Stanley Bailey #5 Broken Frog At Lateral Adjustment Lever

[Noah Starksen]

Been looking for my first jack plane for a few months. Found a Stanley Bailey #5 at an antique store for $25 and couldn’t pass it up. Got home and found the frog is completely broken just below where the lateral adjustment lever would be (see pic).


Do I need to start searching for a new frog? Or will this still work fine?

IMG_4371.jpg

[Van Huskey]

Did you check your breaker to see if it tripped? Maybe the brushes on the motor need replacing.

Welcome to SMC! There is actually a handtool sub-forum here called the Neanderthal Haven and one of the nice moderators will likely move the thread there for you.

[Jim Koepke]

The plane can be used without the lateral lever. A small hammer or mallet can be used to adjust the lateral setting of the blade.

My blade tapping mallet was shop made:

Plane Mallet.jpg

The head on this is about 1" in diameter.

Your plane looks to be an early type 9. It would likely cost as much as the plane to find a replacement frog.

You may want to use this plane as is until you acquire a second #5. Then this one can become a scrub plane for rough timbers.

You may get lucky and find another plane early type 9 #4 or #5 cheap with a broken broken base and a good frog.

jtk

[Jerry Olexa]

Agree with Jim on all he said.....

[Noah Starksen]

Thanks guys! Both for moving this to the correct place and for giving me some insight on the plane.

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks guys! Both for moving this to the correct place and for giving me some insight on the plane.

You are surely welcome. Here is an old post with a little information on the difference between the early and later type 9 frogs:

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?131234

Here is one of the images showing the differences:

Type 9 frogs and bases.jpg

The details are pointed out in the post.

jtk