the fettling.

jim