dw- Plane notes from the field #1: dw's plane notes - General

I started a document on one of my computers for notes I keep on plane information. My issue is I have several work laptops, a few personal laptops and travel a lot so keeping the notes in one place is a challenge. I figured this way, I could get to them from anywhere, including my windows 7 phone when looking at buying a plane, and maybe others would find the information useful as well. I’ll try to break up the information into logical units as separate blogs in this series.

As always, comments, additional and questions welcome.

Some General Stanley timeline information.

Plastic Nut http://community.middlebury.edu/~harris/typology.html Type 17 l942-5 Wartime. Adj. nut is steel or plastic.

Kidney shaped hole in lever caps introduced in 1933

Adjustment frog screw started in 1910. Stopped on some during WWII.

Plane Iron Sizes
Plane — Iron Width
No. 1 — 1 1/4”
No. 2 — 1 5/8”
No. 3 — 1 3/4”
No. 5 1/4” — 1 3/4”
No. 4 — 2”
No. 4 1/2 — 2 1/4”
No. 5 — 2”
No. 5 1/2 — 2 1/4”
No. 6 — 2 3/8”
No. 7 — 2 3/8”
No. 8 — 2 5/8”

Overall Plane Sizes (measured off my set. Slight differences may occur according to type)
Plane — Length – Width
No. 1 —
No. 2 — 7 5/8” x 1 15/16”
No. 3 — 8 3/4” x 2 1/8”
No. 5 1/4” — 11 7/16” x 2 1/8”
No. 4 — 9 3/8” x 2 3/8”
No. 4 1/2 — 10 15/16” x 2 13/16”
No. 5 — 14” x 2 7/16”
No. 5 1/2 — 15 1/8” x 3”
No. 6 — 17 11/16” x 2 7/8”
No. 7 — 21 15/16” x 2 7/8”
No. 8 — 23 7/8” x 3 1/8”

What a B or S means when cast in the bed?

Thread sizes
Stanley used 12-20 threads for the tote and knob rods. The screw at the front of the tote and the frog screws are also of this

Thread size and pitch.

The rod diameter is 7/32 with a 20 tpi thread. A 1/4” rod diameter is usually associated with 20 tpi (1/4-20) and a 7/32 rod

usually has a 24 tpi thread (12-24).

When Record went into plane production in the early 1930s they copied Stanley planes of the period, right down to the threads.

Here are the sizes from Recordcollector’s site:
http://www.recordhandplanes.com/parts-and-sizes.html

Cap Iron screw : 5/16” 18tpi BSW (I believe this is the only standard BSW thread on benchplanes)
Frog screws : 7/32” 20tpi Whitworth;
Tote & Knob bolts : 7/32” 20tpi Whitworth;
Tote Toe screw : 7/32” 20tpi Whitworth;
Frog Adjusting Plate screw : 7/32” 24tpi Whitworth;
Frog Adjusting screw : 1/4” 24tpi American/Unified;
Brass Adjusting nut : 9/32” 24tpi American/Unified (left-hand thread);
Lever Cap screw : 9/32” 24tpi American/Unified.

If your trying to decifer Stanley thread sizes you need these 2 pdf’s

http://www.tttg.org.au/Content/Stanley%20Planes%20and%20Screw%20Threads%20-%20Part%201.pdf

http://www.tttg.org.au/Content/Stanley%20Planes%20and%20Screw%20Threads%20-%20Part%202.pdf

-- There is nothing like the sound of a well tuned hand plane. - http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com (timetestedtools at hotmail dot c0m)