Help with a thread, please.

[Phil Pascoe]

I have owned a Marples 5 1/2 for about twenty years, and I've never used it as the casting was twisted. I finally got around to it and flattened it, but it's missing a frog screw. Incidentally I have never seen a worse finished casting - I have a Woden No.5 which would possibly be considered inferior to a Marples that is infinitely better. Can anyone help with the thread? It's not the same as a newer Stanley, as I have spares for one of them. I haven't the means to measure the existing one.
Tia, Phil.

 

[rxh]

I can make one for you. To discover the thread size, take a pencil or other suitable piece of fine grained wood and whittle it down to a cylinder of the correct diameter, slightly tapered at the end. Screw it carefully into the hole and unscrew it - you should now see traces of the threads good enough to be able to count the TPI.

 

[Racers]

I have some Record/Stanley Frog screws you are welcome to one if it will fit, do you have a Record/Stanley one you can try in it?
If it isn't you can drill it out and tap it to M6.

Pete

 

[bugbear]

I can make one for you. To discover the thread size, take a pencil or other suitable piece of fine grained wood and whittle it down to a cylinder of the correct diameter, slightly tapered at the end. Screw it carefully into the hole and unscrew it - you should now see traces of the threads good enough to be able to count the TPI.

If he's only missing "a frog screw" (as posted) he could just measure the one he does have!

BugBear

 

[bugbear]

I haven't the means to measure the existing one.

Do you have a half-decent camera and a tripod?

If so, just take a photo of the bolt from a good distance away (to avoid parallax), with a scale item in shot, using a lens of over 100mm (to avoid abberations) and you (or we) should be able to pixel-count the numbers off it.

EDIT; like this

BugBear

 

[AndyT]

If it's not a Stanley special, it's pretty likely to be a standard Whitworth size. Phil, I can't imagine that you don't have a few tins of old imperial screws about the place!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

:lol: Believe it or not I do not possess one single screw that is not metric. I'll try to get a picture and a thread count in the morning.

 

[bugbear]

:lol: Believe it or not I do not possess one single screw that is not metric. I'll try to get a picture and a thread count in the morning.

Just post the picture, as high resolution as the forum will allow (or hosted externally) - we'll need to measure/count the OD as well as the pitch.

BugBear

 

[Phil Pascoe]

It gets simpler - it's the same as an older Record, so I assume Stanley as well. I tried interchanging the screw with one off a nearly new Stanley that I found in a skip (which was the best place for it) and the thread on that was much finer. If that's a standard Whitworth thread I should be able to buy a couple easily enough.

 

[Racers]

Its a non standard size 7/32” 20tpi Whitworth good luck finding one, but my offer still stands.

Pete

 

[bugbear]

The frog bolts on older Stanleys and Record planes are the same thread as the tote and knob fixings; #12 size by 20 TPI.

This is not a standard size (e.g. WHITWORTH, BA, METRIC, UNC etc), it's a planes-only-size. Your simplest source for a replacement is a broken (and hence cheap) donor plane.

BugBear

 

[bugbear]

Its a non standard size 7/32” 20tpi Whitworth good luck finding one, but my offer still stands.

Pete

Are you sure? Every trustworthy reference I've seen says it's #12, which doesn't have a good fractional equivalent; in decimal inches it's 0.2160

7/32 is a good approximation - 0.21875, so a coupla' thou oversize, (and 7/32 x 28 TPI is in the BSF standard.)

BugBear

PS more info here http://www.tttg.org.au/php/ArticleView.php?id=37

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Pete, thank you. I'll take you up on that. I'll send you a PM. Strangely enough I have a pair spare from a donor plane - but they are different again.

 

[Racers]

Its a non standard size 7/32” 20tpi Whitworth good luck finding one, but my offer still stands.

Pete

Are you sure? Every trustworthy reference I've seen says it's #12, which doesn't have a good fractional equivalent; in decimal inches it's 0.2160

7/32 is a good approximation - 0.21875, so a coupla' thou oversize, (and 7/32 x 28 TPI is in the BSF standard.)

BugBear

PS more info here http://www.tttg.org.au/php/ArticleView.php?id=37

I couldn't remember the exact size so I googled it and found this and it seemed about right.

http://lumberjocks.com/WayneC/blog/38068

Pete

 

[bugbear]

I couldn't remember the exact size so I googled it and found this and it seemed about right.

http://lumberjocks.com/WayneC/blog/38068

Pete

That's interesting - he lists 7/32" for Record and #12 for Stanley.

EDIT; I suspect that the Record Collectors site reference in the Lumberjocks post is (now)
http://www.recordhandplanes.com, David Lynch's site.

On his http://www.recordhandplanes.com/parts-and-sizes.html page, he too lists 7/32" x 20 TPI
as the size and thanks Mr John Bates from The TTTG for the information.

John Bates is the author of the somewhat mighty document on Stnaley thread I linked to earlier.

Curiouser and Curiouser.

BugBear

 

[Phil Pascoe]

=D> Pete =D>
Whatever the thread was, that fitted. I tried one out of an older Stanley that was the same thread, so I thought I'd change one over ... it was too short. I thought if my luck was out the one Pete sent would be short, but it was fine. It feels a nice plane to use, although the casting is heavy (just as well the amount I've to skim off it ) - which is fine by me. I might make new woodwork for it though, as I find the existing a little small for my hands.

 

[Racers]

Nice to know it fitted, now where is the gratuitous shaving shot? :wink:

Pete

 

[bugbear]

Nice to know it fitted, now where is the gratuitous shaving shot? :wink:

Pete

:lol:

BugBear

 

[Racers]

Pete